Monday, September 10, 2012

Irish Chain

Because my daughter was here and wanted to work on this:
 I pulled this box of 2" red squares that was an exchange many years ago. Here it is when I was working on it 3 years ago. I got disgusted with it and put it up. Here I was picking out the squares of fabric that I was pretty sure were NOT 100% cotton even though the exchange rules said to use 100% cotton. (I burn tested many of them and many were not cotton, although some I thought were not were.) While I was at it I also picked out some that didn't follow the pattern; dark reds had to be in a certain place, with bright reds in other places. Then I just picked out a few that I hated; like a coca cola fabric. So I had a mess and had to resew a bunch of strips..
Then if you look at these you can tell that they would not sew together well so had to be resewn. Each strip needed to be 11 inches long. One of those below is 11.5 inches, some were 10.5
Turned over you can see the different sized seams that were used. The ones that were too small were easy to fix, just resew them at 1/4". The too big seams had to be un-picked and sewn back.
So I figure I sewed this quilt together at least 2  times!  Thanks to my insomnia last week I got a few seams sewn every night between midnight and 3 a.m.
Now I'm working on the pieced borders.....I may get disgusted again since the strips need so much work. Who knows how long they will take.
I justified working on this quilt instead of Liz's project since I want to use the leftover squares on her Dresden plate; I don't know how many squares I'll have leftover unless I get this one put together; right?

Judy has a list of other design wall projects go look at them here.

7 comments:

Angela S said...

That is fantastic! I'm so glad you're finishing it! I think you'll need to store it at my house while you're gone. That way I can keep it safe! Maybe its time to finally make a quilt rack!

Lizziebeth said...

That was a lot of work but you now have a GREAT quilt.

Kristie said...

Oh my gosh! Both are beautiful! I really love red. I have a dresden with all of the dresdens made, they just need to be appliqued down to the background fabric (which I do not have yet) Your other quilt is on my list to do! I love it in red, but can't imagine how much red you had to have to make this one.

Have a wonderful and Blessed day
Kristie

Becky said...

Beautiful! I don't do group quilts for this reason, but when I try to finish my own old "WIPs", I find the same type of problems. We all learn and get more exact as we practice! What perserverance!

Melinda said...

It is absolutely beautiful. Great job.

Anonymous said...

You gotta love red and white quilts! I do! Keep going!

M-R Charbonneau said...

Looking great!