Today’s National Sewing Month Project is brought to you by Melissa Corry from Happy Quilting.
I am so excited to be visiting Fave Quilts today. My name is Melissa Corry and I regularly blog at Happy Quilting. I have a love for Irish Chain Quilts, which lead me to writting my new book, Irish Chain Quilts, Contemporary Twists on a Classic Designs (which there will be a giveaway for at the end of this post 😉 Irish Chain Quilts are a classic design that have been around since Colonial Times. They are known for their wonderful movement, ease of piecing, and beautiful color collaboration. When most people think of an Irish Chain, they think of Single, Double, or Triple. So today, I am going to share with you a tutorial for this amazing Triple Irish Chain quilt, but of course, it has a twist. This is a Super Scrappy version of the Triple Irish Chain.
This is such a fun quilt to make!!! You are going to love it!!!! This is a great scrap buster and will also work fabulous as a Leader and Ender project. So, let’s get going!!!
To Start – You will need:
Lots of Scraps!!!
I will be using scraps in
Yellow, Navy (or dark blue), Medium Grey, and Low Volume (white on white prints)
of course, you can choose any color combo you like, just pick your favorite 3 colors together
and a background color. I will continue to refer to the colors I have chosen throughout
the tutorial, so just make a mental note of what colors you want where in your block.
STEP 1 – CUTTING
To make 1 block, from your scrap piles cut the following number of 2 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ squares from the designated colors.
36 – Low Volume squares
36 – Medium Grey squares
28 – Navy Blue squares
21 – Yellow squares
Honestly, I think cutting took longer than piecing the whole block. There really is no speedy way to cut through your scraps, just stick to it and know that you are busting those scraps 😉
STEP 2 – PIECING THE CORNER BLOCKS
Layout 4 Yellow squares, 6 Grey squares, 4 Navy squares, and 2 White squares as shown below.
Sew the squares into rows. To do this, I like to align the first and second squares in the row with right sides together and sew a 1/4″ seam along the edge, then repeat that for the third and fourth squares in the row. That gives you 2 pairs. Now align the 2 pairs with right sides together and sew a 1/4″ seam along the edge to make a row. Repeat for all 4 rows (**chain stitching here saves time 😉
Press the first and third row to the left and the second and fourth row to the right. This will allow your rows to nest together and gives you nice crisp points 🙂
Now you are ready to sew the rows into a Corner Block. Place the first row onto the second with right sides together. Align and pin each of the nested seams. Sew a 1/4″ seam along the pinned edge. Repeat for the third and fourth row.
Now place the first and second paired rows onto the third and fourth paired rows with right sides together. Align and pin each of the nested seams. Sew a 1/4″ seam along the pinned edge.
Press the seams in your Corner Block open.
Repeat the steps above to make 4 blocks total. **Note – If you want to speed it up a bit and aren’t worried about where each print ends up, you can chain stitch each of the steps above. Row 1 and 4 are the same and Row 2 and Row 3 are the same. So you can simply chain stitch 8 Yellow/Grey square pairs, 8 Blue/White square pairs, 8 Grey/Yellow pairs, and 8 Grey/Blue pairs. This speeds up the pairs of 2 process and you are ready to start making rows, which you can layout and chain stitch once again 🙂
STEP 3 – PIECING THE SIDE BLOCKS
Layout 7 White squares, 3 Navy squares, and 2 Gray squares as shown below.
Sew the squares into rows. To do this, I like to align the first and second squares in the row with right sides together and sew a 1/4″ seam along the edge. That gives you a pair. Now align the third square in the row with the pair with right sides together and sew a 1/4″ seam along the edge to make a row. Repeat for all 4 rows (**chain stitching here saves time 😉
Press the first and third row to the left and the second and fourth row to the right. Once again, This will allow your rows to nest together and gives you nice crisp points, and we all love crisp points 🙂
Now you are ready to sew the rows into a Side Block. Place the first row onto the second with right sides together. Align and pin each of the nested seams. Sew a 1/4″ seam along the pinned edge. Repeat for the third and fourth row.
Now place the first and second paired rows onto the third and fourth paired rows with right sides together. Align and pin each of the nested seams. Sew a 1/4″ seam along the pinned edge.
Press the seams in your Side Block open.
Repeat the steps above to make 4 blocks total. **Note – Once again, you can speed things up by chain stitch each of the steps above. You can simply chain stitch 8 White/White pairs, 4 Blue/White pairs, and 4 Grey/ Blue pairs. Then you can chain stitch the last square in each block onto the pairs to finish making your rows.
