Quilt for a boy
 

I want to make a pre-teen quilt for my grandson. He's interested in sports-I can't find a pattern! Any suggestions!!

Why not make a rag quilt? I used flannel. If you Google rag quilt you will find quite a few of them.

For a simple and quick quilt you could use a variety of sports prints inside snowball blocks.

Boys are so hard and they grow up so quick. I made an LSU tumbler quilt for my grandson when he was 11 that he just loves. I made it the size of a twin bed, because he is growing so quick.

Any pattern can be adapted to be a sports quilt. The original BQ pattern looks great in sports fabrics using them as the larger piece and then 2 other colors for the rest of the blocks. http://wp.mapleislandquilts.com/miq-patterns/bq-nation/

I would look for a sport fabric and then pick a pattern. The skateboard pattern on MSQC is cute for a teenage boy if the are into them.

What sports is he interested in?

Men and boys are harder to make quilts for because there is less fabric choices out there in things men traditionally are interested in. Think wildlife, jungle animals, nature, space, sports...try to find what he is interested in and search for at least one fabric with that topic. My husband has an interest in steam engines, motorcycles, and airplanes. I did a 6in square of the topic fabric and alternated them with a 6in pinwheel block of coordinated fabrics.

I'd find this out first!!

Years ago I made twin quilts for two pre teen grandsons who loved skateboarding. It took me some time but I found several fabrics with different characters on skateboards and scooters. Mummies, frogs, turtles, flamingos, kids, etc. and made the quilts in the bricks and stepping stones pattern with bright colored sashing. The quilts turned out fantastic, the boys loved them. I can't find the pics of them right now, they must be still on the old hard drive. Another themed quilt I made for a teen was a card trick quilt made with 28 different animal prints. This was for a grand daughter who loved wild animal print fabric.
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See, you can make just about any pattern you like into a themed quilt.

Cari

Cari-in-Oly,

I LOVE your card trick quilt! Very clever!

warm wishes or D9P always are quick and pretty and show off your fabrics.

A quilt for boys doesn't have to feature novelty print fabrics. My personal thought is that you are more likely to make something with lasting appeal if you don't go all out on a sport print. Or if you really want to use it, use it for the backing, and draw your color scheme from that to do a traditional pieced front with solids or near solids. My sons love very classic, graphic designs-- so flying geese, 9patch, half square triangles in any number of settings -- using 2 or 3 fabric colors -- instant classics. And the sport specific fabric can be the backing and the pillow case to go with.

do you have any old blue jeans? I made a couple of denim quilts that are sturdy and masculine. The denim gets heavy but they are nice quilts

Once you know which sport(s) he is interested in, or which team(s) he goes for you have a starting point.
And many sports lovers never outgrow their fascination. I'm currently (off and on) working on a self designed Houston Texans quilt for my youngest son who just turned 36.

I too suggest the Maple Island BQ quilt pattern. I made one for my son for Christmas from hunting themes. Easy fast pattern.

Recently I made a skateboard quild for one of my grandsons who was graduating from high school. He loves boarding. I got the pattern from a link site from Jenny Doan at Missouri Star Quilt Co. I used all sorts of funky prints for the boards. I used a layer cake of prints. I took images off of Google Images for raw edge appliques and quilting motifs. He loved it. Unfortunately, I can't show you a picture. My only suggestion is that if you use some sport print(s) and there are lots of them, use them in big pieces.

I made 2 last year for ggs. First was a football field with appliqued footballs in the border and a large helmet in the center, the 2nd was a soccer field with pieced soccer balls in the border and a large one in the center. I appliqued their names, first and last on each end. They loved them. I found the football pattern on McCalls website, it was featured in a magazine in 2014. If your interested & can't find the football pattern, pm me and I'll try to find the magazine. I think I still have it. Sandee in MO

Most quilts can be made into boy quilts, just be aware of what fabrics you use. I have made several, I was very careful of making sure nothing that could be interrupted as floral, and they loved them.
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Whatever you do, make sure the fabric looks 'manly' and not "kid-ish" as my 13 year old son would say. That's more important than the pattern.

Go to http://www.fatcatpatterns.com/freepatterns.html she has loads of free patterns that would work great. Made a few myself

You could find sporting fabric for all sports or his favorite sport, then a simple 9 patch alternating with a square, either plain, the size of the 9-patch, or you could snowball the square. I made my DS an Irish Chain quilt in black and bright blue when he was about 11, and the quilt followed him every time he left home and every time he returned (I had boomerang kids, they kept returning- LOL). You could do an Irish chain in 2 colors, then use sports material on the back of t he quilt.

there are many patterns out there that look good with sports prints. you could also add either his favorite teams colors or fabric. or you could just do his favorite colors and be done.

My first thought is the easy quilt pattern that has the rectangles with shadows pattern. You could use various sport themed fabrics for the "floating" rectangles, a dark gray or black for the shadows and a lighter grey or coordinating blue as the background. There is a MSQ video on this classic pattern. It is a clean, modern look that would be great for a teen.

i did snowball and nine patch for my grandson and he loves it... just use fabrics in his favorite colors

I love, love, love your quilt. The colors with black are absolutely stunning.

Loved them all!

I used the BQ pattern and appliqued a different sport in each large block. My grandson really liked it and then made a baseball print pillowcase to compliment it!

Being a preteen boy, he may change the sport he is most interested in - a couple times! Why not make one that represents several of the 'big' sports.

I made both of my sons quilts of their favorite colors when they started college. They still have these quilts today-ten and twelve years later. One was made of red/blue/gray flannels which I have mended many times over the past ten years. The other was various shades of orange, purples and red batiks which is now a couch quilt in his apartment. Their wives are more tolerant of them being around the house because they are NOT themed. It wasn't planned this way but I am glad it ended up like that.

If you check out Mansewing on youtube he's got some cool quilts for boys/men along with the tutorials. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...vlFnnW8qr4FwLD