Project Quilting 17.2: Scads of Plaid

This week's Project Quilting challenge features one of my favorite types of fabric: Plaid!  Of course I've made the Plaidish quilt, and one of my first PQ challenges was a plaid scarf.  I've also done a couple of plaid-inspired tops, like Dwight B Plaid and Giraffe Love.  Finally, it often shows up on the back of my quilts, especially when the back is a warm snuggly flannel (see Meeple Colorblock or Camp Stars or the Sudoku Quilt or Modern Fans).  But this week, I decided to piece my own over-sized plaid potholder.

My husband says it looks like I just quilted a piece of existing plaid fabric, and I take that as a compliment because it means that I did a good job of picking fabrics.  These are actually all off-cuts of backing fabric from other projects, so it makes me even happier that they all play so well together.  The lightest fabric is from the Macaron Mystery Quilt, the black is from the Cuddlekiss pattern that will be releasing next week, and the mix is from a quilt I never shared online.

I kept the quilting simple by using straight lines, but instead of stitching in the ditch, I embraced the spirit of plaid and made my lines one presser foot away from the ditch.

The backing fabric is from Chalk Stars and I had to piece it because it wasn't tall enough.  I chose to use a contrasting stripe instead of trying to match the two pieces since I didn't have much of it to work with.  The binding is a classic red solid for attention and contrast.

Once again, I made far fewer Space Parade blocks than I thought I would - this potholder was strip pieced so there weren't very many opportunities for leader and ender blocks.

And that's all for this week!  I needed a new potholder, so I'm glad one of the challenges gave me the opportunity to make one.

I'm linking up my successful finish with the Project Quilting linky party.  There's no challenge next week, but I'll be here talking about my new QAL and some cross stitch finishes I had in January.