What are your husband's interest? I've made an astronomy quilt for one of my sons who is fascinated by the that subject (I could have done an astronaut quilt for him too) and he was astounded that it was so obviously made just for him! Another lives in Alaska and so he got a camping hunter quilt and another with a local bear native motif (which won a first prize for original wall art... and it was 8'x6'!) Another is into fantasy and I found some wonderful designs on two different fabrics and he got dragons, Merlins, and weird half cattle figures, etc. My DH just got his first quilt this past year and it is a desert scene (he loves the Sonora) and because it turned out too heavy for the bed he put it up on the wall and I'm making him a quilt using Navajo mimbas (pictorgraphy) because he worked with Indian tribes while in Arizona, long before I met him. My 14 year old Gson asked for an "around the world" animals quilt... and he wanted a map of the world with the animals on or near the country they belong to! DH counted and told me there were 172 appiiques on that quilt!!!! But the boy was going to South Africa as an exchange student and whatever he wanted he got! Wherever the interest lies.... Sports? Cars? Music? I don't dumb down the colors because so many men are at least partially color blind. I don't use pinks or lavenders (unless it is appropriate for the receiver and he wants them), but I use rich browns, yellows, greens, blues.... whatever fits.
Hope this helps. I bet that no matter what you make he will be thrilled because he must have some sense of how much work it takes to make a quilt. If it touches his interest that will touch his heart too.
Last edited by Sierra; 10-19-2012 at 09:38 AM.