Irish chain made from 2 inches cut scraps, top completed

Irish Chain
Top completed 2025
73 1/2 by 52 1/2 inches
Made from 2 inch cut squares

I love an Irish chain.
My 2 inch darks and brights were overflowing so I took them along with some Kona Ice Frappe to a quilting retreat this past January.
It is an easy sew as long as I stayed with my pressing plan.
I finished the top months ago, but just got to writing it up.

There are two blocks. Do not do any pressing of the units or blocks until all the units are made.

Vertical UNITS
1: solid, 5 scraps. solid
2: 7 scraps
3: scrap, solid, 3 scraps, solid, scrap
4: solid, scrap, solid, scrap, solid, scrap, solid
5: scrap, solid, scrap, solid, scrap, solid, scrap
6: 2 scraps, solid, scrap, solid, 2 scraps
Make the units and press each to one side. You will rotate them in the blocks to make all seams nest.

Block A

18 of Block A--made mainly from the scraps
Has two of Unit 1: 5 scraps and a solid on each end
*NOTE: for the four corner blocks I replaced the solid in the corner with a scrap to be more pleasing to my eye than having that lone dot of solid in the corners. If you choose to do this, wait until the final layout to construct these blocks as pressing issues will come up. 
Has five of unit 2: 7 scraps

Block B

17 of Block B--includes the chains
Has two of Unit 3: 
Has two of Unit 4:
Has two of Unit 5:
Has one of Unit 6:

Make all the units, keeping them in separate piles
Take each pile of units and press all in one direction

Lay out the block, rotating every other unit, keeping the first column in each block with the pressed seams going south.
DO NOT press blocks until they are sewn into rows.

Lay out quilt, rotating every Block A so it nests into Block B
Sew into rows
Press Odd rows to the east and Even rows to the west
I pressed the rows to the South then stay stitched around the top

Everything nests!
My directions, use at your pleasure.

my darks and brights 2 inch squares bin when I started--still plenty remain

backing is by Dear Stella

I've been trying to make some of my quilts a bit smaller--this is difficult for me as I always want to add more. With 2 1/2 inch squares this quilt would be by 98 by 70 inches--I may just make one as my 2 1/2 inch box is pretty full.

I have a workshop coming up called "Sewing the Bits" and I will include this as an option for pattern selection.

summer stars and summer flicker--two quilt tops completed

Summer Stars
81 by 67 inches
top completed 2025

Summer Flicker
72 by 63 inches
top completed 2025

I love the sew-alongs Julia Davis hosts at her Red Rainboots Handmade site. She organizes a fabric swap and offers thoughtful patterns to make pleasing quilts.
I greatly appreciate a designer who values using simple shapes.

I haven't joined in on the swaps as I have PLENTY of fabric here to supply the variety needed, but I do join in the sew-alongs.
Her patterns are available HERE.
Previously I did her Jump On In pattern with the red and white triangles.

Her latest swap/sew-along of low-volume prints was with two patterns and I did both,  Swapping Stars and Flutter.

They are similar to blocks I have done in the past, Evening Star and Flicker.
Evening star quilt HERE and block HERE
Flicker quilt HERE and block HERE

Julia's designs are with different proportions and colorations from my previous quilts. I like the airy feel of her stars with the points not touching.
And I LOVE how she focuses on low-volume fabrics.

In my making of the quilts, I varied my pressing from her instructions to use those I had in my previous quilts.
Also, I had limited yardage of the fabulous French navy with white pin-dot so I conserved fabric by not using a flip and sew method with squares, and instead cut out triangles with the Easy Angle tool, and used the Doug Leko tool on the background squares.
Because of the limited pin dot, to make the flicker quilt a bit larger, I added an extra low volume square all around.
My cutting carefully got me these two quilts--I had just 4 leftover navy pin dot triangles!

Thank you, Julia, for your designs! 
AND, buy people's patterns! We want to have active designers out there!

I had this fabulous navy with white pin dot from a friend

Backing for both is by Dear Stella