Triple Irish Chain, Part 1

[Music] I have always loved iris-chan quilts this is a double Irish tan quilt from my antique collection it's well worn and the batting is showing through in many spots but it probably kept a family cozy for years the patchwork quilt holds a prominent place in Ireland's impoverished history and the northern rural parts of the country quilts went well with the peat fires and providing warmth to families and their drafty stone thatched-roof cottages while Irish chained quilts were well-known in the villages of Ireland wendy gilbert is joining me today to share her wealth of knowledge on the triple Irish pain quilt welcome Wendy you're at least part Irish aren't you well actually all I'm half Irish and I love Irish chan quilts look at the triple Irish chain I found in my antique collection the quilter used 49 one and a half inch squares to make this block she used a pink bubblegum fabric in the centre and did a beautiful job of hand quilting in the solid background squares she finished it off with a Seminole border I copied that look in this scrap quilt this scrap quilt uses a lot of different fabrics some stripes small scale prints but it still has 49 squares in block' but we're going to use strips to make our blocks instead of these little squares you know once a stripper you never go back to squares we've been stripping together for a long time haven't we Wendy about 11 years oh my gosh well this one is great and I see that the quilt maker used a large professional quilting machine to finish that whole quilt great the back yeah back in the beautiful that is gorgeous the last grab quilt I have here with made by my good friend LuAnn she used different colors in her scrap quilt lot darker but a nice look to it when it's finished again the 49 squares make up the block she machine quilted her her block B and did it with a feather pattern looks great and a cable stitch on both outside borders makes it kind of finishes with off nice you know this is a perfect quote for using up your stash now do you have a stash Wendy you know me I'm not a big stash person well speaking of scraps patches appeared on the trousers of male peasants until very little the original material could be seen the poor people of Ireland would dig around in the rubbish cans of the rich seeking materials for their quilts well fortunately we could just buy all the fabric we want and we can make our quilts with planned fabrics this is a plan scrap quilt that Marty made she chose a really interesting background fabric and then pulled her colors from it for the chain they contrast really nicely they almost looked solid from a distance and I like the three lines of diagonal quilting that she did right through that teen as well the last quilt I brought today was made by Linda and she chose light airy sort of fabrics they look great together they sort of blend and give you that watercolor look al don't you think beautiful just beautiful quilts well join us and we'll get started on a plant three color triple iris Jain quilt do we need to throw salt over our shoulder just for good luck looks like you and Cynthia had a lot of luck el when you selected the fabrics for this quilt the dark medium fabric number one looks great running down the center of the quilt fabric number two the lighter shade frames this fabric number one and mix it really stand out the dark blue goes around the background fabric framing it and the three colors are repeated in the seminole border it's perfect well Wendy's Fred Diane had a different idea she placed a medium value in the background position and then she just changed the whole look of the quilt she used two different fabrics in her chain you can see that dark floral running through and then that medium the background on either side of it it just looks great well the best thing is is that you can change the look just with value placement on this one I used the lightest piece of fabric running through the chain then medium on both sides and framed those two pieces with that dark green and ooh I just love that large-scale floral print well now Amy did another look she selected a large-scale dark for the background and then in her chained her lightest medium is the one that's running through and making the X and then on either side she's got darker pieces and they all wreaths solid from a distance so they just blend right in with that floral print well this is the block that we're making this is block a right here with all of these different pieces and you do good work Wendy thank you all those pieces match perfectly now when you look at this the X going right through there is fabric one and then on either side of fabric one is fabric to both sides fabric two this is fabric three right here and then you've got that background piece right beside it now what size are the strip's two and a quarter inches are right I can cut two and a quarter inch strips I have a couple of pieces stacked up all ready to go and this is the torn edge this was torn right from the bolt Oh Wendy do you like to tear your fabric from the bolt yes I do put it on the straight of the green mm-hmm okay so I'm just gonna bear down cut off that torn edge get rid of that and then just take the six by 24 and line it up