Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy. – Albert Einstein

After a beautifully emotional week with Patti, I thought we would make this week’s challenge very straight-forward – but hopefully fun as well. We find Striped and Checked everywhere around us, but maybe this is so common a pattern that we don’t notice it if we don’t go looking for it? One thing is clear though – I love these patterns, but remember that my children used to hate them. Today, our whole family often use a mix of striped and checked clothes as well as interior decoration. So, here we are – what about you?

In the header – almost only striped. Notice that the chairs make it somewhat checked too.

In fact, checked is a pattern of modified stripes consisting of crossed horizontal and vertical lines forming squares. Which make for endless possibilities!

According to Wikipedia, the word ”checked” is derived from the ancient Persian word shah, meaning ”king”, from the oriental game of chess – particularly from the expression ”shah mat”, ”the king is dead”, or more modern, ”check-mate”. The word came into English from the French echec in the 11th century.

• 

• 

• 

Did you know that the check pattern has a number of symbolic meanings? In auto racing, the chequered flag is displayed at the finish. They say this originates from the ”checkers” who watched the finishing line and checked when cars had finished the race.

In some countries, the check pattern has become a symbol of the police. Known as ”Sillitoe tartan”, it was first used in Glasgow in the 1930s and was inspired by a pattern worn by some Scottish army regiments. The symbol is used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Iceland and some cities in the United States (notably Chicago).

Before I finish, many warm thanks to Patti and to all of your creative Emotions shared with us last week! Now we are looking forward to seeing some fun Striped and Checked findings from you! Please link to my post and don’t forget the Lens-Artists tag. Stay safe, wherever you are, and we are eagerly waiting for you to check (!) in. And, please stay tuned for January 30, when Amy will be our host.