My Finished Irish Chain Twist Quilt !

It's Finished!

Click  here  

I've always wanted to make an Irish Chain quilt, but felt intimated because they all look so complicated.  When I saw that Melissa,  from Happy Quilting blog , was have a Quilt-A-Long, with her excellent tutorials for each step, I knew that this was the time for me  to jump in and learn how to make an Irish Chain quilt!


I chose to make the lap size quilt:  60 " x 70 "

design layouts by Melissa @ Happy Quilting

I chose my fabrics:   a hoarded  FQ set -   This 'N That  by Nancy Halverson -  Benartex 

I cut the pieces:   

Components for the 3 different blocks    

Before I knew it, we had pieced together all of the blocks!

I decided to make the backing out of a large piece of Michael Miller Fairy Frost in a bright yellow,  and add a center section made from 4 more fat quarters from my bundle! I love my backing  piece , too!


I quilted long wavy lines, down the whole length of my quilt, using my walking foot.   
I actually set up a card table in front of my sewing table,  so that I could keep my quilt layed out flat,  in front of me , as I quilted along.   I used my 36 "  long  x 1 1/2" wide Omnigrid  ruler to mark off ( with pins) the column width , to keep my  wavy vertical lines within this 1 1/2" width.  My curves are very freestyle!   I wanted the distance between the curves to vary .  

** This is a huge step in my ' machine quilting' growth.    Up to now, I have done a lot of outline quilting, straight stitching,  and in- the- ditch quilting.   I will be using this wavy line machine quilting a lot!  It gives the right amount of quilting texture to my quilt.  And I love using my walking foot.  **

And yes,  I did have a few  "cat naps" along the way...
my quilty helper, Whiskers, insisted on taking her afternoon baths while I was machine quilting!

               I added some of the Riley Blake  Lazy Day teal hexagon fabric for my binding.
               (Machine sewn to the front, and then hand stitched to the back of the quilt.)

And here it is after a fresh wash and dry.... all bright and crinkly  and happy!

Irish Chain Twist Quilt         made by Susie's Sunroom

The back side -   You can see the wavy lines 

I am thrilled with it!

Isn't Melissa such a talented designer?!!  Guess what?   She has a new book out , called 

"Irish Chain Quilts: Contemporary Twists on a Classic Design "     {available here} 

It looks really awesome, and has 15 Irish Chain  patterns in it!

You can see all of our finished quilts in this Quilt- A- Long at   Parade of Quilts
                      on Melissa's blog today..... Happy Quilting

                                                                                   *  Flickr group

Instagram at   #irishchaintwistqal

                                               

I'm off to my sewing room!

Linking up at:   Sew Cute Tuesday @  Blossom Heart Quilts

"I think I see a thread , Mom !"