Scrappy Irish Chain

In the garden

This quilt was started a few years ago when I was looking for a quick way to put together a scrap quilt. In true scrap quilt fashion, the fabrics here are leftovers from different projects. I started with fabrics that came from a couple jellyrolls I had used on other projects and then moved on to flour sack remnants. There is also a fair number of pieces from mom's collection and a few from the scrap bags that my sisters gave me. There's even a couple squares that came from my aunt Ellen. With so many choices of fabrics to include, I decided to work with two unifying themes. The first is that most of the prints have bold colors and the second is that 99% of the prints have flowers in their pattern. Those themes are carried though in the pieced top, the backing, and the binding.

December 2018, a few blocks completed

I thought this was going to be a relatively quick top to piece, but after a gung-ho start in 2016 I got distracted. Over the next three years, I pulled out the pieces for a couple weekend sewing sessions, but found myself working on other projects most of the time.
Last year, I decided that I wanted to finish the quilt. At the November or December meeting of Loose Ends, my friend Nancy was looking for a project and she ended up cutting quite a few colored 2 1/2" by 2 1/2" squares so that I could finish the individual blocks. Thank you, Nancy, that motivated me to focus on this project again. Over winter break, I moved the dining room furniture and spread out the blocks on the dining room floor for a couple days. While a few podcasts and movies played in the background, I happily pieced the rest of the blocks and then arranged and sewed those together. By the end of winter break, when it was time to go back to work, I had the top sewn together.

One row at a time

January 2019

Pieced with the Pfaff 131

January, finished piecing

In February, I took the top over to mom's house. For the backing, we just pieced together an assortment of light blue/green florals from mom's stash. Several fabrics were used up completely here, but I don't think you'd notice any decrease in the overall collection. Basting is easier at mom's because she has room to lay out a large quilt and she has carpeting. Pinning would cause unnecessary damage to my wood floors.

Pressing before basting

View of back

Ready for basting

For the quilting, I set up my Bernina 1130 with the walking foot on the dining room table. I needed the extra workspace to lay out the quilt.

My assistant tends to slow down progress

Sneaking in a catnap before we continue working

Remaining bold color fabrics were pieced together for the binding.

Trimming

Binding ready to be finished by hand

Binding with thread Kula gave me on my 40th birthday

The binding was finished on Oct 13 and then I washed and dried the quilt overnight.

Finished size about 90" side square

Quilting in two directions

Quilting visible on back

Friends and family contributed materials and time to the making of this quilt. It's a scrap quilt, a fabric scrapbook full of memories.