Plaidish

38”H x 38”W (2019)

This quilt grew out of frustration with a piece I was trying to make in response to a call for striped quilts. My initial attempt was also going to use intensive hand quilting but in a design with more rigid, traditional stripes. I did not like what I was creating and when I abandoned it, I let myself go free. This is the result. I improv pieced uneven strips fabrics from my stash and then cut that into fourths. I pieced the four blocks together in alternating directions. To contrast with the straight lines of the fabric, I hand quilted wavy lines using perle cotton thread. I switched the color of the thread to create different bands of color running perpendicular to the lines of fabric. The color of the thread interacts with the color of the fabric to create an illusion of color change in the cloth below, just as the different colors of the warp and the weft interact in plaid fabric to create multiple colors.

Plaidish won second place in handwork at Quiltcon 2022, was selected for the MQG special exhibit “Structure and Solidity” at the International Quilt Festival, 2023 in Houston, Texas, and Qulits Unlimited 2024 at View Gallery.