Printed plaid reproduction block by Becky Brown Printed plaid repro star on a woven gingham plaid by Bettina Havig Vintage top from 1840-1860 We don't often notice printed plaids because they are usually low drama. Vintage top from 1840-1890. With a Turkey red like that demanding attention the blue printed plaid becomes background. A similar repro print from Blue Hill But you find plaids everywhere--- printed in the two blocks on the left, possibly woven in the block on the right. Vintage top from 1840-1860 Saw this on Inspired by Antique Quilts blog. Vintage block from 1880-1900 Low-drama plaid prints, high drama sash. Vintage quilt from 1840-1860 In the 1840s and '50s plaids rose from supporting roles to drama queens. Printed plaids offered pattern that woven plaids never could. Vintage top from the 1840s, pictured in my Clues in the Calico Vintage quilt from the 1840s. From Barbara D. Schaffer's blog Another vintage star with dramatic plaids Vintage block Star Points: Printed plaid with a floral in the empty spaces Vintage top from 1840-1860 The idea of adding florals to a plaid might be considered over-the-top. But 1840's fashionistas had to have them. Mary Todd Lincoln in the mid-1840s dressed in silk plaid. Pleats and tucks added to the over-all look. Dress from the 1840s in the Tasha Tudor collection. Dresses above and below are wool combination fabrics, challis or delaine. Don't you wish you'd been around in the 1840s to see women wearing these dresses? And don't worry that you'd look terrible in them. The plaids emphasized a wide look that was considered attractive. Plump was the goal. The print above: very much like the blue reproduction print from Terry Thompson If you are a fan of Prussian blues you may have a good collection of mid-19th-century printed plaids. Cyndi at Busy Thimble posted this vintage star. Prussian blue's printing attributes seem to have encouraged some wild and wonderful designs. Another aspect of the plaid fad: Prints set in a grid or plaid format. Back of a vintage quilt from 1840-1900 A madder-style plaid in a plaid Vintage piece from 1840-1860 Notice this brown print was once purple. See the seam allowance at the bottom. Vintage plaid and floral from 1840-1880 Reproductions Detail: Wild Goose Chase reproduction by Barbara D. Schaffer. The setting triangles echo that high-drama Prussian blue style. Jeanne's reproduction for double pinks Check your collection of Prussian blues for printed plaids. And your madders and pinks. Reproduction star by Becky Brown Diagonal plaids are a look you can't with woven plaids. My Civil War Homefront: Document print on the left and repro right. Jo Morton Stafford County Nancy Gere often includes a printed plaid in her collections. Alice Putnam by Nancy Gere Don't forget figures set in a plaid-like grid. From my Civil War Jubilee, a plaid grid. What To Do with Your Stack of Stars? Add to the plaid look with a contrasting sashing. Reproduction quilt by Barbara D. Schaffer We can only envy her stash (and her eye!) Quilt dated 1841-1842 After 1840 one sees many blocks set on point with contrasting sashing strips. These quilts pictured in the Quilt Index show how the interest in diagonal plaids influenced the look of quilts from prints to set. Last week I showed stars set with sashing that faded into the background. Quilt dated 1864-65 North Carolina project Quilters also loved contrasting sashing. http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4B-82-1F0 Massachusetts project Notice they don't use cornerstones in the grid. Different colored squares in the intersections would give you a different effect. One More Thing About Plaids A set of Scots novels bound in plaid fabrics Plaids are sometimes described as Scotch Plaids or Tartans, a reference to romantic ideas of Scotland's traditional clothing. Queen Victoria in 1854 in a woven plaid shawl. Royal Collection Trust. The fashion for plaid owed much to the British royal family and to Sir Walter Scott's novels like Waverly and The Lady in the Lake. Plaids still signify brave and hearty men. Just do a digital search for "I'm a Lumberjack." We'll discuss woven plaids in a few weeks. Read more at these blog posts: http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2009/06/plaid-fad.html http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2009/12/document-reproduction-printed-plaid.html See pages 72-75 of my America's Printed Fabric for a discussion of printed plaids.