This eiderdown was a present for my nephew. My mom asked me to make it as a Christmas present for him and in my usual annoying way, it's only just been received.

Making gifts for boys is always more difficult for me. I don't know if I would find it any easier if I had a son rather than two girls and spent my days clearing up trucks and robots and worms (that's what boys play with, right?) instead of clearing up dolls, make up and butterflys (nice bit of stereotyping). But I do find that I have to think harder when it comes to the boy stuff. So far Ethan has had crocodiles, rabbits and cowboy inspired bookbags, so I wanted to come up with something a bit different this time, especially as he's hitting that more difficult age, where little kid stuff doesn't appeal, and big kid stuff is still too big.

So, following on from the whole animal silhouette craze, I drew a large stag (rather than the more girly deer), a soaring eagle and a hare and appliqued them on to a patchwork quilt top that I made using random size squares of various fabrics, including some of my favourite Prints Charming prints and a couple of Kaffe Fassett prints.

Because this is an eiderdown rather than a quilt, I sewed the three layers together (quilt top and back, right sides facing, with the duvet on top), around three of the edges, turned it right sideout and stitched the final edge together. I then topstitched around all four edges.

Because I've used an actual duvet as the inner, there isnt the worry of the layers separating the way they would if I had used batting, so I haven't quilted or tied it, other than to stitch, using a long running stitch, around the silhouettes.

This is bigger than my usual eiderdowns and I fretted over it for a few days before booking the courier. It's not as big as I would like it, but it's as big as it can be whilst being practical and washable. And most importantly, it's apparently just right for my nephew!