now two and a quarter boy that is a tricky measurement that's what I find so I'm lining up the quarter inch line basically on the inch line so that I can see it the whole way along their cave they're down hard cut away now I don't like to pick up and move I pick my ruler I'm following my grid so the next two and a quarter inch mark would be at four and a half actually I did a couple little cheap things on here okay bear down and how many of these strips do I need to cut Wendy well fabric number one you're gonna need 13 strips okay fabric number two you're going to need 20 okay fabric number three you're going to need 12 and the background color you're only going to need four oh I like that so that's your pasted up there this is the pace up sheet I did and I just wanted to mention that if your strips come up all different lengths not to worry because we base this quilt on a 42 inch strip length so basically after you get your strips cut just get rid of those salvages and because we're making a baby size quilt today we're going to cut these into 14 approximately 14 inch strips okay so I can just go ahead and line up my ruler right here trim off those Salvage edges all at once and cut in everything okay now if you're doing other size quilts what else do you need what other sized strips well the baby takes 14 the lap or twin coverlet size takes 21 inch strips the double Queen size takes a full 42 inch strip and the King size takes a 42 inch and a 21 inch strip okay we're gonna get these strips all cut and we'll be ready for sewing an old Irish saying is never let your right hand know what your left hand is doing well I think we need to know what both hands are doing so we have all 49 strips all 49 14 inch strips lined up and they're ready for sewing and once they're lined up they should look exactly like you're pasted up sheet so that when you look at the strip's you see that fabric one making that X right through there there are seven strips across and seven strips down for the rows now this is the first row right here and this is the row that we want to focus on and so first and so we don't get confused I'm just gonna take this ruler and cover up all of those other rows so we only see this one so now what do we do Wendy take your second strip and flip it onto your first strip be right in here that's right and then your four strip flip it onto your third strip okay and your sixth rip gets flipped onto your fifth strip then stack them up in order okay first pair that's right second pair okay and third pair right then we can just assembly line sew them and that will be whoops very last one there and you have one strip leftover that's just going to lay there until we get these pair stones so match up those top edges okay and your side edges and about 15 stitches per inch tight stitch real tight and seam allowance quarter-inch seam allowance okay now I like to use this quarter inch foot right here oh that just squeeze that right through there grab up the next piece oh let me get it and feed it right behind but not all sewing machines have this quarter inch foot so what do you like to use well I really like to use the metallic magnetic seam guide it works on most machines especially if you have a metal throat plate also this so perfect gauge works really well if you have an electronic machine and this just sticks right to your throat plate works really good that way you get a nice quarter inch seam and when you're sewing all of these two and a quarter inch squares together you have 49 of them so you want them to fit really really well you really find out if you're a goods or not huh that's right okay now I have all of these pairs sewn together let me just clip them apart see if I can keep them in order I'm sure keeping them in order is one of the most important things about this quilt now what am I going to do you're gonna open them up and then you're going to flip the second pair onto the first pair okay woah get this lined up make sure I can keep an eye on my pasted up sheet oh that's ready open that other set and then you add that single piece okay right on in order to get onto your six strip okay assembly line so those two know all right see if I can get that lined up straight okay I'm on to it Wendy okay one of the things I do notice about my students is it's important to get those edges matched up really well sometimes the bottom one slips under the top one yeah you want to get the pins ready I finished this yep we need to get some pins mark so we can label our strip sets so we're going to take some masking tape and just fold it along the bottom edge of this pin and then since L is making strip set 1 we're going to label this number 1 and we're going to pin it into the first sewn strip so that we don't get confused because our next step L is going to be pressing oh and it's real easy to get confused so we're gonna keep them straight so I'm going to make one of these for every strip set and even though L is only working on the first row right now eventually you're going to have seven rows of strip sets for this particular quilt okay so now I have four sewn together and three sewn together okay flip those three onto the four yeah I basically have halves and now I'm sewing them into one hole okay you