Our son Anthony moved into a new apartment in Ankeny, Iowa. Like most apartments it has all off-white walls. He told me he wanted it to look homey like his sister Abby’s apartment. He asked me to help because he really didn’t know how to decorate. I found it to be a challenge to decorate a single guy’s apartment. The pictures and accessories are many times too girly--flowers and such.
Anthony wanted to make a couch quilt himself, so I decided to design a stack and slice (#374 It’s a Guy Thing) for him, because they are great for beginner quilters. He came home for a day to sew the quilt. The nice thing about a stack and slice is that two people can sew on the same quilt since the blocks are cut to size at the end. We both sewed and were able to get all of the blocks done in one short day. We used a variety of fabric from my lines over the years for a scrappy look.
Anthony soon discovered that his cat George thought the quilt belonged to him. He thought that if he made George his own quilt he would leave Anthony’s alone. Anthony decided the bright colors of the Mix & Mingle line would be great for a cat quilt. We shrunk the rectangle from It’s a Guy Thing to a size of 8” X 10”. (Follow the instructions for DRAFTING PATTERN steps 1-8, changing the rectangle size to 8” X 10”.) He then was able to cut his finished block to a size of 5 7/8” X 7 7/8”. His quilt ended up to be approximately 27” X 37”. This is a perfect size for a cat quilt or a tablemat. The new Layer Cakes from Moda would be ideal for making this quilt in the smaller size.
Anthony liked the geometric dot in the “Fall” Back in Time line. I used this in the brown and blue colors to make him a shower curtain, using #375 Square Deal for a pattern. I made it the same as the pattern except I cut the borders 8 1/2” instead of 4 1/2” and turned them back so I ended up with doubled 4 1/2” borders. I then applied grommets along the top border.
For his bed quilt I used the #358 Gridlock pattern using yardage instead of jelly rolls and added a red square in the center of each crossbar of the block. For an inexpensive headboard we headed to Pier One Imports and purchased 8 placemats that we found on the sale table for $2.50 a piece. We simply nailed them to the wall with small nails.Labels: Guest Quilting Writers