I have a lot of fabric that is plaid and "manly" looking. I want to make my brother that is a VET a nice quilt for Christmas. But I have no idea what to do because most of the fabric is scaps. Any ideas??

Maybe a 9 patch, with every other a solid color? I make charity quilts for our animal shelter with scraps of 30s fabrics. I alternate them with white.....looks cute and scrappy. Maybe for a manly one you could alternate in black or dk blue?

Maybe an apple core quilt? Would look so neat espec. with the plaids.

How about lightweight denim mixed in with all those plaids? I know JoAnn's and Hancocks constantly have sales on denim.
I made a very simple quilt for a guy, somewhat like a rag quilt with lightweight denim on one-side and plaids on the front side, just crazy pieced together. It looked realy neat.
Pretend the plaids are just regular fabric with "normal" designs....sometimes we worry to much about "match-ie" "match-ie" when it comes to plaids. Let them go any direction you want and don't be so concerned about the "lines" of the printed plaids when you sew, either.
Mixing a little solid type fabrics with the colors from your plaids looks great too....Want a really good book with a lot of scrap type patterns, that I think would be perfect. Google Bonnie Hunter and she has some wonderful ideas. Infact, she has a wonky-star pattern free on her website that would be wonderful with plaids. Good luck and let us know what you decide and post a pic or two as you go.

if you could get your hands on a yard or so of military fabric for the branch that he was in that would really be awesome also. And doing just the simple D9P or a 9 patch would work well. if he was in the marines or navy you might want to get a little more fancy maybe with some sort of compass design in the middle. that would really be cool. hope this helps.

I'm making a string quilt using Ditter43's quilt as you go method. I wanted to use all my plaids that I've had for years. I wasn't sure about it at first but it has turned out to be quite stunning. If you would like I can take pictures for you.

Is he a veteran or an animal doctor?

Roman Stripes would be a good one. It uses scraps of plaids and half the block is black (or another dark solid). Wish I could find my picture. Google it and you can find pictures. I found the pattern in a library book but you don't need a pattern. You can use any size squares. It is one of my DH favorite quilts. I used flannel on the back to make it cozy.

I made a mostly-plaid quilt for my husband's grandfather, and I just sort of made it up as I went. I made the center medallion and then just pieced rows around it, each one different depending on what I felt like doing. I didn't worry about grain so much, and a lot of the patches aren't exactly on the grain.

There are four paper-pieced plane blocks at the corners of one of the rows, which I made to commemorate his time in the Air Force in WWII.

He really enjoyed the quilt, and I was happy with how it turned out, too.

I have a bunch of plaids and found a bear claw pattern in a magazine made from plaids that I intend to make someday..

How about doing a Chinese Coins one? Or a sampler of sorts~

Yes, I would love to see pictures!!!

I just finished a rag throw for my husband. It is flannel on one side and corduroy on the other. I did it in fall colors and appliqued the leaves on, stitching through, with the design showing on the corduroy side. I've made 3-4 other quilts. This is the one my husband likes best. Super easy to do, done in about 3-4 days.

This is an orphan block that I inherited from my mother. I have seen it made up full size and it's gorgeous. I don't have instructions for it, but the small squares finish at 2 inches, the large at 4 inches and the rectangles at 2 by 4. The finished block measures out at 16 by 16

please post pics...

Vietnam Vet, sorry I abbreviate so much at work, my husband tells me to "say the word". LOL

Wow...I have most of the exact same colors!! Mind if I copy the pattern?

LOL that's OK I think everyone else got it, but I thought he was a veteranarian.

Not at all!

You have every reason to be happy with how it turned out, it is manly and very nice, too!

I think any assortment of squares done in plaids or homespuns look great on a quilt! Lucky Patsy's mom's block illustrates it beautifully. Start piecing those scraps together it will look great!

That looks very similar to the "take 5" pattern.