Happy St. Pat’s Day!

What better quilt to display on St. Paddy’s Day than a “Simple Irish Chain!” Click here to see my original blog post about the making of this quilt. And click here to see a color reversal of the same project.

If you are interested in making a “Simple Irish Chain” table topper and would like some green and cream batik fabric for the project, leave a comment below. In your comment state if you prepare special recipes for your family on St. Patrick’s Day. (I think I’ll make Irish Stew. And isn’t there an Irish Soda Bread that would be a delicious accompaniment?) The drawing for free fabric will be on March 20th, National Quilting Day.

Leprechaun Sighting

Look what I saw on display at Food Lion today. Lucky Leprechaun and his enticing array of sweets decorated with white and Irish green! And speaking of green, I’d like to remind you of a table quilt I stitched a few years ago. Click here to read my tutorial blog post.

Karla, who blogs at mysewfulretirement.com, made the 23″ square Single Irish Chain quilt this past weekend. While I used scrappy green squares for my topper, she used one Island Batik Spring Fling blue/green along with a cream batik, a text print with French words. She writes, “I loved how the topper turned out. Your instructions were clear and fantastic. Thank you for sharing the tutorial.”

If you’d like to make a table topper using just one green/blue fabric as Karla did, you can, of course, strip piece the Nine Patches. Cut strips 2″ x Width of Fabric (WOF). Make two types of strip sets:  A- Print, White, Print; B- White, Print, White. Press seams toward the Print fabric and cross-cut in 2″ increments. Sew the Nine Patches together in rows, A, B, A. Click here to find instructions for assembling the quilt top.

Green and white are perfect colors for St. Paddy’s Day, but I wonder what other color combinations entice you. Leave a comment below with your suggestions.

“Single Irish Chain”

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

As detailed in my previous blog post, I visited with the Hayfield Country Quilters on March 5. If I’m not mistaken, Mary Ellen was in charge of setting up the refreshment table. The spice-nut cake was certainly delicious, but my eyes feasted on the “Single Irish Chain” table covering. The quiltmaker used just two fabrics: a fresh, soft green tone-on-tone and solid cream.

Nothing says “spring” like green! I used the guild’s table covering as inspiration for my own “Single Irish Chain” table quilt, though mine is just a small 23″ square centerpiece. To change things up a bit, I decided to use many green tonals and prints instead of just one green fabric.

I found 6 or 8 lime green fat quarters or fat eighths in my stash. I cut one or two 2″ strips from each and strip-pieced them with 2″ white strips, pressing the seam allowances toward the green fabrics.

Then I cut the strip sets in 2″ increments.

I generally strip-piece Nine Patches for all three rows: 1 – green, white, green; 2 – white, green, white; 3 – green, white, green. But this time I decided to strip piece for “twosies,” hoping for a greater variety of green prints in the Nine Patches.

I sewed three rows of “twosies” together. An extra green square was sewn to the fourth “twosie” to make a column on the far right.

  

Next, I sewed the column to the 3 sets of “twosies.” This picture shows the pressing directions of the seam allowances.

In a little over an hour, I made 13 Nine Patches which measured 5″ square, unfinished. From the white fabric, I cut twelve 5″ squares to alternate with the Nine Patches in a 5 x 5 grid.

I assembled the blocks in 5 rows, pressing seams toward the 5″ white squares, then joined the rows together. I pressed the seams to one side after adding each row. Deciding on a cross-hatch quilting design, I marked through the white squares with a water soluble blue marker and used chalk-o-liner to mark through the green squares.

I recommend using a thin, predominantly cotton batting for a small project like this. I pin basted with long, quilting pins. Using white thread on my Pfaff sewing machine (with a built-in walking foot), I quilted the table topper easily by following the marked lines. I stabilized the project by first quilting diagonal lines through the green squares marked with chalk. Then I filled in the lines drawn with blue marker.

I love the simplicity of this time-honored quilting design; it perfectly compliments the diagonal chains of green squares.

Amended March 2016:  Using the same measurements for the small and large squares, I made another Green and White table topper. But this time I used only two fabrics and reversed the colors (“figure ground reversal”). Both quilts were quilted with white thread in a diagonal grid design.

Amended March 2017:  Blog reader, Karla, strip-pieced her table topper from two batik fabrics. Click here to read more.