Making an 'Outlander' tartan Quilt

Do you love ‘Outlander’? I am as they say #Outlanderobessed’! Well maybe that is a little strong but did you know that there is actually a hashtag for that!!! A relative latecomer to the whole thing, I was immediately swept up in the whole time travel idea. As a fan of historical fiction, I suppose it was always going to be a winner, for me, but it is just a fantastic story to read and watch and laden with glorious Scottish scenery and tartan fabrics ….. perfect for snuggling up with under a quilt on a winter’s day. After beginning Season 1 on amazon, I started to read the book and uncover this whole ‘Outlander’ world on the internet. I watched an interview with the author, Diana Gabaldon and was absolutely enthralled with her story of how she came to write these books. Did you know that her initial inspiration came from on old episode of Dr. Who from way way back when Patrick Troughton was the Doctor and his side kick was a guy in a kilt. I am always full of admiration for people who write beautifully crafted stories that so clearly have the most enormous amount of research behind the carefully placed words. Outlander seems exceptional in this respect. Its creator is both a scholarly, industrious and immensely talented and I have say, if I had the chance, she would be on the top of my wish list of people I should love to meet. At least two of my kids have had J K Rowling on the top of their lists for years and with the discovery of Diana Gabaldon, I understand.

Having caught up with all five seasons of the show on tv, I was so in love with Scotland and all things Scottish that a quilt was an obvious project for me. That and the fact that there have been some wonderful #plaidishquilts on instagram to inspire any stitcher. So a tartan quilt…. now I consider myself a reasonable experienced quilter but making a tartan quilt is a really unexpected challenge. My first attempt, although really very pretty isn’t really a true tartan pattern - I sort of made it up as I went along and it turned into a riot of pink and roses in a checked pattern. This time, I wanted to make the real thing and I turned to a wonderful book for help.

‘Modern Scot’ by Kathy Allen has all the information you need to plan a plaidish quilt and you do need to put some serious thought into fabrics with a project like this. The book contains 8 quilt patterns of iconic tartans, some more complicated than others. I chose the ‘Elliot’ design as it seemed one of the easier ones and now that I am finished, I am glad that I did. There are several reasons for this. One is that I had already got some beautiful Liberty print fabrics in mind and because these are heavily loaded with pattern and colour, I didn’t want too many tiny checks - I wanted some bigger blocks of colour to showcase these. I added in some plain essex linens to the mix - it is key to have some plain solids in a quilt like this to make the tartan design work.  When you think about it, traditional tartan patterns are formed where the warp and the weft threads collide forming the mixture of the two threads. Of course in quilting you don’t have to follow this rule, but you do want the pattern to stand out. My filler fabric or a sort of in between fabric between the plain and the patterned is a ‘Capel’ liberty print - this print is available in an array of stunning colours and is perfect for blending the solids and the prints in a quilt. It is a go to favourite of mine and this time I used the indigo blue colour to really draw those sharp lines needed in a tartan. Colour placement is absolutely key in this and it is worth to take some time to try out your options. I actually used my laptop and photos from my phone of the fabrics, to mock up some colour ways and move the fabrics around until I was sure it was right. I don’t normally do this with a quilt but it was extremely helpful in this instance.

Having made a start using my plan, the first strip turned out pretty well. I felt confident to cut the rest of the quilt out and from then on it was quite quick work. The other key to this quilt is accuracy in cutting and stitching to keep the lines straight. I know this is always important in patch working, but here you want the narrow lines to really stand out and form a rigid grid, so being that extra bit careful is worth it.

So as the quilt started to grow, I had a really lovely feeling about it. The colour choices are a bit unusual for me - no red for a start. I used the tartan that was especially made for the ‘Outlander’ series as a starting point but it is only a reference. The Liberty fabrics were loaded with symbolism - woodland creatures, botanical motifs and starry skies. The larger print ‘The Collector’ reminded me of Claire’s herbal medical endeavours and is just one of the most interesting prints I’ve ever come across. ‘The aqua linen and indigo colours were for the sea, the pecan coloured linen was for the wood. Basil was chief consultant as always…..

Once it was all together I was totally thrilled with it. It did resemble a tartan but with an edgy boho sort of feel.

Before quilting it though, I made a last minute decision to add the words to the theme tune ‘The Skye Boat Song’ around the edge of the quilt, using the machine monogramming on my Janome Horizon. I think my family think I have lost the plot completely … but as I had already discovered on the internet - Outlander fans are a clan all of their own and I am happy to be a member.

I think the words are a charming finishing touch and sort of just labels it forever as the perfect quilt for a Sassenach.

You might also be interested in ‘Making the Hinterland (but really the #Outlander Obsessed) dress’