donac

I am in the middle of making a quilt for my dh with all his Boy Scout patches he has collected over the years. It is in tan and red and will be surrounded by boy scout fabric.

The other quilt I made my dh was cub scout colors and had most of his scouts sign it. He took it to campouts for many years.

kaykwilts

omg...I absolutely love this definition :P :P :P

Mattee

There is an in-between here. There are those of us who do consider our audience quite carefully, but whose husbands, brothers, fathers, sons, or what-have-you do not fall into the macho stereotype when it comes to their aesthetic sense.

The women on this board have a very wide diversity of tastes. Why shouldn't men share the same diversity?

tricia560

My husband has very decided opinions about what he likes in quilts, and unfortunately, I learned that lesson the hard way. He doesn't love my quilts just because I made them--he appreciates the time and love I put into them, but he won't use something that doesn't meet his needs or appeal to his aesthetic, and that's just who he is.

I was thinking about this issue myself this weekend, because I just now finished a quilt I started for him 10 years ago :-) We were still dating when I started it, and it was supposed to be a surprise. I picked green and yellow fabrics, thinking those were cheerful but gender neutral. I had finished the top when I found out that he hates yellow. I fessed up to the surprise and unfortunate choice of color, and he said he'd love a quilt, but he wanted to pick the colors.

I've made 3 quilts for him since then, and one for a friend of his, and I found that he doesn't mind florals if they're tone on tone and "classy" (think botanical line drawing/illustrations), doesn't like batiks at all ("they're just splotchy" lol), and prefers jewel tones. He also likes his quilts fluffy to the point of being more comforter then quilt, but he's asked me to make a few "quilts with the white spaces" like his grandma had.

I don't give surprise quilts anymore, too much work to not have the recipient absolutely love it. I'm just sorry it took me so long to finish the green/yellow quilt; it's MINE now and I love it :-D

madamekelly

Some men want the 'traditional colors' to remind them of relatives who are gone now. IMHO

k_jupiter

Of course. I said specifically that I am not everyman. And I am not very Macho. And I have no issues with select floral prints in a quilt. But that is very different than a Grandma's Flower Garden or other type of applique fruffie quilt. And yes, there are men out there who might just like them. (And they all moved away from him on the Group W bench). But not many.

By the same token, if you look at my quilts, the ones made for me are dark, vibrant, intense, geometric, chaotic... and the ones I make for others are tailored to the audience, whether that be large florals (yes me, I did a Log cabin with florals, rose colors, yellows, etc!) or space ships (for a large baby), or whatever. But, I thought about my audience and didn't have the attitude that "It's my way or the hiway."

So whatever. Thanks for the discussion. Your quilting may now resume.

tim in san jose

Quilter54

Dogs, deer & fish have been made for hubby, BIL, & friend. Hubby has kept me busy with these.