this quilt went through a lot of iterations. Immediately after I made my first quilt, I was shopping the Garment District of our city and came across these African wax cottons in three prints of beiges, gold and black. I thought they would be perfect to make a "manly" quilt for oldest son's 18th birthday, which was about 9 months away. So I bought them, cut them to a pattern I had in mind, and then was distracted by working on my first commission quilt, which I posted about here before, called "Saucy Divo".


When I went back to the quilt a couple of months later, I couldn't figure out what the heck my plan had been with all those triangles and squares, so I went out and bought some more of the fabric (I ended up buying all that the seller had left) came up with another plan and then, a little afraid of wrecking it, I put it aside for awhile.


I went back to it again last summer (you may remember me posting about it in my Wednesday WIPS), but once again, I couldn't remember what my second layout was for all of those pieces.  So I came up with a third layout for the centre, but then was stumped. The quilt was starting to look very "traditional" and that was not what my plan had been. I wanted something masculine and contemporary for my beautiful man - so where to go from there? I put it aside for awhile, again.

By the time Christmas started creeping up on me, I realized I had to get the darn thing done - I was seeing him just after Christams and wanted to have it ready to give to him.  I took my leftover pieces and twisted and turned them this way and that, and finally conceived the hexogram (?) border.  Even hopeful, I added it, liked the look of it, and added a further black border.



For the back, I had some upholstery weight cotton printed with palm trees that I had bought on a whim some time before, and the extra wax cotton in the Cowrie shell print came in handy to add a final border.  Somehow, when I did the basting, I ended up putting the backing on crooked, and didn't notice until I was finished quilting; so I had to add another 1 1/2 inch length of black on the left side.  It gives it a little wonkiness, but I think it's perfect because he knows his mom is a little wonky. *s*




In the end, I'm quite pleased with.  I don't think it looks anything like what I had originally planned, and didn't look like the next iteration I had in mind either, but despite it's changing face, I think I achieved my goal of making a masculine, contemporary quilt.  I like that it gives a nod to our quilting foremothers and fathers with it rather traditional looking centre, but that it still has something new, and "me" in the mix. 

The label (not pictured) says:

       "He's A Man Now"
                                     2009
For my beloved son, ******,
with all my love.
                                    Mom