Double Irish Chain – Perfect for using up Leftover Fabrics
Is your sewing room overflowing with fabric? Are you looking for a way to use up what you have? The Double Irish Chain quilt block indeed lends itself to a scrappy quilt. In this easy scrappy quilt pattern, you need 2 1/2″ squares of a variety of colors as well as 2 1/2″ strips of light or dark background colors. Ultimately, these are the most common sizes in my “leftovers” basket—a win-win situation for me. Continue to check back each month as I post more free quilt patterns.
This is an excellent pattern for beginners since it uses just squares and rectangles. There are no biased edges, as you would find with triangles. The large “blank” areas are perfect for showcasing quilting skills (either hand or machine) as well as applique. With this in mind, let’s dig into our scrap fabrics to create a beautiful quilt.
Background Fabric Ideas for the Irish Chain
I used the same background fabric for this month’s scrappy quilt block. I had enough of it and liked how it looked with the scrappy colors. You have choices; you can either go light or dark. Actually, there are other options too. For example, if you choose to use all scrappy colors from one color family, your background could be all scrappy colors from another, in essence, creating a two-color quilt. For this reason, I will add examples of Irish Chains to my Pinterest page.
Scrappy Colors
There are so many options with this block. I used random scrappy colors. Therefore, my only rule was that the same fabric or fabric color couldn’t touch each other. That’s not to say you can’t put your blue fabric (for example) in the same spot in your blocks. That is a controlled, scrappy scenario. You would choose 13 colors (the number of scrappy squares in the block) and use the same colors in the same position for your blocks. Utilizing a controlled scrappy format would speed up the chain sewing option.
Fortunately, I had many different types of fabrics (over 50 different fabrics). This made it easier when picking fabrics for the blocks. That’s not to say I didn’t struggle a bit with fabric combinations. There were moments when it seemed like every other fabric I chose was already in the block.
Irish Chain Quilt Block
This is such an easy block to do, but the overall results can be very different. The pattern works well in pastels or baby colors. It looks stunning with a dark background and bright colors. The center line of diagonal squares could all be light colors. Take time to color the blank pattern to see what you like best.
You can find the pattern for the block here. There are other patterns that are geared toward scrappy quilts on that page; scroll down to see the list. A pdf file should pop up when you click on the Scrappy Irish Chain link.
I will add a picture of my quilt once I finish it.
What I like about this scrap quilt:
- It goes together quite quickly.
- There are larger areas for showcasing quilting motifs
- The more variety of fabrics (color and texture), the better the results.
Contact me if you have a block request. I will do my best to add it to my page. It will take me time to write the directions and test the pattern. But the challenge is something I enjoy. I love seeing your blocks and quilts – even your fabric choices and color combinations. It is so inspiring to me. Please share.
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Until Next Time…
