Scrappy Saturday ~ No Sew Today

 For those of you who have been asking and wondering,

this is the state of my progress on my 

Scrappy Irish Chain Quilt

When I  Last Updated Here

 I had just started machine piecing 12 Dresden Plates

 to applique to the center on my B Blocks. 

I have all of the fan blades done

but I can only get a few minutes here and there on my machine,

none of it the last few days.

My sewing machine has been covered.

Mr. Scrapatch has been working when he can on a home improvement project in our living and dining room that has the furniture moved and lots of stuff in boxes. Our modest home is almost 125 years old and he is covering the very worn and warped oak boards on the floor with the new cushioned laminate flooring that we have in bedrooms. Somedays my sewing machine is boxed in by the other furniture.  My computer table is also a storage area sometimes, so my online time is very limited.

I have been crocheting and I have started a new project.

More on that tomorrow.

May you and yours have a safe and happy weekend. 

Scrappy Saturday Sewing

My Scrappy Irish Chain Quilt has an addition to the plan.

I saw a completed top in the Coriander Quilts Facebook Group 

in lovely 30's fabrics that combined

 the Irish Chain Blocks with Dresden Plates 

and had to borrow the idea. 

A Dresden Plate bed quilt has long been on  my quilty list.

The combination of these two blocks was iressistable. 

Sew I am sewing Dresden Plate Blades today.

It has been a snowy day here and I have been cutting and sewing.

 Mr. Scrapatch has also been busy on a home improvement project in the living/dining room, so I have had to do my cutting on my kitchen table today while the snow piled up outside my door. In the end we had 11+" of heavy icy, wet stuff.

I am using up scrap strips so my blades ...

are cut from 5" by 2.5" rectangles. 

This is my planned layout.  

I will cut the center circles from the same green print as my outer chain. 

This does add much more cutting sewing to my work in process 

but the finished quilt will be sew wonderful!

I hope all of you are having a happy and safe weekend. 

Design Wall Monday ~ Scrappy Irish Chain

 

Design Wall Monday ~ On My Cutting Table

It has been a long, long time since I participated in this blog party 

Design Wall Monday @ Small Quits and Doll Quilts

This is the first block piecing I have done in over a year.

My vision has slowly declined and my hands are achy,

but I am enjoying being back in my happy sewing corner.

I decided the

Scrappy Irish Chain Scrap-Along @ Coriander Quilts

was a good way to regain my piecing skills before making a baby quilt

 for my grand-niece. 

Today was a two blocks sewn day and my seams and squares are looking better, 

so I am feeling good about my progress.

I now have all 12 of B Block completed and 3 of the 13 A Blocks needed.

I am not ready to roll down my temporary design wall yet.

Hopefully next Monday I will have a quilt top on my wall and ready to sew. 

Have a happy quilty week! 

Scrappy Saturday Sewing ~ More Scrappy Irish Chain

 

Today was a good day of scrappy sewing. 

All 12 of my Block Bs are done!

Yesterday and today I made good progress on my 

Scrappy Irish Chain Scrap Along @ Coriander Quilts

Although I love all the random scrappy quilts that I am seeing in the 

Coriander Quilts Group on FB

I decided to go with my third plan for the A Block Layout

 which I posted last week in this post: 

Second & Third Scrappy Thoughts.

I really like the controlled scrappy look for this quilt.

This is my first of revised Block A.

I will need to make 12 more. 

This block plays very nicely with the alternate Block B

I need to find and cut more blue and yellow 2.5" squares 

and add them to my project jars. 

I really have to sort my scraps as the only colors that will appear in this quilt are yellow, blue, green and white and a bit of brown.  No yellow with pretty little red flowers for this quilt. I need to save those scraps for another day.

Quilty Kitty Nutmeg is continuing to be very helpful with the making of this quilt.

I have been sewing in the morning, afternoon and even late at night before sleep.

It feels good to be in my happy quilty place again. 

May you have a happy quilty weekend! 

