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| Fabrics featured in this post were provided by Michael Miller Fabrics as part of my being a Michael Miller Brand Ambassador |
This week's Project Quilting Challenge theme was Team Colors. My design inspiration came from watching the first three seasons of the Outlander series and seeing how the various Scottish clans were identified by the colors and patterns of their region or family tartan. I set out to quilt my own tartan that reflects my love of vibrant, high-intensity colors! Using the CYMK colors (Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, and Black, plus the addition of White), I hoped to achieve new colors and values where the stitched bands overlapped.
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| CYMK Inspired 50wt Threads by Aurifil: Fuchsia (#4020), Canaray (#2120), Turquoise (#2810), White (#2024), and Black (#2692) |
There are several websites that allow you to design your own original Tartan. I really liked Tartan Maker as it was easy-to-use and versatile. Design options to explore included color pattern/repetition, proportion (number of threads used for each band of color), orientation, and the ability to customize color selections by clicking on the color grid and/or typing in the corresponding Hex Color Code.
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| Online Tartan Design with Tartanmaker.com |
Blue Painter's Tape (.75" and 1.5" wide) were used to mark out my color bands and served as a straight-edge guide for stitching out the lines of matchstick quilting. While most of the quilting was completed using my standard 1/4" foot, free-motion quilting was used to connect the last set of turquoise lines to the peace signs.
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| Plaid Progression 1 |
The same color thread was used on top and in the bobbin. However, two different Cotton Couture solids by Michael Miller were used as the foundation fabric (quilt top and backing): Nickel (light colored grey featured above) and Metal (dark grey featured below).
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| Plaid Progression 2 |
In the detail below, you can see how the same set of threads appear against the two different values of grey fabric.
You can also see just how many lines of stitching were used to create my tartan including:
- 170 lines in Black
- 24 in White
- 72 in Yellow
- 140 in Pink
- 100 in Turquoise
- 13 Peace Signs
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| Peace of Plaid, Finishes 16" x 16" |
Be sure to check out all the team spirit and colorful entries made for this week's Team Colors challenge through Project Quilting!!
Wow, very clever way of creating your own tartan! Thanks for showing your process!
ReplyDeleteThank you Deb! The online tartan maker website was great for auditioning different colors and patterns, and provided instant gratification of my design. Happy to share my process and hope it inspires you to create your own tartan!
DeleteI love all the process pictures and the stats of your piece. It's amazing that that's all thread. And I like seeing it on the dark and light fabrics. The peace signs were the perfect personalization for you.
ReplyDeleteThank you!! After seeing all the stats mentioned at R2CA, I thought it would be fun to keep track of how many lines of thread were used to create the tartan. And thanks for the Peace sign book inspiring me to incorporate the peace signs into this tartan!! I have a feeling it may inspire future quilting designs as well!!
DeleteWow!! Great job with the quilting! Matchstick quilting is SEW time consuming.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I am glad I worked fairly small. The matchstick quilting was SEW worth it!
DeleteWhat a cool idea! I've considered making a patchwork 'plaid' quilt, but never considered using thread.
ReplyDeleteThank you!! Somehow your comment got lost in moderation world. I hope you give plaid threadplay a try!!
DeleteHi Mel, your tartan is truly amazing. I thought that you might have woven it, and I suppose that you did by sewing over fabric. It really looks great and I love the peace signs :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you Andrea. I am really happy with how the tartan evolved one line of stitching at a time. The peace signs was a last minute idea and I am really pleased with how it breaks up the design and adds a fun detail!
DeleteThis is SO COOL! Thanks for sharing your process - what a beautiful piece!
ReplyDeleteThank you Kim...I am so glad I remembered to pause and take pictures along the way so y'all could see the tartan come together one thread color at a time!
DeleteWho Knew?!!!! We could sew our own.
ReplyDeleteOh the possibilities! The online tartan maker is a wonderful resource for auditioning different colorways and pattern possibilities!! Happy sewing!
DeleteThat's a lot of awesome stitching.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I am so pleased with how it evolved one stitched line at a time!!
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