Scrappy Irish Chain

I love Irish Chain quilts - they come in all sorts of colours and the diagonal chains can be single, double or triple.
Simple single Irish Chain baby quilt

Triple Irish Chain Quilt Top


A year or so ago, I started sewing small 1.5" squares together into these blocks for a double Irish Chain quilt. The main diagonal chain here are scraps of yellow. I didn't have enough in my scraps already cut, so I happily cut into some fat quarters and larger scraps to get what I needed.
Block A
 The first block is all background (white in this case) with four scrappy corners. You will need four 1.5" scrappy squares, one 3.5" square white, and four 1.5"x3.5" rectangles.
Block B
The second block is made up of twenty five 1.5" squares. Four white squares, Nine yellow (or other dominate colour to make the main chain) and twelve assorted scrappy squares.

Building a quilt
There are just two simple blocks to this quilt - keep making blocks until you have the size of quilt you want or you run out of scraps. I did this project as a leader & ender project (inspired by Bonnie K. Hunter of Quiltville.com)

Complete with borders
 The border is a piece I received from a friend and it is a great match for the scrappy blocks. This one finishes up at about 53"x63", just perfect for a summer lap quilt!
And finished with beautiful sunflower quilting
 My long arm quilter Marie from Blueberry Hill Quilts found the perfect sunflower quilting pattern to finish it off.
Close up of the quilting
 Doesn't it look cozy?
Completely finished!
And it's even great as a piece of wall art (as most quilts are!)

--Ann


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