At Project Linus there is a constant need for boys quilts and every now and then I make a conscious effort to make boy appropriate quilts.  I must admit my fabric stash is full of wonderful florals, pinks, princesses, mermaids and other girlcentric fabric.  I do try to make a lot of my quilts gender neutral – not too many flowers, appropriate backing fabric and minimal pink.

This week I  pulled blues and oranges from the my stash and also raided my scrap boxes for little bits and pieces to make a quilt just for the boys.  I kept the florals to a bare minimum.

After some pondering I decided to make a gretchen block quilt (partly because I love the irony of making a boys quilt using a girl named block and partly because it is a cool block). The gretchen block is an easy, traditional quilt pattern and Seven Stitches has a great tutorial on making it  here.  I actually went the paper piecing route and Quilterscache has a great paper pattern you can find here.

I have a pile of blocks made and a pile still to make.   I have been playing with the layout of the blocks and looking at what size I want to make the finished quilt.  Although this is a traditional quilt block, my interpretation is definitely modern.

I am loving how the pattern and colours work together and the scraps seem to add a really fun element to the quilt.  I am excited to see how it all comes together.