the Man's Quilt

Most of us have a special partner, that we like to spoil every now and then. We especially like to show them just how much we love them too. In the quilting world, that is usually our men! They support us with our color and design choices. They forgive us we we spend too much time behind the sewing machine. Don't they deserve to be appreciated too, especially with their own quilt? Of course, they do!!

Shortly after I got married, I started working on a quilt for my husband using plaids and a very bland solid wheat fabric. I found a pattern in an Australian magazine and wanted to recreate it. The pattern looked simple enough, and it was no doubt a "man's quilt" which you don't typically see. As things go, the project got put on hold, because it was more complicated than I was capable of. Pressing became a nightmare. And the solid wheat fabric no longer appealed to me. It was looking too "country." The project got put on hold!

This is the original block. Today, I would only make two separate blocks - a flying geese and parallelogram with sew and flip in the corners. It would look better, be easier to sew and more accurate! (The original HST are still tucked away carefully waiting for another day as well as four full-sized finished blocks.)

Flash forward - our 10 year anniversary was approaching (quickly). I wanted to finish my quilt for my husband who was feeling neglected all these years, because he never received his own quilt. I redesigned the quilt using the original plaid fabrics and added the solid color brown and a hint of pistachio.

I worked on the quilt on the side for a couple of months being careful not to show my husband. Our anniversary came and went. No quilt was ready. When I heard that our local quilt shop owner was ready to start taking orders on her long arm quilting machine, I jumped right on it. I took the quilt top, a very nice and warm cotton batting and an over sized backing that I had tucked away somewhere in my stash to Ms. Sabine Feldmann of Quilt Oase. She is my guru...the quilt goddess galore. She knows everything! I showed her the top, and she knew exactly what to do. We agreed that an allover quilt design would fit the top perfectly. And here it is:

Isn't it gorgeous? Sabine used a variegated thread which shows up perfectly over the brown and pistachio colors. She used a nice big swirly that allows the quilt to lay comfortably when in use, because this is my husbands new sofa blankie! It is long enough for him and is a proud 2,10cm long! The blanket, not my husband. ;-) I wanted to get it finished quickly, but still chose to hand-stitch the binding closed! I used bigger stitches, but it was worth the extra time.

He was kind enough to model for me too; that's him behind the blanket!

He has been enjoying the quilt in the evenings for a while now. He truly enjoys it and has mentioned several times that he loves the geometric shapes mixed in with the roundness of the swirlies. He asked if I hated it, because of the brown and dark colors. No I don't! It is not my typical color palette, true, but I love this quilt. I love the simplicity and scrappy feel. I am so happy this one is staying with us too! And, I don't think it looks one bit country either!

You can see more pictures of the quilt here on flickr. You can also see some of the WIP going on with it. I saved all of the pictures so it would totally be a surprise.

If you would like to have your quilt long arm quilted, or you live in southern Germany and don't know of a local long arm quilter, look up Sabine Feldmann. She is the hottest new artist on the long arm machine! She also runs a full service quilt shop with classes on everything!

http://www.quilt-oase.com/

Happy sewing and quilting!