It all started when. . .

I went to a gigantor garage sale and found boxes of fabric, and tons of gingham.  Gingham?  I hadn’t used or sewn with gingham for years.  I sent some to Krista, of KristaStitched and she suggested we do something fun this summer with our gingham.  One thing led to another and last week a box showed up at my house with some more gingham, woven this year:

Gingham is an interesting fabric because it’s not printed, it’s woven.

Here’s some printed fabrics–we call them checks because there’s only two colors.  In gingham, there’s three.

Check on the bottom, gingham (blue and chocolate brown) on the top.

I call them yarn-dyed, because the color is not applied, like it is in printed cottons, but the yarns are dyed the color present in the gingham, in this case some aqua and some chocolate brown yarns were woven to give us that “checked” appearance so typical of this fabric. The blue yarns overlapping the blues give the solid blue color and ditto for the browns.  But when the blues and the browns intersect, you get that half-toned looking square with both colors in it.  This also means that there is no right or wrong side to ginghams, which when I started to make my paper pieced block (in the Gingham Giveaway logo) I didn’t have to worry about that at all.  And that was one complicated little paper-pieced block.  You can find it here.

The new cottons are 100% cotton, made for traditional and modern sewers.  Okay, so when that box arrived, I thought . . . what was I thinking?  Way too much to use all myself, so Krista and I thought we’d have a Gingham Giveaway.

But it’s not just any giveaway–we want you to play along, and make something gingham-y for yourself and for all of us to see.

So I put together some packets of 3 fat quarters of gingham and a full half-yard of Kona White cotton.  If you are selected in the giveaway, you agree to make a quilt–or a quilt block–or four quilt blocks–or a mini-quilt–or something along those lines with your ginghams.  We’d ask that you then post it up on your blog linking back to both Krista and my blogs.  That’s all!

Dates: The Gingham Giveaway will be held early in June.  We’ll let you know when to leave a comment on our blogs, but we’d like you to be thinking about it.  We’ll announce those who want to play along with us, and because gingham is so picnic-Americana-looking, we ask that you blog about your block(s) or your quilt top on Wednesday July 4th.

Because this is a summer fun project, we don’t need your quilt to be quilted, or your blocks to be finished.  We just want you to have some fun with some ginghams and play, play, play!

Check back. . . or should I say. . . gingham back!

I know Krista and I scored a bunch of vintage ginghams at a garage sale, but I was curious to see if I could still buy them commercially.

Yep.  JoAnn’s had them in the “homespun” section, along the wall.  They had a range of large to small checks, even micro-checks measuring 1/8″ inch.  I hope you’re not wanting an exotic color or anything.

Fiber content: I have been used to ginghams in the 50-50 range, but this one is 65% polyester-35% cotton.  What this means is that is has a bit different hand, or how the cloth feels when you touch it.  The polyester, since it is over 50%, will be dominant, so the surface will have more of a commercial feel, rather than a homemade feel.  It will be more wrinkle-free, and probably won’t shrink at all.  The colors most likely will not run or bleed, so you can combine any combo you want.  No need to pre-wash this either, as the character of the fabric won’t change much.  It will wear like iron.  I once made a dress out of gingham–it was a Betsey Johnson Vogue pattern, way back in the 1970s on Betsey Johnson’s first go-round. Because this is more poly than cotton, the drape will be finer and the fabric will feel a little lighter-weight.  I say all this not to scare you off, but to reassure you that when you take the fabric in hand and touch it, what you are feeling is normal especially if you have been sewing with only cotton.  As far as the China part, over 90% of the world’s clothing and textiles and thread and trims comes via China.  As quilters, we’re more used to Japan for thread and fabrics.

I saw an apron done by my mother-in-law with chicken-scratch embroidery on it.  I guess I could have ironed it to show you, but I just pulled it out of an old sewing basket up on top of my armoire.

This is how far I got–the square of gingham cut out, the embroidery half-way across.  Add this to list of Things To Do When I Retire.

Doesn’t gingham just remind you of days gone past?  It has such a timeless quality and that’s why I suggested to Krista that we try to use up our little find by combing it with some Kona White or something and seeing where it goes.  Some times it’s interesting to get an idea and explore it, without a pattern or pre-determined place to arrive.

You can buy gingham-look-alike fabric.  This one’s from an Etsy shop online (I did a search for gingham and Denise Schmidt, as this is her fabric line.)  But the unique quality of gingham is the fact that it is yarn-dyed, and that the plaid is made from the white threads crossing the colored threads.  I much prefer that to printed ginghams.

Luckily for you, Robert Kaufman has yarn-dyed ginghams listed on their website, and it looks like you can order directly from them.

I also found these at Fabric.com–look for the Carolina Gingham fabric, as it is yarn-dyed, and that’s what you want if you are looking for a true gingham.