You want to make a quilt for someone extremely special to you so it needs to be something that reflects who he is, or something about your relationship, or how you view him. Start with a little meditation of him! What are the colors he likes or wears? Is there a type of design that reflects his home area? That are his dreams?
My husband worked in the Sonora Desert for just a few years long before we met, but he has never given up his delight of the desert, its colors, its vegetation, its mountains. His quilts include a landscape quilt with as much of that as I coud get into one quilt; he put it up on the wall of our living room (it's 8x8'!). He saw some SW mimbres in a quilt shop and bought those (for me?) and the quilt of those is now on our bed as it's cover. Those are the only two quilts I've made that we have kept. Oh, I made a wonky heart with lots of red tones in it and wrote a poem explaining that the stripes reflect the romantic times, the hard times, the wild times.... you get the idea.
I have made (for our children, grandchildren and my siblings' families) quilts about water, sailing, dragons, music, flowers, astronomy.... whatever that person seemed to be "into". Most of those quilts had to perk in my brain for a while. But after thinking about them for a few days or a few months it became obvious what their quilt should be. That is what I mean by meditating on that person for whom you are doing a quilt. It is extremely rewarding.
My skills aren't great, but my quilts are considered very special. I've won a few prizes (viewers' choice; I'm not a good enough quilter to win a judged prize). At my husband's 75th birthday/family reunion party (about 100 people) our kids called in my quilts and the 150 year old hall in our mountain village was decorated with my quilts.
Final word: think about HIM and make it special for him. At least think about doing that.
Last edited by Sierra; 01-09-2013 at 09:15 AM.