Linda's Plaid Memorial Quilt
Fabrics come in all sorts of patterns. Florals, polka dots, dinosaurs, and stripes, just to name a few. Another popular fabric design is the plaid. With its vertical and horizontal stripes, it is very striking, but also limiting at times to what quilt designs looks best with it. Some designs would not look very good if those stripes are off kilter or out of line with each other. Having to keep one plaid straight is challenging enough but what about multiple? Linda did it beautifully in this memorial quilt for a grandson. She took all the plaid shirts worn by his grandfather and created this beautiful quilt to remember his granddad.
The design looks complicated and amazing while at the same time being quite simple and consistent. Each square block is made up of three separate fabrics, or shirts, and a sashing that is common throughout the quilt. One fabric is cut into a large rectangle that covers half the block. The other half is also split in half with a second fabric square filling one fourth of the total block. The remaining quarter is then split in fourths as well with the third fabric cut in four equal squares. The sashing is the same width between all of these blocks throughout the quilt. These blocks are then sewn together with the same sashing between them, rotating them so that they don’t all line up the same way. The end result is a jumble of three different sized blocks fitting together beautifully.
Linda had us quilt this for her using an all over meander. The meander is not only our most cost efficient option, but it also creates the needed stitching to create the quilt without adding an additional design. Sometimes you want the fabric or the piecing to be the star of the show, and not have anything else distract from it.
We don’t know what other colors she had to choose from when she made this quilt, but I really love the ones she chose. The blues and grays look great together with just a little green for good measure. And then she sprinkled in that one yellow shirt, but never in the larger sized rectangle, just the squares. It adds just the right amount of brightness to the overall look of the quilt.
This is a great quilt as a memorial using shirts of a loved one. I can imagine it would look good with none plaid fabrics or even denim from jeans as well. Who in your life would not want a quilt like this one?
The design looks complicated and amazing while at the same time being quite simple and consistent. Each square block is made up of three separate fabrics, or shirts, and a sashing that is common throughout the quilt. One fabric is cut into a large rectangle that covers half the block. The other half is also split in half with a second fabric square filling one fourth of the total block. The remaining quarter is then split in fourths as well with the third fabric cut in four equal squares. The sashing is the same width between all of these blocks throughout the quilt. These blocks are then sewn together with the same sashing between them, rotating them so that they don’t all line up the same way. The end result is a jumble of three different sized blocks fitting together beautifully.
Linda had us quilt this for her using an all over meander. The meander is not only our most cost efficient option, but it also creates the needed stitching to create the quilt without adding an additional design. Sometimes you want the fabric or the piecing to be the star of the show, and not have anything else distract from it.
We don’t know what other colors she had to choose from when she made this quilt, but I really love the ones she chose. The blues and grays look great together with just a little green for good measure. And then she sprinkled in that one yellow shirt, but never in the larger sized rectangle, just the squares. It adds just the right amount of brightness to the overall look of the quilt.
This is a great quilt as a memorial using shirts of a loved one. I can imagine it would look good with none plaid fabrics or even denim from jeans as well. Who in your life would not want a quilt like this one?
I’m Angela- Co-host of the Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting PBS show. APQS Long arm Dealer and Educator. Triplet Momma. Designer. Thread Bimbo.
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