Críochnaithe

The Irish Chain flimsy made back in 2019 is finally finished (the Irish word in this post's title). Another finish in the space of 8 days? Inconceivable!

"I do not think it means what you think it means."

Pinning marathon

Maybe I woke this morning feeling invincible. Maybe I woke especially stupid. I know the two aren't mutually exclusive! But for whatever reason (perhaps because I had the batting already cut for me and I had two backings ready to go), I decided to pin two quilt sandwiches today.

My back is making sure I remember the consequences of that decision so that I never, ever think about doing that again!

The first sandwich was the intentional goal for today--the split-9 floral.

Couldn't see the forest...

Do you see it?

Let me give you another view:

There's a wide swath of light where there should be a nice checkerboard effect:

Upon closer examination, it turns out it's my old buddy: the red square I thought I had fixed.

Flimsy Finish

70" x 86"

A thing of beauty, I do believe. The inner portion ended up being 62" x 72" but I wanted more length, so that's why the double brick borders on top and bottom.

The binding has been made of the same fabric as the outermost dark blue border. This is a busy-enough top as it is--no point adding even more restlessness with a contrasting binding (when the time comes).

The inner green paisley borders used up another hunk of fabric that's been lurking about with the 'metallic' fabrics, although on closer inspection it really doesn't have any shiny features or highlights. No matter--it has a home now.

Under the Needles

Got the first border on the Triple Chain:

 

This flimsy can rest for a bit on the rack while I think about what the 2nd border might be. Something solid, probably, followed by the final border made from the 1.5"x2.5" bricks that have collected.

Aw, Sh ... oot

How is it, how IS it, that you can handle a block multiple times, but never see the error until it's surrounded by 6 seams that need to be picked out and resewn?

Two halves overlapping gives the illusion that the right-most column is incorrectly offset by 1/2 of a square.

Taking a break from ironing the long seams, admiring how the halves of the top are looking, and that blasted red square might as well have had a laser burning a hole in my eyes. Now. Not a week before, when it would have been simple to fix.

I ended up picking out the paired squares (the red and the white below it), flipping the unit, and resewing everything. I got 6 more quads of HTS, toward the building of the current Leader-Ender Challenge, out of this little detour.

Proof of concept

I finally figured out why I was obsessed with using up all the 1-1/2" squares and strips I'd been so carefully cutting and saving. For years now I've been faithfully following along with Bonnie Hunter's Scrap User System, but I didn't know if these small bits would really be viable when it came to making a full top from them.

Color me convinced!

Just 15 each of the checkerboard and alternative squares are on the design wall, and already I've got the promise of a delightful quilt in the making. As of this writing, all 168 blocks have been created and I'm in the process of sewing up pairs. (The HTS quads in this shot are the corner units I've created so far for this year's Leader-Ender challenge: Shoo Fly.)

The part I like best about this pattern is this: as long as the middle squares on all 4 sides of the checkerboard block match the alternative block (in this case, white...ish), the rest of the squares can be any and every value. The dreaded mediums play nicely throughout!

Obsessed

All week I've been plowing through my 1-1/2" scraps, hell-bent on using them up, and I have no idea why. I've decided on a Triple Chain pattern I screen-shot from Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville site (the "Leaders & Enders" page listed under "Tips & Techniques!")