Design Your Own Irish Chain Quilt

Register for Free EQ8 Webinar on March 23 or 24

Learn to Create Daffodil Quilt Blocks to Celebrate the Start of Spring

Are you dreaming of spring?  One way of celebrating the changing seasons is with a new quilt.  I can see it now -- a bright quilt with flowers in cheery yellows and greens.

And if you are new to Electric Quilt 8 or just confused with some of those block drafting tools in Electric Quilt 8, you are definitely in the right place to figure out how to use them. 

In this free live 90 minute webinar, you will go step by step through the process of using Electric Quilt 8 to create a number of daffodil blocks along with a couple of quilts for highlighting your blocks.  You will see how to:

• ​Draft two daffodil pieced blocks using EasyDraw drafting tools.
• Draft two daffodil applique motifs using Applique drafting tools.
• ​Create two different quilt layouts for your daffodil blocks.

By the end of this webinar you will have all the information to know how to design your own daffodil quilt.

Bonus:  You will also receive a guidebook that you will be able to use as reference both during and after the webinar.  

Free Webinar Registration Information

​Choose the time that works the best below and register for this amazing fun webinar.  You won't be disappointed.

​For all those that attend live, I will be offering a special bonus offer as well.  Make sure to join me.  I can't wait to see you there.

A replay will be available for 24 hours if you cannot attend live.​

Date and Time

Registration Link

Local Time

Wednesday, March 23
8 pm Central Time

Enroll

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Thursday, March 24
10 am Central Time

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Thursday, March 24
3 pm Central Time

Enroll

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Design Your Own Irish Chain Quilt

Grandma Keller's Irish Chain

With St. Patrick's Day approaching, my thoughts turn to the Irish Chain quilt -- definitely one of my favorite styles.  An Irish Chain quilt was originally gifted to me by my Grandmother and was one of the reasons I eventually took up quilting.

I wanted to use some newer fabrics in my Irish Chain quilt -- but didn't find a "green" collection that appealed to me.  So I started with a larger basics collection and just pulled in the greens and backgrounds from the collection for this project.  The Michael Miller Fairy Frost collection was super easy to work with.  No need for any cropping or resizing.  I just save the images of the fabric images I wanted to use for this project in a folder and imported them into my project.
​
Google Chrome Tip:  Select Quick view and then do a save image as or save picture.

In the video tutorial this week, I will focus on how to design an original Irish Chain quilt.  it is actually much easier than you think.  

To start, decide on the size of your block.  By starting with the size, you can ensure that the quilt in its purest form (with only squares and rectangles)  is super simple to cut and piece.  The perfect quilt project for a beginner quilter or designer.

Here are the two basic blocks from the video.  Both designed at 8" x 8".

The quilt will look much more balanced with an odd number of blocks set vertically and horizontally.  Here is the "simple" version of the quilt.

Irish Chain Quilt #1 by Kari Schell

With the simpler block, there is an option to add another block in the center.  In keeping with the St. Patrick's Day theme, I chose to merge the block with a shamrock block from the Electric Quilt 8 library.

Irish Chain Merged Block

Tip:  Try playing with symmetry to change the rotation of the merged block.

Irish Chain Quilt #2 by Kari Schell

With a few changes to coloration of the primary block, the block now has a more "plaid"-like appearance.

Plaid Block

Here is the plaid Irish Chain quilt.

Irish Chain Quilt #3

But wait...there's more

Using the same technique as outlined in the video, I also created a 7-1/2" x 7-1/2" Irish chain block.  The alternate block had the same sized corners as the first 7-1/2" block.

For the merged block option, I used the applique Shamrock block from the EQ library.

Irish Chain Quilt #4

I look forward to seeing your Irish Chain blocks (along with your quilt).  Feel free to post pictures in the Learning EQ Facebook Irish Chain post.

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Happy quilting.

​Kari

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