Plaid quilt top

by Linda Theil

Ever since I saw Shay Henderson's "Buffalo Check Quilt Pattern" almost a decade ago I have been fascinated by the idea of creating a trompe l'oeil plaid pattern out of fabrics. I made an original post about this process in 2016 "Buffalo chex patchwork", and a follow-up post in 2023 "The white buffalo".

So in October when I saw a Missouri Star Quilt Company tutorial titled "Make the Mini Plaid-ish Quilt with Erica Jackman" I watched the video,  took notes, and tried to make the plaid quilt top for myself. Jackman gives the measurements and instructions for building the plaid-ish pattern in the Missouri Star tutorial, and complete instructions for the quilt are available to purchase on her website and online retailers.

Jackman uses a scrappy approach to her original quilt, but I was afraid my choices would not result in a plaid-ish quilt, so I tried to stick to the buffalo check idea of using three colors: a dark, a light, and a medium or grayed shade. I chose orange, white, and yellow fabrics for my trial plaid.

Jackman said on her blog that the quilt is accessible for experienced beginners, but I found it extremely challenging. The pattern is made up of three different blocks of three different sizes that build a mega-block using one each of two of the blocks, and one block placed both horizontally and vertically -- shown below in gray scale.

Mega-block configuration:

Each of the three different blocks is a nine-patch in three different sizes: A is eight-inches square; B is six-inches square; and C is six-by-eight inches. Each block uses all three values: light, dark, and medium/or shade. In my case each block used the same colors I chose: light/white, dark/orange, and medium/yellow.

From an A block, a C block and two B blocks -- of nine-patches each -- you can build a 14-inch mega-block that repeats to create the plaid-ish design. You can repeat this mega-block as often as you wish to make a quilt the size you require; and you can use parts of the mega-block to fill out the design you wish to complete.

The top I made consisted of a five-by-five grid of rows: ACACA, CBCBC, ACACA, CBCBC, ACACA to make a 36-inch square top that I added two borders to: a 2.5-inch white strip, and a four-inch orange strip, making the total top about 48-inches square.

Here is a schematic of my layout:

For this 36-inch square layout, you will need nine A blocks, four B blocks and 12 C blocks.

Block illustration:

For Block A you will need:

dark: 4-inch squares, cut four

medium: 1.5 x 4-inch rectangles, cut four

light: 1.5-inch square, cut one

For Block B you will need:

dark: 1.5-inch square, cut one

medium: 1.5 x 3-inch rectangles, cut four

light: 3-inch squares, cut four

For Block C you will need:

dark: 1.5 x 4-inch rectanges, cut two

medium: 3 x 4-inch rectangles, cut four AND 1.5-inch square, cut one

light: 1.5 x 3-inch rectangles, cut two

Strip-piecing the components

Instead of cutting out these individual components, I strip-pieced the fabrics to make each block easier to assemble. For my strips I began by cutting width-of-fabric (WOF, 42-inches) strips from dark. medium, and light fabrics. You will cut as many strip sets as you need, depending on the size of your finished quilt. Although you will need almost equal numbers of blocks A and C, you will need fewer strip sets for the B blocks because you will need roughly only one B block to every two A blocks, and one B block to every three C blocks.

Strip set #1 (A outer, C center)

For the first strip set, from dark fabric cut two 4-inch WOF and one 1.5-inch WOF from medium fabric. Sew together using 1/4-inch seams with a medium strip between two dark strips. Press. 

Strip set #2 (C outer, A center)

For the second strip set, from medium fabric cut two 4-inch WOF strips. and from light fabric cut one 1.5-inch WOF strip. Sew together with 1/4-inch seams with light fabric strip between two medium fabric strips. Press.

Strip set #3 (B center)

For the third strip set, from medium fabric cut two 3-inch WOF strips, and from dark fabric cut one 1.5-inch WOF strip. Sew together with 1/4-inch seams with dark fabric between two medium fabric strips.

Strip set #4 (B outer)

For the fourth strip set, from light fabric, cut two 3-inch WOF strips, and from medium fabric cut one 1.5-inch WOF strip. Sew together with 1/4-inch seams with medium fabric between light fabric strips.

Strip sets and cutting chart illustrated here:

For block A you will need to cut two 4-inch pieces from strip set #1, and one 1/5-inch piece from strip set #2.

For block C you will need to cut two 3-inch pieces from strip set #4, and one 1.5-inch piece from strip set #1.

For block B you will need to cut two 3-inch pieces from strip set #4, and one 1.5 from strip set #3.

For each 14-inch mega-block you will need to cut from strip-pieced lengths:

A outer, two 4-inch cuts

A center, one 1.5-inch cut

C outer, four 4-inch cuts

C center, two 1.5-inch cuts

B outer, two 4-inch cuts

B center, one 1.5-inch cut

From these pieces you can assemble two outer and one inner strip for each nine-patch block as shown in block illustration above. For each mega-block you will need to assemble one Block A, two Block C, and one Block B as illustrated in mega-block configuration shown above. 

Stitch together as many mega-blocks and additional blocks as you need to make a quilt-top of your desired size.

I plan to use forest-green flannel for my backing and 80/20 batting. I haven't decided whether to quilt by hand or domestic machine, or what binding I will use. I will post photos when the quilt is completed.

Note

I have written this commentary to memorialize my work method for producing this fascinating design, and to illustrate how I used strip-piecing to simplify the production for myself. Although I relied on the Missouri Star YouTube video for information about how to create this design, I assume that Erica Jackman's published pattern would be a necessary tool for most makers. In addition, Jackman's use of fabric is much more varied and elaborate than my experimental choices. I look forward to more experimentation with this design.

Update March 1, 2026

Plaid quilt with completed hand quilting.

Back of Plaid quilt with green flannel backing showing big-stitch quilting using heavy sashiko thread.

Close-up of quilt front showing sashiko quilt stitching. I will add the orange binding when my sewing machine is back from its annual checkup next week.

Update: March 30, 2026

Plaid quilt with finished binding, showing label on back of quilt backed with dark green flannel.

Plaid quilt bound and folded.