know what I went I made the quilt above the mantel I had so much fun actually my sister Pat called around noon and I hadn't even started on the blocks and we made a deal and said well we can't go for our walk until those blocks are done and do you know by three o'clock we were out walking I thought it was pretty good what do you think I think it's great I think that's the advantage of doing all this assembly line sewing okay now here is my row all set all right and this is my first strip so just take this and pin it in here and the reason we don't want to put that masking tape right onto the strip because we're going to leave this in while we sew it okay so that way we'll always know that this is strip set one and the pin tells us which was the first sewn strip perfect now we're going back and sewing all of these rows together our seven strip sets are sewn together and they're in perfect order now you can check them against your paste-up sheet and make sure that you have that X running right through there once you place all seven out in that order now wendy is our perfect presser I love to press out and if you do it correctly in this quilt everything will but together your seams will match and we'll have perfect sewn strips ah no penny no no go for that one our first thing we're going to do is set our seam so we're gonna line each sewn seam up along the grid of our mat and give it a real quick press do you know why well it syncs the threads in to each other right sometimes when you so you get a little tweak a little bow and your strips and that'll straighten them out especially using the grid that helps what else and if you're pressing them on the grid then you do straighten them out as you go along right okay then after we get our seam set then we're gonna take that first strip that has the mark in at the pin to remind us that that's the first strip and line it up on that grid and while we're holding that strip with our iron we're going to gently pull with this one and all our scenes are gonna go away from that first strip but keep that along the grid if it gets off the grid then you're gonna get those bold strips so you want to keep it right on the grid little bit of pressure it's nice if this is a half strip it fits on this size of pressing that so well but actually you can get a mat for your ironing board if you're gonna be doing those 42 inch long strips for double Queen mm-hm oh when King uses one two right now look how nice this lays they're nice and straight would you please square up that uneven end while i do strip set to okay a strip set to okay now let me just take the ruler we have one side that's pretty straight because that's where we started sewing but right along here I'm going to line up on the straight top just trim off that end just get rid of it Wendy good now this time we've already set the seams on this strip set but again we have our pin this time we're going to go towards the pin for strip set number two okay so two to do - right - - and then all the rest of our strip sets L we do in the same manner as this you got it you got the idea okay so if one is away from one is odd-man-out so go away from so all of the odds are away from the number and two is even so all of the evens you go to or toward correct got it okay now if you would square that end up again okay you can have that bad this is our first strip set and we're going to lay it on our pressing mat lined up with the grid again and this time our seams are going down and our strip set is right sides up okay then we're going to take strips set two and lay it right on top now we have those nice trimmed edges and we're going to lock those seams together kind of just with our fingers a little bit getting real nice get those edges as close together as we can hit it with the iron because this will set them together again make them much easier to press and sew and cut and I'm gonna give this back to you okay now let me pull out this pin ooh do I dare take out this pin because I want to line this up on the grid make sure oh it feels great and right here oh I think I need to stand up for this one so just take your rotary cutter and your ruler and right on this left hand first I want to do about a quarter inch squaring off get rid of those and then cut this into what was that two and a quarter two and a quarter inch strips okay now we're making a baby quilt so how many pairs do I need to cut right now five five okay we have five a blocks in the baby size quilt okay well we're just going to go back press all of our strips and cut all of our pairs Wendy and I are going to dance an Irish jig when we have block a finished now we already have our pair's layered and cut right sides together and I found the pins helpful in keeping the pair's marked this is row 1 & 2 right here and that seam is going up and then right next to it rows three and four layered seam going up five and six and then right here this is row seven and it's just a single row now we're going to just pick up those first two pairs and they are great and easy to match because of the way we pressed and cut them so just put them under your presser foot maintain that same quarter inch seam that you've been sewing all along now right here I like to roll it open look at it