Stitch Sew & Show 2023 ~ Irish Chain Quilts and More

Today I am still piecing my blocks for my Scrappy Irish Chain Quilt

I first posted about this quilt along in the link below:

Scrappy Irish Chain Scrap Along @ Coriander Quilts

I am working on the 12 of Block B needed for the

Scrappy Irish Chain ~ Free Pattern by Jessie Fincham

 and I do not have much that is new to show, 

so I decided to blog more about Irish Chain Quilt patterns. 

I always like to learn the history behind a traditional quilt pattern.

Here is an interesting read on the 

History of the Irish Chain Pattern @ Womenfolk.com

It is also fun to explore the variations and different ways

 of making a particular quilt design. 

Here is a modern take on this pattern using 2.5" square pre-cuts:

Triple Treat Irish Chain @ Moda Bake Shop

Of course, scraps and squares cut form yardage can also be used for this pattern.

An alternate way of making this using a strip piecing technique may be found in the 

Triple Irish Chain @ Quilting Daily

I like the way the chain is made with smaller units.

If I were cutting yardage to make this quilt, I might follow this plan. 

I have made Irish Chain quilts, single and double and triple, several times.

Some of my quilts predate my blogging efforts so photos of them do not exist.

This is my favorite quilt that I have made that is based on the Irish Chain,

Misty Irish Morning Quilt

This was a mystery quilt in 2012.

This pattern by Jess Smith may be purchased at  Quilt Woman

In particular, I love the wide chain border that surround the center of this quilt.

