I finally finished this Rainbow Irish Chain quilt. I took a photo of Melissa Corry’s quilt at her trunk show at the retreat I attended in January 2015. I totally fell in love with it and decided I had to make one of my own. She described how she had made it all as a Leaders & Enders quilt, which means that after every set of chain stitching you do on a project, you send through something as L&E. You just keep piling up the small pieces, then start sending them through as bigger pieces until finally you are ready to piece together the blocks into rows. So I worked on it for 1 1/2 years while making other projects. It is made entirely of 2 1/2″ squares. Melissa used some longer strips on the low volume sections but I opted to just make it all squares. I discovered several months into the project that she had a tutorial on her website, but as I had been working from the photo, I just kept on going from the photo. I pieced the back with a rainbow strip down the middle and the square fabric is Essential Lights by Marsha McCloskey for Clothworks. The binding is a scrappy black binding of many different black prints. I cannot tell you how much in love I am with this quilt! It is going to be the new quilt on the guest room bed where I can see it across the hall every morning when I leave my room!
Wild Goose Chase 2017
Remember that quilt retreat I attended in January of 2016? Well, I’m still finishing up projects from that and this is one of them. I wanted to learn wool applique techniques so I took this class using the “Faded Blooms” pattern from Quail Valley Quilts, taught by the designer, Krisanne Watkins. During the class we learned about good techniques and traced and cut out most of the wool design in the center and pressed some of it on the tan piece. I started the applique when I got home and finished up the top in pretty good time, then left the border piecing until the end of the year. Finished that up and spent most of my handwork time this year doing all the quilting on it. I did a really tight stipple on the tan and then quilted in the ditch around the checkerboard section and along the long side of each of the flying geese to make them pop. I wanted the focus to be the center so I didn’t do a quilted pattern on the pieced borders. Because of so much handwork with the applique and quilting, this project took a really long time. Note to my sons: this doesn’t go to the thrift shop when I die!! 🙂 It’s an heirloom for someone who might like it. Today it went on the top of my Dad’s piano but won’t stay there forever as the sun will bleach it. But it looks great there for now.
It was machine quilted at Thimbles & Threads in Draper with tan thread in a digital box style with curved corners that softened all the squares but stayed in the theme. I pieced the back with leftover strips to break up the large backing piece and give it visual interest. 