Awhile back I mentioned that one quilt flashing strongly on my radar is a Double Irish Chain in two colors. I even shared a picture of the fabrics to be used for it.
Sharon has also been interested in doing a Double Irish Chain in two colors, and this has led us to recalling our earliest days of quilting. We were young homemakers with young children; we were new teachers, too, so our plates were plenty full. Yet we felt a pull to making quilts.
A long-ago quilt shop in town offered an intriguing class - Quilt In A Day - by the time participants left after a full Saturday of stitching, they'd have a completed quilt top. I took the class, and here is my quilt, worn and used.
I do not recall that Sharon took this class with me; I rather believe it was Kay, another colleague and Frienzie. Actually, I recall very little about making this quilt. It seems that store employees did all the pressing and sub-cutting; participants simply sat and stitched all day long.
I do recall going to the shop ahead of the class to buy the fabric. I told the shop owner what I wanted, and she helped me pick out this navy blue print. I then bought my first rotary cutter, ruler, and mat. I had to cut all the strips for the quilt before coming to the class. This was my maiden voyage using all those new-fangled tools.
The Quilt In A Day series by the modern-day quilting pioneer Eleanor Burns was a gift from heaven for working moms of the 1980s. There is no way I would have been able to do this on my own with a full time job and two young children. This particular book for the Double Irish Chain was copyrighted in 1986, and this class would have been offered soon after publishing. Whatever the year, I felt very accomplished after making this quilt, and was so pleased with the results.
Grandma quilted it for me. I am sure we discussed which of her templates she'd use in the setting squares; and I am sure I requested the chains be stitched to enhance that diagonal element.
I plan to stuff this quilt into the washing machine on a very gentle cycle. It is so grungy and gray-looking. Hopefully, I can breathe new life into it. In addition to the dull white, some bits of the binding are worn and tattered. I wonder if I can work out a way to fix/repair it . . .
I plan to bring you a couple more posts in which I explore my way-back-when excursion into making Double Irish Chain quilts. Yes, I have more.
Happy Quilting, Friends!
I subscribed to your blog and was getting them with no problem. Then the last one I received was from March 17. I signed up again hoping that would solve it, but it hasn't. I wondered if there was some setting on your blog that's made the change. Luckily I've kept that last post and can go to it and then hit home to see what I've missed.
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