It is all strip pieced and easy to sew. 

~~~~~~

Do you have a favorite Irish Chain Quilt or pattern or technique to make this traditional design?

I would love to see and hear about it. 

I was not thinking I would host the Wednesday Linky Party this year, 

but here it is today.

Please share whatever you are working on

 or an Irish Chain Quilt from the past.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Quilty Kitty Nutmeg Is Sew Helpful

Last night I  finished sewing all the strips for my Block Bs. 

For the first time in a long, long time, 

I was sitting at my machine when midnight arrived.

My days have been busy otherwise. 

Today Nutmeg was a helpful quilty kitty inspector.

Many times she left the comfort of her warm and comfy

  cutting table cat bed to check my work.

After I promised her I would use my seam ripper on any of my piecing 

that was not purrr-fect.

I pieced ... and yes I did use my seam ripper a few times.

The two strips on the right are purrr-fectly acceptable.

Time for our evening crochet time.

Nutmeg says, "Purrrrrrr!"

Fabric Stash ~ Fabric Treasures

 

Fabric Pansies! 

After some serious stash spelunking, 

I have uncovered buried treasures.

I cannot tell you when this fabric line was released.

This was one of my favorite Summer Breeze from Sentimental Studios.

In my early stash building days, I would buy a charm pack or layer cake or jelly roll of a new collection that I "had to have" and some yardage of my favorite focus print. What I bought was often determined by my fabric budget at the time. Layer cakes were under $40 when they first came out.

I have cut some of the layer cake.

I needed more yellow prints and dark blue prints ... 

... to add to my 

Scrappy Yellow/Blue/Green Irish Chain Quilt

I am still piecing Block B.

It is winter outside my window but these fabric flowers are 

brightening and warming my day.  

I know I have a few more pieces of Summer Breeze somewhere in my stash.

I am going to need to do some more digging into the past

to bring them to light before I sew Block A.

Happy Monday Sewing and Stitching and Stashing! 

Scrappy Saturday Sewing

 

My plan for Saturday is to stay warm and sew scrappy.

My quilty corner of the world is under the bitter polar vortex 

that is sweeping through the northeastern USA and eastern Canada. 

Temperatures here dipped to -14 degrees F ( -25C) 

with a wind chill to -40 degrees F.

We are all safe and snug in our little house.

These are the fabrics that I have cut for my blocks.

This is my layout for my Block B.

I need to make a total of 12 blocks for the 

Scrappy Irish Chain Scrap Along Quilt.

So I am chain piecing all of each size strip at a time.

I will be scrappy sewing into Sunday and all next week.

I hope you are having a happy and warm weekend.

Trusting the Process

 

The first Block B is done for my 

Scrappy Irish Chain Quilt

These are big 18.5" blocks unfinished. 

Your can see the lovely leafy details on my creamy white tone on tone background fabric in this photo. 

This free Scrappy Irish Chain pattern may be downloaded in the link below: 

Scrappy Irish Chain ~ Free Pattern by Jessie Fincham

I love the quilting design in Jessie's quilt.

NOTE:

If you are making this quilt, 

there are cutting errors in the original pattern.

Corey Yoder has posted important 

Corrections to the Cutting Instructions Here

Since the original free pattern is not hers, 

Corey cannot fix the errors in the pattern. 

Here are my first two blocks together.

As expected, the busy scrappyness of the Block A is calmed and tamed considerably by the juxtaposition of Block B with its restful white space.

The first block looked so chaotic that I was having

Second and Third Thoughts Here

Now I am thinking maybe not.

I decided to make this pattern after loving the very busy and scrappy sample quilt.

Maybe I should just trust the process.

I do love busy, scrappy quilts. 

I am also crocheting while I am thinking. 

The shawl that I am making for my daughter is nearing completion

and long enough to warm my lap as I stitch.

The kitties are enjoying having their kitty tree by the radiator in our living room. Nutmeg is in the gray hammock. Katniss is actually laying on a folded quilt on top of the radiator.  Cassian is not in the photo but he is on the furry blanket on bottom of the cat tree.  Maestro is curled up in a fuzzy cat bed on my bed, which her favorite place to sleep. All four cats have been sleeping on my bed most nights.  The kitties like to share body heat on cold winter nights.  Cassian has yet to be admitted to a kitty cuddle with the others, but he is now allowed to sleep on a quilted pillow at the head of the bed.  Trusting the process with the kitties means he may be allowed to curl up with the sister kitties someday. 

It is turning cold here and we are forecast to have

 -12 degrees F by Thursday night.

Brrrrrr! 

Second ~ and Third ~ Scrappy Thoughts

 This is my Second Thought.

I am thinking of limiting my palette and

 hoping to create a secondary design in the chain.

In this layout, I have only blue, yellow and white background colors in my squares.

I have taken out the green scraps and am limiting the green 

to the single fabric in the chain borders

My First Block for my Scrappy Irish Chain 

looks maybe a bit too busy even for my "all scraps are welcome" eyes.

My seam ripper has to find that lightest green square. 

Then this block may turn into a kitty quilt. 

This is my Third Thought. 

For this layout, I also pulled the white and used dark blue in the center and light blue to yellow for the center of the chains.

I would have to cut many more dark blue scraps.

Mr. Scrapatch has already added his thoughts while walking by my cutting table and said he likes the dark blue center in this layout. Mr. Scrapatch loves blue.

I am going to make one Block B and think some more.

Which layout would you choose?

Opinions always welcome.

:) 

Back to Sewing ~ Block 1

 

My first block is done for my

Scrappy Irish Chain Scrap Along Quilt

This scrappy goodness is being hosted by Corey Yoder.

This is Block A ~1 of 13

Here are her inctructions

Scrappy Irish Chain Scrap Along ~ Part 2 ~ Block Piecing

This is a very big and busy block made of 9 rows of 2.5" squares.

I need to make one of the Block B next so I can see how my fabrics and colors are working.  Right now I cannot see the pattern.  The large neutral background center in the alternate block is really needed as a place eyes to rest.

It was good to be back to sewing.  My lovely workhorse of a Janome MC6600p is getting old.  I have sewn so many seams with her that her tension mechanism is wearing out.  I have the tension set to the max to get an even stitch.  It is one of the reasons that I took a break from machine sewing. Buying a new machine is not an option for me now.  I need to find away to get my machine working.

Overall, I am pleased with my back-to-sewing efforts so far.

Looking forward to playing with the fabrics again tomorrow.

Happy Sewing!

Hope to get another block done tomorrow.