I love the look of an Irish Chain quilt which is probably obvious given that I’ve made a few.
When I first started quilting, I liked to play it safe, and I’ve never mastered the art of being particularly brave with colour. As I’ve said before, my mother has amazing colour sense, but I’m not so good, tending to make my quilts from one or two colour blocks, supplementing the pattern with white. I’d like to say that I’ve become more adventurous over the years, but that would be a lie.
Nevertheless, there is something to be said for a single colour block quilt. The results can be very dramatic, and there is such a range of fabric for each colour that I don’t feel the quilts are lacking in any way. Also, I tend to end up with a lot of one colour of fabric (usually blue), and making a single colour quilt can help you get rid of some of those odds and ends.
I like to name my quilts, usually because they are being made for someone in particular. I very rarely make a quilt without having a destination for it in mind, and I very rarely keep them. Of all the quilts I’ve made, I have kept only one, and that is because my mother had cut all the fabric for me.
Daisy Chain
The first Irish Chain quilt I made was Daisy Chain and I made it for one of my very best friends who had moved to America.
I loved the autumn colours in this quilt, and it was especially nice in the sunshine. It was the first quilt I had made from a pattern, without any help from my mother (although she did provide some fabric). The pattern called for just yellows, oranges and browns, but we decided that it would be nice to throw some reds and greens in too and I think we made the right call. It is by far the most colourful chain quilt I’ve ever made.
And there were over 800 squares in the border. Oooft.
Round and Round the Garden
I made this quilt for one of my surrogate children (I have a few children that I consider family, even if they actually are not). I love the colour green, so this quilt was a pleasure to make. It also allowed me to further practice my quilting skill, and rather than just quilting in the ditch, I used the quilting as a decorative feature. For this, I purchased a quilting hoop, a large wooden frame used to hold your fabric taut.
One of the fabrics I used was a satin, and it was fraying rather badly. Despite cutting larger squares of this fabric, after sewing the quilt together, little holes appeared. Rather than attempting to sew the holes shut, I decided to embrace the theme of the quilt and patched the holes by adding little bees. I loved them.
Ever Decreasing Squares
I made this quilt for the brother of the previous quilt beneficiary. Again, it is a single colour quilt, and again it gave me the opportunity to use quilting as a decorative feature.
I loved the different shades in this quilt, particularly the teal and turquoise squares. I really like blue/green shades.
Under a Starry Night Sky
Another blue quilt, very similar to the one above. I clearly had a lot of blue. This quilt was a very late wedding present for one of my best friends and in all honesty, I should have picked a different colour palette for them. Nevertheless, they seemed very pleased with their gift, and I appreciated the chance to practice my quilting skills…again.
Flowers in the Garden
I made this for a lovely friend who had been neighbour, friend, confidant and comfort. She was a lover of the colour red, so I definitely picked the right colour for this recipient. I felt that I pushed myself slightly with the quilting for this quilt. Previously, my quilting had been quite formulaic, whereas with this quilt, the quilting was more random.
