Another post in January! I am on a roll! An Irish Chain roll! I believe that I may have sewn quite a number of Irish Chain quilts over the years. In fact, I made a couple last year.
Many years ago I bought this book while I was in the US. I love this book. I love lots of books actually but this must be my favourite. In fact, when I was flicking through it to find the picture I was looking for I was drawn in and oohed and ahhed over all the quilts in it. Again.
I particularly liked this Irish Chain quilt so when I needed a gift for my brother when he married I made my own blue and cream version using homespun fabric. I started the quilt and then had to put it aside because I then made the bride's dress, 2 bridesmaid dresses, several vests, bow ties and cummerbunds for the wedding. After this event my new sister in law was annoyed with me because she hadn't received a gift for the wedding. These days my reaction to that would be vastly different but back then I was very much a people pleaser and I rushed to complete the quilt. Do you think I could find it?! After searching high and low I remembered that I'd stored it in a bin liner and therefore it must have been thrown out by mistake. So I started again!
The quilt was beautiful. I even hand quilted it!! It wasn't quite so beautiful when I next saw it casually thrown and scrunched up on their bedroom floor.
Ooh I went off on a tangent there! Back to my latest Irish Chain quilt! I finished sewing all my blocks and ended up with an extra and I couldn't work out why. You'd think that by now I'd know how to make this pattern wouldn't you?
So I spread them out on my design wall and used up all my blocks. But wait! It's not square! I have a preference for square quilts so what shall I do? On closer inspection those very pale lilac squares have to come out too. I guess I haven't finished all my blocks after all but it's certainly coming along. I'll have to decide if I want my blocks on point too but all that thinking is for another day.
My greyhound cross stitch is coming along too. Here it is with Minnie the greyhound. She makes it quite difficult to sew!
And not to be outdone, here it is with Wellington the greyhound.
Something was bugging me about this area. I eventually found the mistake where I hadn't crossed my stitch. I'd ask you to point it out but I'm too afraid you'd find quite a few of them so, in this case, ignorance is bliss.
