Plaidly Manly Quilt

I am working on a quilt for a lovely person in my life who I want to make a tad bit warmer and snuggled!

The inspiration went as follows:

I had this pair of pants that didn't fit right, but I wanted to steal the pockets from it and incorporate them into a quilt.  Who doesn't want a quilt with a handy pocket?

The person I am making this for is of the male variety... so I dug through my fabrics and pulled all the manly colors and patterns out.

The blue swirls and stars fabric didn't end up getting used (yet) and it may not be used in this project.

As I started to pick through the fabric I noticed a cool theme of plaids.  With all that action in the fabric already, I knew I would benefit from a simple pattern.

Like squares!!

I was feeling a bit lazy to follow a particular quilt pattern, so I just started cutting the fabrics into strips and then squares of three sizes with a lap size quilt in my head. 

This quilt has been itching to come out of my head for a few weeks now and it's great to see it shaping up like I thought it might.

Once I had lots of squares all stacked up... I started to lay them out into a sort of 'planned' pattern.  --read, I  made it all up here folks.

Yes, I'm on the floor and this is the layout I ended up liking the most.  I need to learn more about what a piecing wall is and figure out how to get one/make one pronto! 

Yes, fabric on the floor drove my doggy crazy.  At one point she leaped into the room and did a home run slide on all the loose squares and then ran out like a wild banshee!  See what I mean about needing that wall!

Dang, I love that dog!!

As of last night I have sewn most of the top together -- the middle, the borders, that cool pocket!!  And even though I free hand cut the squares, they fit -- phew, perfection doesn't really live here, this is more about love and comfort!

I am still not sure if it's big enough... its coming in about 45 x 36... but I will make a final sizing decision once I get the rest of the pieces together tonight.

A closer look at the pocket that started this whole thing.  Doesn't it look neat with those different sized squares surrounding it?

I'm thinking you could put tissues, or a cell phone, or a fork and knife, or a pretty letter in that pocket.  The options are really endless -- well I guess the size is limited, but you know what I mean :)

All the fabric to this point was left over or saved from other projects... but I didn't have anything for the back that said "uber soft and warm -- like a big big hug." 

So, I picked up this very light blue-gray fleece material and can't wait to start making up a big 'ole plaidly sandwich.

I'm hoping to have this sewn together, loose threads clipped, quilted, and binded by the end of the weekend.  Really looking forward to putting this quilt in the person's hands!!  Yes, I'll tell you more once I gift it!

Linking to My Creative Space hosted by Kootoyoo, where you can see lots of other creative works in progress and kicking the Midweek Blues with Rebecca at The Dusty Cellar.