My first Man-Quilt...

My best guy friend just turned 30.  I figured such a monumental birthday called for a serious gift, and thus, the "man-quilt" was born.

Man-Quilt Rule #1 - No pastels or frilly prints.

This quilt is for manly men.  They stand when they pee and think grilling meat brings them closer to God.  Pinks and flowers are not permitted.

Man-Quilt Rule #2 - No delicate, intricately pieced designs.

He's not going to "cuddle" with anything too dainty.  Also, this rule is kind to the quilter as it takes less time to piece.  This quilt is pretty big, at least in comparison to baby quilts (already gifted it, so I don't have the exact measurements but it was at least 60" by 100").  

Man-Quilt Rule #3 - No quarter-inches here!

Due to the unpredictable nature of these non-traditional (read: synthetic) fabrics, the seam allowances are all at least 3/8".

I've thought for years about making a quilt out of menswear fabrics (likely from watching too many episodes of Project Runway).  I frequently use black and white fabrics in my baby quilts, so this was a natural transition for my monochromatic brain.  

It's no secret that I'm "thrifty" when it comes to fabric, so I started by cutting the fabric into 3.5" strips and sewing them end to end.  Next I sewed together the 4 super long strips (one of each fabric) length-wise.  This was so long that when I ironed the seams I had to roll the fabric onto a tube to keep it from tangling.  The fabrics weren't consistent in width, so the seams were staggered throughout and aren't noticeable in the finished product.  Some quilters would scoff at this, but I just don't think quilting should be unnecessarily wasteful... 

The long pieced fabric strip is cut into right triangles (45-45-90 degrees), as seen in this lovely sketch:

There will be two visually different triangles (A and B).  Blocks are made by placing together the right angles (top of the pyramid) of four triangles.

The final layout alternates blocks of A and B triangles.

The top stitching was a combination of meandering and loosely rotated spiraling squares.  The spiraling squares can be seen here:

The back was a small white on black plaid with strips of the grey fabric along the sides to fit the width of the quilt front.  Binding was also the grey fabric.

Here's the finished product...