Rustic Plaid

The second Project Quilting challenge this year is “Scads of Plaid” and my first instinct was to reach for plaid garments in my thrifted pile…but to my (not so big) surprise, I had very few! I tend to gravitate towards solids, even when thrifting, so there wasn’t a whole lot of plaid to choose from.

Instead, I cut a swatch from a plaid shirt that I used for one of last year’s Project Quilting challenges, and used that as a reference for creating my own plaid block

It was fun and challenging to try to imitate the way the colors blend in the swatch, and I tried several layout iterations before landing on one that felt close:

From there, I knew I wanted to add thin pieced lines to mimic the lines at the edge of the plaid pattern in my swatch, so I cut 3/4” strips and used them as sashing between each of four identical blocks:

I debated adding a border around the edges, maybe actual plaid or maybe one of the colors in the top, but then I realized that if I created binding in the same color as my sashing, the 1/4” edge would appear all the way around each block - so that’s what I did!

I hand quilted straight lines in the same colors/directions that my colors ran - a medium brown vertically and a dark red horizontally. I’m not sure, but I think the red may be 5wt (as opposed to the brown, which is 8wt), which really makes it pop

For the back, I used some homespun plaids in brown that I’ve had waiting for the right project for quite some time, mixed with the lightest color from the front of the quilt

I will donate this quilt to our DC Modern Quilt Guild’s charity drive for the DC Diaper Bank, so I sewed in one of our guild labels, which are just so cute:

Overall this was such a fun challenge, I really enjoyed studying the plaid print in detail and playing with options, and the quilt came together very easily. My daughter named it “Rustic Plaid,” which also feels like a nod to the rust-like color feel…it also kind of reminds me of earthy colors and/or a 1970s living room, both of which are fun references for me :)