and then roll it in make sure those seams are perfectly matched up you can use your finger at this time or if you want to go ahead and use your stiletto that works great too but just go ahead an assembly line so right down through each one of these rows oh and sometimes you have to give a little bit of a tug just to make sure you get each one perfect let me see one more hold that tight now actually because you do use a consistent seen throughout if it's not a perfect quarter-inch consistency is also very important okay now Wendy I have the pair sewn I want you to just go ahead show us how to press that piece we're going to drop this on the pressing mat again lined up with the grid we have the first row on top we're going to set those seams then we're going to flip open row one and press that seam towards row one all right so tell me Wendy how are my matches your matches are great well what we've done is also set up the seams in an order because we want the seams to be pressed away from the center so right now this first seam is going to be behind row one in the next pair Oh am i fast then this seam is going to be behind three now this is the center point so you're going to be going the opposite way out towards the right on this side and then this seam will also go to the right so I'm just going to go ahead and take this and sew this into one half just like we did with the strips and so this into one half and then once these two units are sewn in half that I'm just gonna push them together into one complete block so Wendy take one block and just show the last final step at this point some of your seams are pressed and some of them aren't so we have to get them all going from the center out so I like to just hang this over the edge of my pressing mat and press them away from the center that way I'm not just disrupting the seams that are on the other side then just flip it around do the same thing on the other side and we have a finished block that is looking great now should we show these or should we just let the fairies do the sewing now this is no Blarney block B takes half the time as block a but you do need to finish block a first because the measurements of block B are based on block a now right here we need to have a background strip for rows 1 and 5 and this piece right here is cut the same measurement as three rows sewn together so the best way to do this is just to take the two outside edges the two outside rows and just flip them up under and measure them and actually you if you were good that measurement should be approximately 5 and 3/4 inches an OLE major a couple of times just to check and make sure your sewing is straight now you're gonna go ahead cut that background strip that with whatever that is and then on to it you're going to add fabric 3 and fabric 2 in a pair on one side and then the identical on the other side so that's all you have to do for rows 1 and 5 now rows 2 and 4 just about identical but this time you only need to have one row flipped under on each side let's pull that out take the measurement see okay nine and a fourth hopefully it's also nine and a fourth on the other end so cut your background strip that measurement and then on to either side of it just add one fabric three to each side well Wendy are you still pressing I press quilts but not sure - well let's see those here's our strips that's all press they're pressed in opposite directions so that we can once again layer cut them just like we did for the blockades so we're going to lay out our first strip set and the seams go down our second strip set right on top with the seams going up and they'll butt together real nicely and lock and then we're going to take off approximately a quarter of an inch off this edge I'm going to make sure you cut straight Wendy I think I got that all the way through away from you where do I look like you get rid of it and then we're gonna cut a two and a quarter inch strip oh oh got it yeah right you're sure right okay then after we've cut those they're already layered and ready for the sewing machine just like our strips and block a we feed them through and we have all our rows put together okay so that's one and two and four and five right okay for the very last step all you need to do is cut one section that is the same width as three rows sewn together and the original measurement that we used was 5 and 3/4 inches so you need a background strip 5 and 3/4 inches by cut by the measurement of the whole block and your block should be approximately 12 and 3/4 inches square wouldn't that be great if it were now go ahead and take these pieces I always get confused where does it go like this yes on one side and then loop turn it around and put it on the other and you just need to sew these on either side well block A's and Block B's were so much fun to do I want to go up in the maduk and find some scraps to make more blocks but first we have to sew our block b's together [Music]

Channel: Quilt in a Day

Views: 25,527

Rating: 4.8539553 out of 5

Keywords: quilting, eleanor burns, quilt in a day, irish chain, quilt blocks, vintage quilts, fabric, sewing, crafts, quilt pattern

Id: 4287SuvwoZw

Length: 26min 7sec (1567 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 05 2019