Every Girl's Crazy Bout a Sharp Dressed Man

I have a secret.  When I was working as a costume designer, I certainly enjoyed designing pretty dresses for the ingenue.  But what I really loved, was getting to work with menswear.  Suits, ties, wing tips, cuff links, and gloves.  Overcoats and hats in every flavor from pork pie to fedora.  I loved putting young men into suits and seeing them instantly take on a certain swagger as they imagined themselves as James Bond, saving the day and getting the girl.  Ordering a martini and feeling all the ladies turn to look at them.  While women might have a love/hate relationship with shopping for the perfect outfit for a special event, every man in the world can look great with a well chosen suit and the services of a good tailor.

When I first saw the Fox & the Houndstooth fabric from Andie Hannah at Robert Kauffman Fabrics, I knew that I had to design my only baby boy quilt of the summer around it.  No blue planes or red trucks.  No dinosaurs or baseballs.  No construction equipment or superheroes.  No, what the sharp dressed young man will need, is a sharp baby quilt to make all the girls at his play dates swoon.

I mentioned previously that I ordered bundles of fabric from Niche Fabric Studio on Etsy.  I loved her pre-selected bundles so much that when I asked her to create one around the Foxes print, I let her have creative license.  It was the only bundle that I didn't see before buying and the only one I didn't like.  I received an awful safety orange solid, which was not a match for the orange of the foxes by any stretch of the imagination, along with a tan & black print of mustaches and lots of the red & white chevron.  I don't know about you guys, but I'm really over the mustache craze and the chevron fad.  I ended up moving the orange over to the final quilt I made (which you'll see soon), ditching the mustaches entirely, and buying the Bowties in black and Eyeglasses in tan coordinates to the Foxes.  I was going to ditch the chevrons too, but I found I didn't mind them as much once I had the bow ties and glasses in the mix.  Especially since the glasses print has a nice houndstooth in the background.

I quilted it with a soft grey to match the background of the foxes print.  They were just so handsome that I couldn't bear to mar the design with another color cutting through them, and really it went well with all the rest of the prints.  And while this may have been my least favorite bundle, considering I ripped it apart and put it back together, it just might be my favorite quilt of the group.  What can I say?  I'm always gonna be crazy bout a sharp dressed man.

I can't wait to give it to our friends Jena & Stephan for their young man who is due early this fall!  And now, because you know you want me to, I'll leave with ZZ Top.