I’ve just finished my second Bruce Baby Quilt, an adaptation of the Bruce Tartan.

This is my second Bruce Tartan. The first was made with blue and green fabrics and was completed last July. I liked it alot and wanted to keep one for myself so when James was fairly insistent that the Bruce tartan was red and not blue, I decided I’d make another in the red/green tartan. Fortunately, “Counting Sheep” the fabric by Blank Quilting came in blue, green and red so I could make pretty much the same quilt in either color scheme.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Except that when I went looking for fabric with both green and red to use in the places where the solid colors crossed one another (in a tartan) it was much more difficult to find something that worked. I searched all over and even tried fabric stenciling (fail) and considered dyeing some red/white fabric. And then one day I found three coordinating fabrics in the right colors.

As usual I jumped into sewing my first square. When I finished it, I realized that it wasn’t quite right. I was about to cut the strips again when I remembered my resolve to spend more time at the design board on my next project. I made myself slow down and begin cutting out the small pieces I’d need, 81 of them! I’m glad I did because I really didn’t like the first arrangement. The fabric that seemed so “right” didn’t look right at all when placed within a pattern.

I replaced the red background/green dotted fabric with a green background/red dotted fabric and that was better but I thought the green sheep fabric faded as a result. So I pulled out the green and replaced it with a solid green that I had on hand. That improved things a lot and still seemed to follow the tartan rules. When green and green crossed one another, a solid green would result.

 

 

 

 

 

Then I started playing with the design. Would the red background fabric work better this way? Not much? How about the green background fabric? Better. But I also went back and replaced the multicolored fabrics with the green sheep and really liked that best. Technically, it doesn’t follow the “rules” for a tartan but this is where I decided an adaptation of the tartan would do just fine. I made a judgement call based on what appealed to me. After all, it’s my quilt, my project. There’s no design police ready to haul me in for not following the rules.

The same thing happened again, kind of serendipitously, when I started adding the connecting blocks. I decided to add a white strip and had some nice fabrics that followed the rules (mostly) and looked nice. I started cutting and sewing. I found that where the two whites crossed each other I didn’t want a stark white and I didn’t like the white/green that I’d chosen. On a whim, I tried a small square of yellow and loved it. No, when two white strips cross each other, the result isn’t yellow, but it’s what I liked and so I kept it. It will go with the yellow rick rack that will go on the quilt later to simulate the yellow strip through the center of the tartan design.

So I’m not claiming to have made a Bruce Tartan. I will admit that it is an adaptation of the Bruce Tartan. But isn’t that what life is all about? Adapting our ideals and our selves to the realities of life. I’m pretty sure the original tartans were also adaptations of the resources available to them: the plants and lichens in the area provided the palette from which to choose the tartan colors; the wool or other fibers came from the fields or the animals in the meadows. And I adapt a little more every day: to the realities of my workplace, my family, my friendships, my community and even my country. My quilts reflect this truth and help me remember that change–adaptation–is mostly a good thing. Especially when it means adding a splash of yellow in an unexpected place.