My most recent pattern is called Irish River – because it’s a single Irish chain quilt and the pattern of greens and blues reminds me of a river winding through the countryside. We visited Ireland years ago and I’ve never forgotten how beautiful the greens are there!
I made this one for my son and his fiancé – she asked me to make them another quilt. I was flattered! Mainly because she must like my work well enough to want another quilt, but also she must be comfortable enough with me to come right out and ask! So hopefully this won’t be one of those situations where they haul out my quilt only when I’m coming to visit! Really I’m just joking on that one 🙂
In keeping with the river and countryside theme, in the blue areas I quilted watery designs like pebbles and wavy lines and paisley looking little things (fresh water mussels?? yes, definitely fresh water mussels!) and in the green areas more leafy and vine type designs. I may be the only person to appreciate this, but that’s ok. I know those designs are there and they make me very happy!
I gave them one of my new “Quilt Care” cards as well – I often have people ask me if they can wash their quilts (the answer is YES of course!) so I decided to make these post card sized directions. These cards on a free download on my welcome page and come in three different color schemes – you can print them yourself, or take them to a print shop. The little quilt labels I use come from Etsy.
I was able to make most of Irish River just from my fabric stash – I have quite a pile, but mostly in small quantities. I love the look of scrappy quilts so I generally don’t buy yardage unless I have something very specific in mind. I more often buy fat quarters when I need to replenish a certain color in my stash, and most quilt shops seem to have a “deal” that I can’t refuse – you know the one, “Buy 5 get the 6th free!” My husband and I do a fair amount of travel by car, and he is pretty tolerant of stopping at quilt shops along the way – so I get fat quarters when traveling too. I can look at most of my fabric scraps and remember exactly where I bought it, which is a little like when my grandmother made scrap quilts and knew where the scraps came from.
I made the queen size version, but the pattern for Irish River includes directions and fabric requirements for baby and throw size quilts as well, and even has a coloring sheet for you if you would like to come up with a different color placement. The piecing for this quilt is very straight forward, the only thing requiring more attention is keeping the blocks organized as you put it together – and to help with that the pattern has a sheet of numbered row labels you can pin to each row.
I also have a free pattern for pillow shams!
Thank you for reading this far!
Happy quilting friends! ~ann