Welcome to The Plaid Portico!

Born July 12, 2012

Here I mostly share quilts from exhibitions in general from the “modern Quilt” persuasion.  I so love to take them in, and what better way than to take photos of the quilts I find interesting and share the images and information about their creators. I will still share my own ventures with fabric collections I design from time to time, along with some of the wonderful things other people make from them. But I also want to share with you the stories of other fabric designers and quilters and pattern makers that I meet along the way, fabric finds and cool projects.

I try to credit every quilt, but if I have made an error or omission please contact me. If you want a specific link connected to an image of a quilt that is yours, I would be glad to oblige.

Enjoy!

My Story

I first started sewing when I was 7 or 8 in 4H.  The first project was making a little sewing box, gluing fabric to a cigar box.  Mine was plaid.  I still have it.  I sewed quite a lot of my own clothes in my youth, and then I would sew on and off over the years for home dec projects. These days I am quilting, albeit slowly. I am doing it for the love of it. I am equipped with my late mother-in-law’s sewing machine which I inherited.  Thank you Barb!

The only thing that has never wavered is my love for fabric and textiles. It translated into making pillows out of Japanese obis and Thai woven silk collected during our seven years in Asia. I painted and sold silk scarves for several years.  I have collected fabrics on our travels through Asia and Europe and go to textile museums and shows wherever I find them. I also have a huge collection of books on textiles, fabric design and design in general.  I have started many a multimedia project using the fabrics I have collected.

I am an artist. Like many, my mediums change, from drawing to ceramic sculpture, to printmaking, to painting.  Several people over the years encouraged me to put my images on fabric, and then one year I decided to do that. How? In the end, it waited until we returned to the US and I signed up for courses in Adobe Illustrator and then found the California School of Professional Fabric Design, which was a very targeted intensive program that gave me all the tools I needed.

Now I license my art and design across many categories, including quilting weight cotton fabric with Andover Fabrics. I have come to love the sewing/fabric community.  I raptly listen to my quilting friends and mentors.

And here I share my adventures with you.

Thank you for visiting my blog and don’t forget to always keep looking for things that inspire you!

Carol VZ

http://www.carolvanzandt.com