I am not gonna lie — it has been a hot minute since I’ve made a quilt! It took me some time to get into a rhythm, but once I did, I instantly remembered why I love quilting!
It’s really nice to make something that doesn’t disappear. While I adore cooking, coming up with different flavor combinations and nourishing my friends and family with good food, I also really appreciate that when I make a quilt there is something relatively permanent about the process. And it was even better because I was able to collaborate on this project with my son.
Back when I made his first quilt over ten years ago, his favorite thing to do was watch truck videos on You Tube. These days as a freshman in high school his interests are a little different.
When he asked if it would be okay for me to make him a new quilt I felt bad that I’ve waited so long. So we started talking about what he’d like in a new quilt and he told me that he wanted it to be black. I thought black would be a little harsh in the room since he shares it with his brother, but I was on board with charcoal gray or navy if he would compromise. We agreed on the charcoal and got to work designing a pattern.
One night I was watching a movie on Netflix, and spied an oversized double Irish chain on screen and I felt like it was the perfect pattern for Rowan.
We decided to design the blocks on PreQuilt so we both could have a good idea of what the finished quilt would look like. We played around with adding color and decided that a bluish gray would add a pop while still keeping the quilt masculine and mature enough to grow (at the rate I’m going he’ll be 25 before he gets another lol).
After playing around with the math, we settled on 4.5-inch squares to create 20-inch finished blocks but would add an extra two rows to the top and bottom and an extra row down the sides (not shown in the digital image above). I probably could have added two on the sides but I didn’t want the quilt to get too big.
Construction of this oversized double Irish chain has been easy — it’s really fun to see how quickly a big blocked quilt comes together! I’ve never worked in this scale before.
He seems really pleased with the way it’s coming along and I can’t wait to get it quilted up so that we can get it on his bed!
Have you ever made an Irish chain quilt before? How did you quilt it? I’d love to hear!
