Barb in Louisiana

I always think of manly as being blues and browns....Imagine my surprise when my husband saw a quilt that had a lot of purple in it and said he loved it. The purple was on the lighter, redder side. I wish I had seen it so I would know what pattern it was, but he didn't even tell me where he had seen it. Oh well. Back to the drawing board.

Skhf

My husband is a retired marine and I have my eye on a marine officer pattern at joanns used with a patriotic pattern. For my 13 year old son I recently bought fabric with colorful Converse Chuck Taylor's. This fabric with solid colors and a black or grey background is going to rock!

Sandygirl

My guy is not offended if a quilt has some florals. He loves color, nature and plants. Right now, he is snuggled in his flying geese (as in a realistic novelty print) throw.

Sandy

nancysp

My son is an engineer. I am currently making him The Crayon Box quilt (Jinny Beyer). It reminds me of MC Escher, which he likes. Its my first quilt for him and it's a surprise. Hardest quilt I've made so I hope he likes it. He likes craft beers, and I found very cute fabric in all beer bottles at Nancy's Notions. That will be the back.

Sandygirl

I have zero illusions that my quilts will be "timeless across generations." (Civil War quilts? Bleh!). Gimme my novelty prints! To each....their own.

I have worked with ladies who won't put leaves in a "manly" quilt....too girly, in their opinion. I find it silly, myself!

Sandy

Cybrarian

I think the responses make it clear that fabrics aren't really gender specific. They can have appeal to both genders. I'll use my niece as an example: her graduation quilt had the college mascot, soccer themed and school colored theme fabrics representing the college she was attending on a soccer scholarship, the other side was floral themed flannels- her choices. Her father is one of 3 brothers who along with their mom own a very large farm dating back to colonial times. She is the farm manager and the "Momma" to 3 calves she's hand raising; she's been eyeing some cow, tractor & farm themed fabrics ( I have an "Otis the Tractor" book set aside and am collecting fabrics for a future baby quilt as a surprise) and because she hunts with her Dad and fiancé their wedding quilt will need to have some Camo in it per their request- but the last gift I made her & her sister was a set of very bright solids & organic print placemats to reflect a red poppies painting in their dining room. So NO, guys don't have the lock on dark colors, sports, farm or Camo prints, just as pastels, florals and other organics don't just appeal to the female gender per some of the previous posts. Hence, my approach is to focus on the person and their tastes, not their gender.

lclang

I would try to make the quilt specific to the man's interests. Not every man is interested in the same things.

ManiacQuilter2

Men come in all shapes and sizes so you have to think about what they would appreciate. My best friend loves my Bargellos and he displays them proudly in his home. He is a techie, so he wouldn't want anything with dear or fish.

donac

MIne has some scout sayings and pictures of the woods and lakes since all my dh and ds's loved camping. I just have to put the squares together.

tessagin

It all depends on the man. My DH is into anything manly but doesn't necessarily mean he wants it on his quilt. Found that out the hard way when I put a pin ups and cars together. I was finishing it up and he said it was one of the ugliest things he'd ever seen. he didn't know it was for him and that's OK. I took it apart and put it into a big scrap bin. He walked in on me as I was cutting it up after taking it apart. That's when he knew (he saw the project box with his name on it). Told him to get to the internet. My sons (one into outdoor sports and Nascar and the other into athletic such as ball games) let me know their favorite colors. My DGDs were easy, cats, dogs and bling.