i tried to buy something for my husband for father’s day, i really did! i went to our favorite home / random cool stuff store, schoolhouse electric, with the full intention of getting him something there. problem is, that place is a bit spendy, and everything i wanted to get was out of budget. what happened next is what usually happens – i get inspired, and decide to make something instead. so i went home and knocked out this quilt mostly during naptime (with some sneaky finishing touches the next day).
the vibe they have at schoolhouse is sort of a arts & crafts era meets midcentury modern meets industrial meets summer camp, which is what i tried to recreate in my quilt. the reason i made a quilt for him is he tends to fall asleep on the couch most evenings…and he’s a taller guy, so i thought he needed something to keep his feet cozy as well as his shoulders, ya know? it’s always a bit frustrating to watch a person try to cover themselves with a too-small-of-blanket.
i’d also wanted to make a quilt that looks like a pendleton national park blanket for a while (still plan to eventually make a quilt for O that looks like the crater lake blanket), and decided this was my chance to practice. it was really tough picking “manly” fabrics from my stash, but i stuck to mostly linen and it worked out.
the quilt measures 43″ x 66″ finished – sort of random, but that’s what i had, fabric-wise. the fabrics are a navy linen (from JoAnn i think), red canvas from Bolt (most famously used on little red), natural linen (from fabric depot), with essex linen yarn dyed black center panel. it’s a strip quilt, which came together really quickly. i omitted batting, both because i didn’t have enough on hand, and because i wanted it more summer blanket-weight. the backing is Denyse Schmidt for JoAnn from last year.
the binding is two packages of store-bought double fold bias tape (sent to me by Cherie, thanks girl!) and the non-matchingness of it gives it that extra “summer camp” element i was looking for, plus takes it away from flag territory a bit.
i quilted it with mustard thread on both sides of each stripe, and zigzagged the binding to finish it.
the center of the quilt also has a quilted concentric diamond shape which doesn’t really show up in photos (or real life for that matter) but it subliminally ties in with the backing.
my husband seems to really like his quilt/blanket and uses it almost every day, and when i surveyed him for his favorite project of mine for Sanae’s blog, he said this! i don’t sew for him much, but i really should do it more often. look how happy his two fingers are there, peeking out from the side! 😉
GREAT SUCCESS.
skirt as top 
i love how simple this is – sometimes, that is infinitely better than more complicated.
thanks so much, erin! i agree. couldn’t imagine him being very into a majorly complicated quilt, though if it was a pixellated Ron Swanson face quilt I might be proven wrong. 🙂
right???? http://thehappyzombie.com/blog/?p=593
Looks great and is definitely sufficiently manly!;)
Thanks my kind of quilt… nothing too fancy or floral.
when i first read your title i mixed up the order of the words… ‘quilt camp for the husband’ … and thought ‘wow, awesome! her husband goes to quilt camp?!’ still an awesome post and a great quilt/blanket.
p.s. i never knew about those NP blankets, but i’m happy to know about them now! 🙂
HAHAHAHA! that’d be awesome. i’d love to see that.
That looks great! I’m glad your husband likes it. It’s perfectly manly! I wasn’t going to comment until I got to the part where he picked it as his favorite project. For whatever reason, that made me happy.
me too! i didn’t expect it! thanks. 😀
I love this Kristin. I love the bold, yet simple stripes and I’m also totally impressed that you used mostly stash fabrics! Seriously that’s really impressive considering that it totally looks like you went out and bought all of them for the quilt in specific.
And wait so you really can just use plan old double-fold bias tape to bind quilts? I had no idea! And here I’ve been always forking out like $100 to get my quilts machine-binded every time.
thanks haylee!! i had to piece strips of the canvas, but otherwise it worked really well!
sure you can! this one doesn’t have batting, so it’s pretty thin. i didn’t want to use my normal binding method which results in a much thicker edge, so i thought the bias would do the trick. it only got tricky when i got to the mitered corners since i was attaching it the way you’d normally attach bias, but i figured it out pretty quickly.
this is the way i normally attach “real quilt” binding – you don’t need to pay for it, that’s for sure! i like to handstitch mine to finish it like Elizabeth shows here, but that’s not necessary. http://www.ohfransson.com/oh_fransson/2009/04/quilt-along-15-making-and-sewing-binding.html
oh my word – this is so awesome!! I love the simplicity of the stripes, and when they’re linen, well then even better!! I can totally see why this was his pick for favorite handmade item – and glad to hear he’s been enjoying it on the couch:)
thanks so much, lucinda!
That is a fantastic, “manly” quilt! You hit the nail on the head with this one!
And I love that you made it nice and long for your husband…it’s those personal touches that makes handmade items so amazing!
AGREED about the personal touches. Thanks Carolyn!
I love hearing what you think about, your inspirations, when designing the gifts you make for people- always so thoughtful. I bet he loves it!
aw thanks girl. definitely have the gift receiver on my mind all through the process. 🙂
I can it! Magic eye diamond! I mostly love how much you’ve outed Brian as an old man that falls asleep on the couch every night 🙂
*I can see it. seeeeeeee it.
I love this! Those are some happy fingers peeking out from the quilt in that last picture!
I think my favorite part is the subtle diamond quilting – that’s rad. Now I have to add linen quilt to my list of must makes. I don’t know if I should thank you or give you the side eye. 🙂
just plain awesome!
I love it! And I am with you…I don’t sew for my husband much at all, but I really should! After all, he is so supportive of my sewing, maybe he should get to have some finished products for himself!
I love this post! Great quilt. Love the simplicity and the colors are perfect. Looks like a quilt I could manage. 🙂 Except the cool diamond quilt design in the middle. That is awesooome and probably outside my quilting skill set right now. And I think it’s cute that your husband falls on the couch each night. So does mine! I am always coaxing him into bed every night like a mother goose.
What a fab blanket! I can practically smell the s’mores! I love the simplicity of the design that makes it so sophisticated yet easygoing at the same time. Lucky man!
Love this, I’m originally from the PDX area and have a fondness for Pendleton blankets. Last summer I took my daughter to Pendleton in Washougal for a tour. The DS print you chose for the back is perfect!
Win! This is great! I totally love all the fabrics together. The backing gives it a mid century feel for me.
Wonderful manly quilt. I enjoyed the ambiguity in the post in that you didn’t say “who” was napping while you made it! At least we know who naps under it!
Love it! It’s manly but still artistic. Great job!
it’s lovely! those pendleton blankets are a great source of inspiration. that backing is perfect, too. time to restock the essex yarn-dyed!!
Awesome!!! Well done on the manly fabric choices!! I bet he love you for it!
Love this!! You have such a great eye, Kristin.
Love it!! You are the most amazing wife, EVAR!! 🙂
SO lovely
I love the clean, classic, bold look of this quilt/spread! So graphic!
When I saw the first picture of the quilt, it reminded me of a Pendleton blanket my family had when I was younger. Fantastic job!
It is absolutely wonderful! Love the colors and lines and graphic awesome-osity!
I love everything about this quilt! it’s perfect – what a lucky guy! i hope he shares it with you! 😉
Very thoughtful gift. I really enjoyed that you took the time to get your husband a gift that he would really appreciate.
You’ve really won Erin over with this one! She keeps talking about it. Let’s hear it for the Man! Thank you for the inspiration!
-Caroline
happy fingers!!