Irish Chain Lessons

Today, I finally finished my Irish Chain quilt top. I started the top last spring when I wanted to do some sewing but didn't know what I wanted to do. I had this jelly roll I had bought on eBay that was tonal batiks. The seller called in forest meadow.  The only problem was this seller made up their jelly rolls from yardage and they only put 20 strips in a roll. They also didn't have another one. When I bought these about 6 years ago I didn't really know much about jelly rolls and how to use them. I thought I wanted to do some Jelly Roll Races and didn't realize I needed 40 strips. So I had this really pretty half a jelly roll that I didn't know what to do with.

I knew I could do something with strip sets. So I go to thinking and decided I could do and Irish chain. I bought some white fabric and went to work. I think it turned out rather pretty.

It is also the first quilt I have done on point. I bought Fons and Porter's side setting ruler for making the side triangles and I feel it was well worth the money. Tatianna also made an Irish Chain as well as a Trip Around the World Quilt using it. It makes things so much easier.

The title of this blog is Irish Chain Lessons. So I will get on to the lessons I learned doing this quilt.

One-check the size of your pre-cuts. I took for granted that the strips were 2 1/2 inches. What I came to realize later was they were actually about 2 5/8 inches. That made my measurements off. So some of the little squares are not quite square.

Two-when squaring up your blocks, if you don't do it all at once mark them with a pin or something. I had about 7 blocks that were not 6 1/2 inches when I was trying to assemble the quilt. It threw the alignment way off. While I don't mind the points not meeting exactly, but a 1/4 of an inch off is too much. I ended up ripping out a whole strip and squaring up the blocks

When using tone on tone fabric, take the time to stack the pieces with the right side up. Tatianna did this because she is a little OCD. But as I was sewing this quilt in the evenings, I was having trouble telling the right side from the wrong side on the white fabric. Fortunately it seems I figured them all out.

I didn't plan out this quilt very well, I basically made the nine patch blocks and then figured out how many setting blocks etc. I had 62 blocks so I went with a 6 x 10 setting and well it was a lot longer than it was wide. My son Killian is holding this quilt up. He isn't terribly small. I set it on my full size bed and it hung over the ends and barely covered to the sides. I should have done a 7 x 8 setting but that would have left me with 6 extra blocks.

Am I going to tear it out? Nope. I may add some borders and make it a full size or I may just finish it as is. It will be way long for a twin size bed but I bet it will make a great snuggle quilt for a young couple or maybe I will keep it for myself for cold winter evenings. Tatianna's finished with a 7 x 11 setting and it doesn't seem nearly as bad.

So I learned a few things which I really like. It think each quilt should be a learning experience. I will probably make another one in a year or two. I do like how it looks but I have so many quilts that I want to do that I am going to move on and come back to it.

One thing I am proud of is that I resisted starting another quilt for me before finishing this top. I am trying to decide whether I am going to do my star quilt next or do a prairie flower quilt. Probably the star since I am using pre-cuts from Missouri Star Quilt Company. Plus Tatianna has hers all planned out and most of the fabric cut. It is fun when we take the same idea and make it our own.

What are you working on this week? Have learned anything new?