STEP 4 – PIECING THE CENTER BLOCK
Layout 5 Yellow squares, and 4 Grey squares as shown below.
Sew the squares into rows. This is just like the last block. Align the first and second squares in the row with right sides together and sew a 1/4″ seam along the edge. That gives you a pair. Now align the third square in the row with the pair with right sides together and sew a 1/4″ seam along the edge to make a row. Repeat for all 3 rows.
Press the first and third row to the left and the second row to the right. Once again, nesting is the goal here 🙂
Now you are ready to sew the rows into a Center Block. Place the first row onto the second with right sides together. Align and pin each of the nested seams. Sew a 1/4″ seam along the pinned edge. Then repeat to add the third row to the now pieced first and second row.
Press the seams in your Center Block open. You only need one of these Center Blocks so you are ready to move on.
STEP 5 – PIECING THE SUPER SCRAPPY TRIPLE IRISH CHAIN BLOCK
With all of your small unit blocks made you are ready to make a Big Block!!! Layout your 4 Corner Blocks, 4 Side Blocks, and 1 Center block as shown below.
Now it is just like before only with more seams 😉 You will sew the blocks into rows. So Align the first and second blocks in the row with right sides together and nest and pin each seam. (and yes, I pin each and every seam, this helps with those crisp points 🙂 Sew a 1/4″ seam along the pinned edge. Now align the third block in the row and the remainder of the row with right sides together and nest and pin each seam. Once again, sew a 1/4″ seam along the edge to make a finished row. Repeat for all 3 rows.
Press all of the seams open. This will allow the block to lie nice and flat. Almost done!!!
Now, you just have to sew the three rows together. Place the first row onto the second with right sides together. Align and pin each of the nested seams. Sew a 1/4″ seam along the pinned edge. Then repeat to add the third row to the now pieced first and second row.
Press the two seams open.
And now stand back and enjoy your beautiful Super Scrappy Triple irish Chain Block!!!! Isn’t it just so fun!!! This block should measure appx. 22 1/2″ x 22 1/2″. It will finish at 22″ x 22″ when put in the quilt 😉 These blocks are super fun to make and a little addicting 😉
Making The Quilt Top 🙂
Once, you have your blocks made, you can put them all into a quilt top. Repeat the above block making process to make a total number of blocks for your determined quilt size, see below.
4 blocks would be a 2 x 2 layout and would measure 44″ x 44″, perfect for a baby quilt
12 blocks would be a 3 x 4 layout and would measure 66″ x 88″, for a large lap quilt
16 blocks would be a 4 x 4 layout and would measure 88″ x 88″, fit for a queen 🙂
Whatever size you make, lay the blocks into rows as described above. Then pin and sew the Blocks into rows. You will want to pin each seam to ensure everything lines up. Press the seams open, or if you don’t like the seams open, press the seams in opposite directions from row to row. Then pin and sew the rows together, finishing the quilt top. Once again, pinning each seam will help align everything so you get lots of pretty squares lined up. Press the seams open.
Finishing the Quilt 🙂
Then with your quilt top done, you are ready to Baste It, Quilt It, and Bind It. I know, a lot of work in one little sentence. If you are unsure on how to do this, you can see my Quiltmaking Basics video tutorials that go over these three steps in detail 😉
Then just sit back and enjoy snuggling in your new quilt 😉 I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial for the Super Scrappy Triple Irish Chain!!! If you make your own, I would love to see it!!! You can add it to my Flickr group here or email me a picture at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com 😉
Oh, and one last note, if you liked the Super Scrappy Triple Irish Chain, you might also love the Super Scrappy Single Irish Chain!!! You can find a free step by step tutorial for it at my blog, as well as on Fave Quilts 😉 Ya, I so love Irish Chain Quilts 😉
Thank you so much to Fave Quilts for having me hear today. Wishing you all many Happy Quilting Days!!!!
And now, I am gonna pass it back to the awesome gals at Fave Quilts for the Giveaway!!! Let’s see if you happen to have the Luck of the Irish and score a copy of Irish Chain Quilts and other great stuff!!!
When “auditioning” placement of your blocks, where do you lay them out? Floor? Bed? Table? Let us know…
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Enter daily for your chance to win the National Sewing Month 2015 Grand Prize Giveaway.
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