Musician's Quilt

A few years ago, when I married my current (second and final) husband, I suddenly had more people for whom I could make quilts, including his niece and nephew, now my niece and nephew. Over the years I had the pleasure of making quilts for nieces and nephews for various occasions: baby quilts, “big kid bed” quilts, and Bat Mitzvah quilts. But I hadn’t given my new niece and nephew anything. I didn’t know them during the earlier milestones, and they don’t celebrate Bat and Bar Mitzvah occasions. So when my nephew turned 18 I decided to make him a quilt.

I had a dilemma with this project. First, I didn’t know this young man through his growing up (I met him when he was 14), so I was not as familiar with his likes/dislikes. Second, I wanted to make sure to make him something that could stay with him, something that could transition from teenager-still-at-home use to young-man-living-on-his-own use.

I started by contacting my SIL to see what his favorite colors were, etc. and I asked my niece what her brother likes to do. His big passions include music. He’s taught himself several instruments and is a keen consumer of music as well as a musician himself. It became clear music would be a big part of this project. So I bought these three fabrics:

Next, I tried to think of how I might put them together, and decided to incorporate two non-musical fabrics to add texture and a break from the theme. I got these two:

I found a neat pattern I thought might work and get to cutting and piecing. Yay for rotary cutters!

Unfortunately I do not have works in process pictures, but here is a picture of the finished product (sorry for the poor angles)

I gave it to him as  a combined Bday and Christmas present and he likes it. His mom likes it too as he no longer tries to sneak off with the throw I made for her last year (or was it the year before).
I hope it serves him well, and keeps him warm, wherever his path and journeys take him.