Plaids in String Quilts-the Craftsy Project

Way back in 2012, Craftsy asked me to make a scrap quilt video. It sounded like a lot of fun. In early December, the three-person Craftsy crew flew from Denver to New Bern NC, rented a van, and drove down to Morehead City. I met them for supper and gave them directions to their beach house. When I was told the Craftsy was coming (just after Thanksgiving) I contacted a rental agency at the beach and made introductions so the Craftsy folks could stay at a nice beach house instead of a local motel. No offense, but the hospitality choices here then were 'thin on the ground.' We started filming the very next day at my studio in Morehead City and ran flat out for four days. 

One of the projects on the Craftsy video (renamed 'Scrap Quilting-Waste Not, Want Not' by Craftsy) was a small string quilt. I knew I wanted to use plaids in the quilt but not get hung up on matching lines horizontally or vertically. The perfect solution was to cut strips of red-and-white plaid on the diagonal. All of the projects in the video needed to be at "I'm making my first quilt-" stage. A string quilt, with blocks machine-sewn over the pages from an old phone book, would be ideal. In the final version, the quilt would be named 'The Phone Book Quilt.'

The red-and-white plaid is the center strip of each block. Half the block is dark (red) strips and the other half is light (pink) strips. The process of how-to is illustrated by 'step-outs' and the picture here is a snapshot of what I showed viewers how to do.

The blocks sewn on paper went together quickly and the twenty 8" square blocks were arranged in a 'streak 'o lightning' set. Then the borders sewn on and the quilt top completed during the screening. The machine quilting (by my friend Vicki Garner) and the Big Stitch hand quilting (me) happened in the weeks after.

Plaids are seen in both red and pink sections of the blocks and I even ended up choosing a rose-colored plaid for the binding. 

So sometimes the best fabric choice is not a print or even a solid--it's a plaid.

The class 'Waste Not, Want Not' is still available on the Craftsy platform. Just type 'scrap quilting' into the search bar and the class pops up. 

Because this blog comes out prior to Valentines Day (February 14) I'll include here two other red quilty things I made just for fun. 

Skinny Kitties was sold at a fund-raising auction for our local cat rescue project.

The sashiko-on-red is a sample of a stencil I designed for Quilting Creations. It combines several traditional sashiko patterns along with a heart-fetching bunny.

The stencil is #PCW113 on the Quilting Creations website.

Happy Valentines Day!

Tie One On

Although I grew up with plaid dresses-particularly dark ones that didn't show dirt-many boys' shirts were also plaids. When I'm thrift shopping, I usually go straight to the men and boys section because plaids are plentiful on those racks.

I made a small quilt top that's still not quite done (or is it?) using plaids and solids in a classic Bowtie pattern but assembled in a more contemporary manner than block-to-block. 

My sis Lili and I c.1960 in our matching plaid dresses.

The Bowtie quilt top only measures 40 by 50 something inches at this point and I can't decide whether to enlarge it or leave as is and start quilting.

Bows in Rows is its working title.

Upon re-examining the quilt top closely, I realized I'd sewn the Bowtie blocks in an unconventional manner. The Bow Ties were sewn as Four Patches and then the little center square-on-point appliqued over the center intersection. Might seem lazy at first since that method avoids dealing with Y-seams but really it was all about getting the center square's stripes or plaid placed in an exact relation to the block. 

Grey thread in a lightweight #60 works really well for many types of applique.

I wonder if you can be lazy and perfectionistic at the same time?

Am sure I got the idea of a well-placed center for the Bow Tie block from an antique block I own. 

             Bow Tie quilt block c.1910

Love the rickrack fabric and wish someone would reprint it!

First Page of a New Blog

In October of this year--if Covid's under control and if people are beginning to travel for fun--I'll be teaching a week-long class at the John C. Campbell Folk School. The dates are October 10-16, 2021. For anyone who doesn't know, John C. Campbell Folk School is a national treasure. Snuggled into the slope of the Appalachian Mountains in the western-most tip of the state of North Carolina, Folk School has been bringing non-competitive learning of numerous folk arts and crafts to interested people since 1925. Here's a link that will give you more information about the history of the school https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Campbell_Folk_School .

This will be my fourth time to teach at Folk School and the timing couldn't be better. It will be the middle of October with warm days and cool nights. The leaves will be turning colors. There'll be fog in the hollers in the early morning. Roadside stands will be selling all varieties of apples, hand-pressed cider and pumpkins.

The class I'll be teaching is called Plaid is the New Black and is designed, basically, to teach people to be more creative in their fabric and pattern choices when making quilts. 

You know the old saying that fashion advisors used to quote when they wanted to promote a color? They'd say, "Red is the new black-" or "Olive is the new black-" and the hype was all about getting people to look at the new colors and to not be so conservative in their clothing choices.

I'm hoping that aspiring quiltmakers who've been intimidated about what color and pattern goes with what in their work will realize that patchwork is simply about a joyful clash of pattern and color and you can do what pleases you. Period. To that end, we'll especially focus on plaids, those horizontal/vertical woven patterns that are homegrown in our state. Of course all sorts of other fabrics are welcome to play with the plaids!

When Carolina was first being settled, thousands of Scots-Irish immigrated from the British Isles, landing first at the port of Wilmington and then pushing further west into the state. The territory wasn't even a proper state yet--not yet divided into North and South Carolina--since this immigration pre-dates the American revolution. Yes, the historic basis of Outlander is true, although no guarantees about finding a Frazier these days. 

The Scots-Irish brought the tradition of woven tartans with them. In following times, the memory of those plaids was still strong and weaving mills specializing in plaids sprang up in the Carolinas and the textile industry lasted into the 1990s. North Carolinians have plaid in their DNA! 

This blog will concentrate on quilts and patchwork that use plaids and many other fabrics. If you're interested in learning about or registering to take my class, please contact the Folk School at their website. Here's a link to all the classes the same week that I teach. Tip: the class size is limited to 12 people.  https://classes.folkschool.org/Browse.aspx

Welcome to the Plaid is the New Black blog, where you'll sometimes find the perfect plaid is in your own closet.