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Limited fabric for boys
Someone mentioned within the last two weeks that fabric for boys is very limited and I agree with that unless you want to make Thomas the Train, Dinosaur, John Deere Tractors quilts. What about for boys ages 10 to 15? As a charity quilter I'd love to know where to purchase fabric at a reasonable price for this age group. I can always get blenders and put something together out of the millions of patterns that I have...but what about theme fabrics to go with them? With JoAnns being out of business it's made my quilting life harder.
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Although I call myself a scrap quilter, I guess I'm really more of a collection quilter and have found many ways to put together various themed fabrics that don't necessarily go well next to each other.
Having a son myself, I've usually leaned towards my donation projects being more masculine. Having said that, bold graphics can appeal to anyone! Not all boys are into sports. I've done bugs and dinosaurs and African savannas and jungles, space (and aliens!) are good. I have no connection to them other than using them pretty much since they started, but I really like eQuilter -- especially their sales. One of the fun things harder to find that make things more affordable but less choice, are their Scrap Packs. They usually do have a "boys" themed one but are apparently out. But looking at these representative groupings might give you some ideas. The scrap packs are typically the bolt ends and are under 1/2 yard each. Sometimes the end is quite ragged, it comes to them from the manufacturers like that. https://www.equilter.com/category/38...se-scrap-packs Their sales are good, but the mark-down clearance, and they often have limited flash sales -- which is when I indulge myself in fancy backs! I've always had good service, oh once or twice they were maybe a little slower than usual -- but they followed up with emails. |
Most on-line vendors have a 'theme' section, and most 'theme' sections have a child section. Fabric Shack is one of my favorite on-line places. They have an orderly website, excellent search engine, excellent magnification of fabric, inexpensive shipping and their service is always great (I'm not affiliated).
For the older group, you could simply avoid florals and look for plaids and solids in neutrals and less feminine colors. |
Stuff like Grunge should be popular with the older boys. Flannel, outdoorsy prints, realistic animals, ocean prints, should all be good too.
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I've been making lots of charity quilts for pre-teen and teenage boys. There are lots of fabrics that appeal to teenage boys. I've attached some examples of quilts/fabrics I've used in quilts for teenage boys:
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Blue jean quilts also!
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I try to go by color not theme. I recently made a boy baby quilt and a boy twin xl according to themes. It meant going to the store and purchasing. Never again. Those were very expensive quilts instead of stash.
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Our local high school colors are the same as the Ohio State Buckeyes, so red and gray anything goes over well. Add some white or black to it and it's great, too. The quilts I made for my 4 great nephews were made with reclaimed wool clothes. There's a lot of red Sag Harbor wool blazers at the Goodwill and several menswear wool blazers in pinstripes and herringbone. I used a carpenter's square pattern, which was easy with 10 inch HST's. If you can find micro prints in sports team colors, they will be great for boys. It doesn't necessarily have to be a sports theme fabric.
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I recently asked for some easy patterns for inexperienced quilters and one of them that I was rather taken with was this one:
https://web.archive.org/web/20091007...peedyBaby2.pdf That's for a 45" square baby quilt but it would make a great choice for a large quilt using additional blocks. If you had a fairly large scale print for the center square(s), you can piece the borders of prints. I have a piece of really lovely dark blue, maybe the design thought was pillow forms? But I will be taking those and adding borders for what I hope to be a quick but stunning top. |
I've having the same [problem with BIG boy quilts. I 've been making skateboard quilts and cowboy boot quilts...I'm in NM.
MSQC has a tutorial for skateboards and found a boot pattern free several years ago on Pintrest. My quilt group for Project Linus loves the skateboards and I make them scrappy. Patterns I'm making now are rolling stones on Donna Jordans web site...free. Plaid quilts....uses up lots of fab. Cheery-O quit ... free tutorial on MSSQC. I'm using mostly bright fabrics for my guys. https://www.etsy.com/listing/5817324...FBQUFBR2dxR2xn |
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