sewingpup

Hi, I purchased a couple of fat quarter packs of large scale plaids thinking I would maybe do a turning twenty quilt with them. But...now I am thinking of what other patterns I could use. Anyone ever made a quilt out of large plaids? Just looking for pattern ideas. Thanks....

Tartan

It depends on how OCB (obsessive compulsive behaviour) you are. If you cut the plaid, will it bother you if the pieces don’t match and if they are going in all different directions? I did only one quilt in Madras plaid and even keeping the pieces larger and trying to match the directions, I got a few off. It bugged me! I might pick a pattern like Warm Wishes where you could use the plaid in the big squares.

Gemm

I'm not sure how big the scale is for your plaids, but I made a quilt at the beginning of the pandemic using some plaid, striped, and checked flannel FQs I had been saving for years. I don't have a picture of the whole quilt right now, but this is the general layout I used. You can see I wasn't very particular about straight of grain, but the end result has been a really nice cozy quilt.

quiltedsunshine

Penguin Party by Elizabeth Hartman uses all sizes of plaids and is a very cute quilt. Here's a link: https://ohfransson.bigcartel.com/pro...pillow-pattern

Gay

Here is a quilt of feathered stars using plaids & checks, and it looks better if the lines don't match up. I rather like this one, it reminds me of my childhood when we lived in our old farmhouse.

feathered star quilt

Gay

and another beautiful plaid quilt may interest you

https://www.e-patternscentral.com/de...l?prod_id=9012

Iceblossom

From my earliest quilting plans, before there were one-block wonders was I was going to fussy cut a Lemoyne Star from plaids so the woven plaid designs met... 40 years in planning and still not made!

This is a top I did make, it was for my husband's father who passed before I got it quilted It is "Delectable Mountains" blocks, swirled around solid plaid squares.

edit: I'll have to look if I got a picture. From the scraps leftover and some others, I made simple plaid squares surrounded by the cream border, and cream squares surrounded with plaid and stacked them in diagonal rows. Was very simple and effective with the plaids.

Quiltwoman44

Oh Iceblossom! that is gorgeous!!! I want one.

Iceblossom

It was from Quilter's Newsletter Magazine -- probably in the late 90s or so? We were doing a lot with "Ribbons" and taking basically entire blocks to make huge blocks for the top. I'll see if I can find the issue.

Delectable Mountain is the block name as I know it, there are others -- maybe Kansas Troubles? This one is constructed as a Triangle with little HST points, and not in strips. The bigger pieces show off the plaids better, I think -- even though I used fairly small scale homespuns. I made the little points as grids, where you draw on the fabric and sew diagonals and make 16 or whatever at once.

Mine is more planned than scrappy -- it looks great with more mixes! I kept each group as a distinct entity and then used consistent dark green around the outer edges and the berry sort of one forming the center diamonds.

sewingpup

Thanks everyone. Lots of good ideas. I am sure having a problem deciding on what to do with these large print plaids. I think I just have to put my top three ideas in a paper bag and pull one out and go for it!