Irish Chain / Dresden Plate Complete!

 The day finally arrived when all the hand quilting was completed on my Irish chain/Dresden Plate quilt.  I say finally...but it was actually kind of sad as my hoop stands empty now and I so enjoy hand quilting.  But I have another in the queue (Bethlehem Star) and just need to get the border on and baste it together.












I would like to give a produce endorsement for Marcia Baraldi quilting mitts.  If you have not heard of these they are wonderful.  https://www.etsy.com/listing/510066263/marcia-baraldi-quilting-gloves
I found out about them when Linda Hungerford of Flourishing Palms taught a machine quilting class for our guild.  They are only available on line, to my knowledge, and cost around $23...and worth every penny. 

 They are very comfortable, with the straps made of a soft fabric that does not stress against your hands.  Fingers are free to thread needles, snip threads, etc.  The palm has a great gripper that allows you to easily move the fabric around.  I am not receiving anything for this endorsement - just thought y'all would like to know about theses great quilting tools.




Quilting on Chains.  Single line of quilting on the chain that crosses where the two chains meet.  Makes a frame around the quilted block.

Back of the quilt showing quilting on the chains.  These are actually on point - but took the picture at different angle.



Border quilting - I followed the light blue line in the border print to create a piano key type quilt pattern

Back side of border quilting

Final quilt - Now to make the label!

Jack's Chain - Rows 1 and 2

The first two rows of my Jack's Chain quilt.  I am having so much fun putting the rows together - all by English Paper Piecing (EPP). 

There will be border blocks to even out the edges, although I kind of like that wavy look on the left side. 

I have not joined the rows together yet, so all the outer edges still have paper in them, giving it a slightly wavy look.

This was taken on my dining table as my design wall is full of Moda Blockhead blocks.  The sunlight is wonderful in the dining room and you can see it shining through on the table.

Thank you to SoScrappy for sponsoring the Rainbow Scrap Challenge which ended this month.  This challenge kept me on goal for making the sweet 3" nine patches.  I hope she does another one next year, although I don't think I will start another EPP project this ambitious. 

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with family and friends and can find some time in the next few hectic weeks before Christmas to get some quilting done.

Thanks for stopping by,
Teresa

RSC - Final Month

November is the last month of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and I sure have enjoyed participating in this with SoScrappy and all the others.  I am doing Brown only for November rather than Black and Brown.

Once these are done, I will have enough nine patches to complete my Jack's Chain quilt.  I hope to have the quilt completed and ready to give to my wonderful brother Jack for his birthday in September. 

I have already completed 11 of the Jack's Chain blocks - with 35 more complete blocks and 35 partial blocks to go. I counted up the pieces that were needed for this quilt yesterday, and kind of wish I hadn't - as it is quite overwhelming:

Large Hexagons - 52
Half Hexagons - 16
Connecting Triangles - 470
1 " Squares - 3, 198
Total pieces = 3,788

Thankfully, I only have 20 more nine patches to make and that is the bulk of the pieces.

I am thoroughly enjoying the process though, and I know I will be a little sad to see it come to an end.

Moda Blockhead Update

Catching up with pictures of my Moda Blockhead blocks.  I have been getting them done each week, but just have not yet posted these pictures.  Just completed Block 35 - 13 more to go!

Block 31

Block 32

Block 33

Block 34 - was supposed to be primitive applique; but I decided to machine paper piece mine

Block 35