The Irish Chain in me.... went to Lancaster!

I spent St. Patrick's Day at the AQS Quilt Show in Lancaster PA - and I wore a deelibopper headband with little sparkly shamrocks and feathers.  Almost everyone who looked at me smiled - it was a wonderful day!
Beautiful quilts on display, marvelous vendors with lovely new tools, books and fabrics.  I also ran into some old friends that I hadn't seen in a long time, and met some new friends that I hope to meet again.



a sampling of the  AQS wallhanging quilts
 - every one deserved a prize!!!

  and an overview of the first floor - the show altogether is about 6 TIMES this size... for starters!

AQS Lancaster - 1/4th of first floor exhibit hall....

The talents of machine quilters continues to amaze me.... watch for these winners in future magazines!  Of course, pictures never do them justice - you really need to see these in person to fully appreciate the talent and skill involved!

One of the tools I brought home is a finger guard for my rotary ruler.... no more finger cutting for me!  It goes onto the ruler with little suction cups and is easy to move to all kinds of rulers.  I'll have to share that in a future post, because now, I have to move on to a little quilting!

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The Block of the Month for QCE this month is Irish Chain.  This is a simple pattern that alternates two blocks.  I like to make the simplest one first to give myself a sense of accomplishment, then I proceed to the more difficult block.  Here is the simple one:

Irish Chain Block 1

This has a 6 1/2" CENTER square surrounded by 2 1/2" x 6 1/2" strips and 2 1/2" squares.  It finishes to a 10" block; 10 1/2" unfinished.
This quilt has 12 of these blocks.

First, sew a square to each end of 2 of the strips, then sew the remaining two strips to opposite sides of the large center square.  Press the seams toward the green corner squares on the outside pieces, and toward the center of the block on the center square unit.  Then sew the three sections together to complete the block.

The second block is a bit more complicated, being a 5x5 layout of 2 1/2" squares there are 13 of these in the quilt:


Irish Chain Block 2

This block will have 9 of the dark squares, 12 of the medium and 4 of the light (25 total).

I lay out the squares to the left of my sewing machine so I keep the pieces in order as I sew.  I pick up the pieces in the second column from the left and turn them over like the pages of a book and lay them on the pieces of the first column, then turn the pieces in the fourth column and lay them on the pieces of the third colum.  Then I pin them... pick them up in order and sew them, column by column, chain piecing so there is a continuous bit of thread holding them in their proper order.  when I get to the bottom of one column, I insert a little scrap of a bright color to remind me that I've reached the bottom of a column, then proceed to sew the next column.  When I've finished the first/second and third/fourth columns, I join the two columns together (leaving the little joining threads intact) then open that set of rows, lay this out on the table where it all started to make sure I have the orientation correct, and join the pieces of column 5 to the rest of the rows.

NOW it's time to press!  The top, middle and bottom rows are pressed in one direction, and the other two rows are pressed in the opposite direction.  Now it is easy to match up those rows and complete the block!

The block should look like this from the wrong side when finished:

wrong side of Irish Chain Block 2 showing pressing

These blocks can then be assembled to make a quilt that will be 56" square with the addition of a 3" border:


Irish Chain Quilt


This is an excellent design for small redwork (or greenwork) patches and works up very quickly.  The size is a generous proportion for a baby quilt or a comfy lap quilt for that tall guy in your life!

Thea's Star - QCE BOM Tutorial

Here is the tutuorial I promised you for this month's block - named after myself, since I couldn't find anything exactly like it in any of my reference books.  This is a 12" finished size block - a basic 9 patch!
(This is intended to be a baby/child quilt for a special new arrival.)

This easy 9 patch block will use the ‘Fast Flying Geese’ method found on page 76 of Georgia Bonesteel’s EASY DOES IT QUILTS.  Or the online version that was distributed last year: 

http://www.patchpieces.com/files/flyinggeese.pdf

Or this more detailed tutorial:

 http://piecefulkwilter.blogspot.com/2010/02/no-waste-flying-geese-tutorial.html

Every quilter has favorite methods for making simple pieced units. Flying Geese are also known as FG’s. This block will use 4” x 2” finished size FG units, strip piecing, and five plain 4 ½” squares.

Each block kit contains: Two strips of pink and a strip of red for the strippy units, Four small green squares and a large red square for the flying geese, and five 4 1/2” squares, (1 green & 4 pink)

Sort the pieces – set the 4 ½” sqs aside for now.

Check your ¼” seam before starting.  (Remember - the lines on an index card are 1/4" apart.)


Sew the pink strips on either side of the red strip – press the pink toward the red. This should measure 4 ½” x 10”. Cut this into FOUR 2 ½”.sections and set them aside.

Now, make the FG (Flying Geese) units.  You can use whichever method you prefer - the kit uses the method referenced in the links above.  If you need it, here are my step-by-step pics...

Line up two of the small squares on opposite corners of the lager square:

draw a light pencil line across small squares corner to corner, sew 1/4" away from BOTH SIDES of this line - then cut on the line.

Press toward the 'dark' or larger triangles (formerly the square)

 Now you will have pieces that look like this:

Add the other two squares, also with lines drawn on the diagonal, and sew on both sides of those lines.  I recommend using a scrap 'leader' so the points don't get jammed into the needle hole and cause a nasty ole' thread nest..... which is what happended to me just after I snapped this picture!

 chain piece both sections at once - or more if you are making a lot of blocks at a time.

 Then cut these apart on the line and press the seam allowance in the opposite direction.

 At this point, you might want to check the size -- mine sometimes stretch a bit and need a little trim.  Yours might, too!

Now join the geese to the strip pieced section to make the arrows.

I recommend using a skewer to guide the seam intersection directly under the needle so you get a nice sharp point on that goosey beak!

 
Now you are ready to join the 9 pieces together into the block.
Join the sections together to make the block:

wrong side, showing seam alignment

wrong side, showing seam alignment

Notice seams going in opposing directions?

Join seams with points of geese facing up so you can see the points as you sew.  Again, use the skewer to guide the seam intersection directly under the needle.

Here's what it would look like done with 12 blocks, straight set:

and here's the same block set on point this time with 13 blocks:

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Drop a note and let me know how you like this block / quilt.

All quilts designed inEQ7 by Thea McCurry (c) 2011