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 !"

Giveaway Winner

The Simply Striped Pillow Blog Hop Winner

I put Mr. Random Number Generator to work last night, and he picked out:

MokkiMarch 4, 2015 at 5:31 AM       Comment #39

My fabric stash is medium sized but very varied. Too varied to co-ordinate, I almost always have to buy more fabric for each project.

ReplyDelete

I have sent out your giveaway goodies,  Mokki !  Congratulations!!

I had fun reading  all of the stash comments, and here are some fun comments:

• I think my stash is in the medium range...of course that doesn't stop me from adding to it, lol. 

• I have a --shh-- large stash. One of my friends said it's like paint for a painter, you need a lot of choices. :-) Somehow, I find I still have to make trips to the LQS or online stores, drat, you know how much I hate that...haha. 

• Small in comparison to a fabric store. Ha! 

• I think my stash is small.   My husband thinks it's huge!

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Another week on the Irish Chain Twist Quilt-A-Long

I am having so much fun doing my weekly "homework" on my first Irish Chain quilt.

Melissa, at Happy Quilting,  has it all divided up into weekly work units. This is making the process of creating the blocks very enjoyable.

This week we worked on assembling the Appliqued Chain Block.

These orange peels will be machine appliqued onto the block next week.

 I was totally prepared for this fusible applique' step, after working on applique' all last year when Amanda, The Patchsmith, and I made our Patchque' blocks!

Spreading out some of the blocks.... to get a feel of what my quilt will look like!

Of course, I wouldn't be as far along, if I didn't have my faithful little helper working on the job right beside me!

Whiskers helped me lay out my Modern Patchwork Blocks from last week.

"Oops... wait a second while I get this little thread off of my face...."

' Yes, these  will be "nappable" '  upon the quilt's completion

I am adding my  assembled blocks to the Happy Quilting Quilt-A-Long Flickr group and  posting  it on social media with using #irishchaintwistqal.  Hop on over to see all of the gorgeous fabrics!!

I can hardly wait for Thursday to come, for the next set of instructions in our Quilt-A-Long!
Don't you love it when you are working on a project that you just can't wait to work on!!

I'm off to my sewing room!

Linking up at:     Irish Chain Twist QAL @ Happy Quilting

A Start and a Finish

A Start and a Finish

Don't you just love those days where you get a lot accomplished in sewing and finishing up work !!

My Start:

I actually began to put together the first blocks in my  Irish Chain Twist Quilt-A-Long quilt.

Sewing along happily with Melissa at Happy Quilting

                                                       
I am making a lap size quilt.  The size will be 60" x 70 ".  

The quilt layouts in various sizes   by Happy Quilting

My  fabrics:

They are :  A FQ Bundle  of  This 'N That  by Nancy Halvorsen  by Benartex 

(  am so glad that I waited for "THE right project"  to come along, to use this lovely gift bundle!)

For the backing-  I will use 4 other fq left from the bundle, plus some Lazy Day (by Riley Blake) floral fabric, and some yellow Michael Miller stash fabrics. It will pieced ... for a fun look.

This ' N That FQ Bundle  plus  some Riley Blake Lazy Day flowers

I was happy as a clam,  after cutting out all of the blocks for a lap size quilt!  

Melissa gives wonderful tutorials and charts , for figuring out the block pieces.  Thank, Melissa!


Last week, we began to make the X Improvisational block units.

I am in love with these aqua fabrics!

84 blocks , saying to me.... "Well here I am!  Ready for you to sew !"  

And then, this week...  after some trimming , and being "wonky"  cut on purpose...

Now they are 21 Improvisational X Blocks

Some blocks are wonkier than others!  All of them make me happy!

I am so glad that Melissa showed a picture of the 5 1/2 "  Bloc-Loc ruler that she used to trim her X blocks.  I realized that I had one , too, and that made the trimming go so smoothly. 

Now, I have a cold and wintery Saturday to sew, and have to wait until next Thursday to work on the Twists on Tradition blocks!  


My finish:

My "Pink for February"  Red Letter Day Mini quilt  #177
               Design by Camille Roskelley  of Thimbleblossoms

Meet block #4  

"Tinkled Pink"       Red Letter Day mini  15 " x 15 "  by Susie's Sunroom

In case you were wondering.... 
Yes, I did have to use my seam ripper AGAIN!  
But only for turning around two HST's this time.  I must be HST dyslexic.

I'm off to my sewing room!

I am linking up at:  Can I Get A Whoop Whoop! @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict  and
                             Fabric Frenzy Friday @ Fort Worth Fabric Studio and
                             Irish Chain Twist QAL @ Happy Quilting  and
                              Sew Cute Tuesday @ Blossom Heart Quilting