Thread: Plaid and checkered fabric - what to do with?

Me too. I have quite a few on my list with the scraps and the "didn't look good together after I bought them" pieces. There are the traditional: 9 patch with alternating solid white/cream, Glorified 9 patch, Goose Tracks, Bear Paws, etc. Also saw a French Braid shown on this board made out of plaid. I am making a quilt for my son out of plaids and stripes from the Quaint Quilts To Love, Leisure Arts. It has four squares cut into diamonds alternating with cream solid. Also made Kansas Troubles out of brownish plaids for other son. Don't have pictures yet.

Check out Bonnie Hunter's quilts and patterns at quiltville.com. She make scrap quilts and uses LOTS of plaids. Her book Scraps and Shirttails is full of plaids.

Stripes can look very cool in any block that has two triangles that come together to create corner like the Card Trick pattern. Someone on QB did an awesome Card Trick in special border prints and stripes. I can't remember who it was unfortunately.

I just cracked open my new issue of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine and found a dynamite pattern for using stripes! It has great movement and if you've ever tried her methods or read her books you know how wonderful they are. Anita Grossman Solomon has a new method that really makes bias striped blocks look easy. If you run out for the issue it is on page 59 under "Anita's Unbiased Block."

Here's a quilt I made my daughter using the Quilt As You Go method. I cut the batting and the block the same size. The back was cut 1" larger on all 4 sides, in other words: 2" larger. Make your quilt sandwich with the batting in the middle and sew an "X" to stabilize. When you sew 2 of the sandwiched blocks together you take a 1" seam of the backing only, right sides together, so your raw edges are visible from the front. From the front, you finger press the seam open and double fold over the raw seams of the block. Top stitch along the folded edge as you would if you were binding it. Continue until an entire row is completed. Eventually you will sew the rows together and have one long seam to double fold and top stitch. Since I have a small domestic machine with just a 7" throat, this made quilting a large top very manageable. Hope this was clearer than mud, ha, ha.