Kathy Allen - Modern Scot Patchwork: Bold Quilts Inspired by Iconic Tartans

Publisher: Amy Marson Creative Director: Gailen Runge Editors: Karla Menaugh and Liz Aneloski Technical Editor: Debbie Rodgers Cover/Book Designer: April Mostek Production Coordinator / Illustrator: Tim Manibusan Production Editor: Jennifer Warren Photo Assistant: Mai Yong Vang Cover photography by Lucy Glover of C&T Publishing, Inc. Book photography by Diane Pedersen and Mai Yong Vang of C&T Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted Published by C&T Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 1456, Lafayette, CA 94549 DedicationTo my husband and companion, Frank, whose tangible love, friendship, and encouragement have provided the bedrock and strength upon which my life is built.Acknowledgments More than anyone, Anelie Belden has led me to where I am in the fabric arts. She taught me how to sew, taught me how to quilt, taught me how to make garments, and most of all, taught me to love the machine. She is an exceptional teacher. She is an extraordinary artist and designer.

In the creation of this book, Anelie provided insight into what is easy for quilting students to understand, and then she checked the mathevidence of true friendship! Using her experience in quilting, designing quilt patterns, and as an author, she checked my instructions to make sure they were both accurate and understandable. But more than anything else, she gave me the confidence that I could design. For all this and more, I give my most heartfelt thanks and gratitude. I want to also thank my quilting class girlsCheryl Allen, Nancy Gebauer, Nancy Hardy, Angel LeSage, Laurel Lissner, Olive Lissner, Trisha Rogers, and Lola Thomasfor helping me make the quilts that are on display in this book and for helping me learn how to teach. Without them, I couldnt have met my deadlines. By making the quilts, they found the mistakes: both those hidden away and those glaringly obvious.

Special thanks to Sydney Wright for her ever-present assistance and youthful insight. Also invaluable to this endeavor were Beverly Ortiz for binding with perfection, Linda DeRosia for preparing beautiful embroidered labels, and Shannon Ryan-Freeman for her excellent longarm quilting skills. Finally, I want to thank the people of Scotland, whose rich history and beautiful country have served as an inspiration for these quilting patterns. The world has benefited from their artistry and meticulous weaving skills, which have created so many lovely, lovely plaids and tartans. Introduction When traveling through Scotland, whether it be to historic Edinburgh, the rolling hills of Aberdeen, or the mountains surrounding Fort William, its hard to escape the visual impact of the dominant pattern we call plaid. Photo by PhotoSpin.com/Achim Prill Made famous by the Harry Potter movie depictions of the Hogwart Express, the Glenfinnan Viaduct is located at the head of Loch Shiel between Fort William and Mallaig. Photo by PhotoSpin.com/Achim Prill Made famous by the Harry Potter movie depictions of the Hogwart Express, the Glenfinnan Viaduct is located at the head of Loch Shiel between Fort William and Mallaig.

Glenfinnan is said to be the origin of the second Jacobite uprisings, started in 1746. History of the Tartan Although commonly associated with the Highland clans of Scotland, the design pattern known as tartan or plaid is much older. It was used in ancient cultures including the pre-Celtic cultures of central Europe of the eighth century BC (what we call the Iron Age), Western China from 1800 BC, and Scandinavia. The earliest tartan in Britain is known as the Falkirk tartan, found in a jar of Roman coins just north of Scotlands Antonine Wall. Some do not consider it a proper tartan because its design is more of a check than a plaid; nevertheless, it is remarkable that a piece of ancient fabric with distinct color striations has held up despite the progression of time. There are theories about how a piece of tartan cloth found its way into a pot of Roman gold.

My favorite theory surmises that a drunken Scot stole the gold, hid it, and forgot the hiding place. The Falkirk tartan is on display in the National Museum of Scotland. The association of a particular tartan with a particular locality and clan wasnt specifically documented until 1703. Martin Martin described a tartan as a fine-wool cloth carefully woven by clanswomen to create exact patterns. A persons place of residence was known immediately by the pattern in their clothing, he said. Because of the time it took to learn the skillful weaving of tartan, it is assumed by some that the Highland clan association with specific patterns was probably started sometime in the fourteenth century.

No other fabric has had such a prominent role in the history and politics of a country or has been written about so often in poems and historical novels. The rivalry between England and Scotland was based primarily on the ruling English royal family, the Hanovers, maintaining power and the Highland Scotss desire to put a Stuart back on the throne. The Highland Scots started to wear the tartan not just as their clothing but also to show their discontent and enmity with England. The tartan was the symbol of patriotic fervor. The Lowland Scots, especially the women of the aristocracy, followed suit and started to wear the tartan around 1707 to show their disapproval of the Act of Union; new tartans were designed to represent these Lowland clans. Photo by PhotoSpin.com/Valentyna Chukhlyebova Highland dancer wearing a modern-style kilt with Prince Charlie jacket, kilt with sporran, and ghillie brogues Sir Walter Scott, the beloved poet and playwright, helped propel the prestige of the tartan and even made it fashionably chic, with lines in such battle poems as Elspeths Ballad: Their tartans they were waving wide.

In 1746, after the now-famous bloody battle at Culloden, the triumphant English passed the Disarming Act and the Dress Act, making it law that the Scottish could not own weapons nor wear the tartan. However, those Scots who supported the Hanovers were allowed to continue having their portraits made wearing the traditional tartan kilts. (I think we can safely assume that there was some disobedience of this law by those who could afford a way of hiding their forbidden garments.) The great tragedy of the Dress Act was that many of the old tartan patterns were lost forever, as were the special skills of the clanswomen who weaved the wool. A few tartan patterns survived, either because they were recorded in paintings or because pieces of cloth were hidden away. The return of the tartan as an article of clothing for all began when the Dress Act was repealed in 1782. In 1800 there were a handful of patterns, and by 1820 almost 150.

Research began in earnest to find and restore the ancient tartan patterns in 1822, when Sir Walter Scott arranged for King George IV to visit Edinburgh. The Scottish clans put on a glorious pageant for the elderly king, with their tartans center stage. Today 5,000 to 7,000 tartans are registered. Throughout this period of the early to mid-1700s, the tartan found its way to the New World. After the first Jacobite rebellion of 1715, the rebels were put to death or imprisoned. In 1717, the surviving rebels were punished by being shipped to Virginia to serve seven-year terms as indentured servants.