Double Irish Chain question

Yes. I have one border (about 6") on mine. The quilt is made from 30/40's fabrics with solid blue and yellow in the centers. I used the same blue for the border. I actually had a pattern (forget the source as it was one of my first quilts) and it pictured it with a border.

If you go to my webshots posting below you can see two examples I did. One with and one without of the same fabric. I like them both. The baby quilt is of course smaller and does not lend itself to borders because that would diminish the size of the Double Irish Chain pattern.

John

John, both are gorgeous! I love to look at your quilts- you do great work! I like the look either with or without the border. The only thing I would say is stick with a pieced border- I think a single piece of fabric type border would take away from the piecing and the pattern it makes. JMO, of course! ;-)

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

Google (for images) using Double Irish Chain Quilt as your key words....

You'll get pages and pages of images to look at... See what strikes your fancy.

Point well taken. The only thing is, with the bed size quilt, I was trying to use up a large amount of "extra" squares. (read; cut too many). Ergo, the border as pictured. I also like to break the rules; or at least bend them a little.

John

Kate, you could also search on Webshots for Irish Chain quilts - there are almost 1200 of them - more choices to drool over - applique borders, pieced borders, no borders, floating chains, and the list goes on and on and on! Sometimes, the Irish Chain pattern is one that needs a border to stop it from rambling and sometimes, it needs to float off into the netherland. jennellh (change the mail to news)

I put 3 borders on my Double Irish Chain; only because I auditioned lots of things and that was what looked best. As with a lousy oil painting or a magnificent one, the 'right' frame does indeed make a difference. IMHO, Polly

Kate, I rather like a border, but that's just MHO. I made a triple Irish Chain, and a pic of it is here: . The photo is a little distorted, but you can see that there are two borders (pink and green). If I had it to do over, I'd piece the borders so that the dark green squares continued into the border, I think.

I recently saw a picture of a variation on the Irish Chain in a book, they'd done a very clever thing with the borders, I think there was 3, each was the width of the size of the squares on the rest of the quilt and only the outer one was one fabric, the next one in had squares at regular intervals to make the corner of the squares formed, the next one in then had 3 fitting the pattern, it looked really good and made the chain look finished as it didn't just wander of the edges - having not seen yours I don't know where yours finishes and whether this would work.

Anne

In the early 1950's my grandmother made a Double Irish Chain quilt for me in yellow and white, and used Prairie Points as the edging in yellow. It's lovely, and one of my treasures.

IMO yes. Borders look good on an Irish Chain. Roberta in D

"Kate T." schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@w3g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...

On Fri, 6 Jul 2007 19:11:23 -0500, Kate T. wrote (in article ):

I put borders on mine. Actually, I used the borders from the Eleanor Burns book with Nine Patch blocks in the corners.

Maureen

John, first let me say WOW!!! you did good, as we say here in Mississippi. Your work is extremely well done both in quilting and woodworking. Glad to see a man's point of view in this group. By point of view I mean your choice of pattern, fabric and construction of quilts. I know it won't be long before we hear that you have gone on to machine quilting. I see you already have the 9 inch throated SM that can be used on a Hinterberg, B-line, etc type frame. Woth your woodworking skills I'd bet you would make your own frame instead ob buying what's out there. Thank you for your suggestions.

Kate

To all of you that participated in this query, Thank you for your suggestions. I am in the process of looking at all those pictures of Irish Chains. Its going to be in Hot pink, Bright blue and white. Its not your traditional red, white and blue for a hero's quilt but I thought a lady soldier will get it. I am making quilt tops right now, so when hurricane season is over with I can settle down with my machine quilting frame and complete these tops for the QOV. I hope to be able to get a digital camera for pictures so you all can see the results of your suggestions and ideas.

When this to is finished, I plan to start a Lone Star for the QOV. Got to stock up on liquid starch. This quilt needs lots of starch so the bias edges will stay put.

Again I thank you all for your help, these kids need a hug from all of us.

Kate T. South Mississippi

On Jul 8, 12:01 pm, "Kate T." wrote:

I have investigated the Grace Frame and it would be doable for me but the thing that I keep running up against with construction of such a frame is the metal and bearing parts. They are proprietary in nature and not available from the mfg. I am sure something that would substitute for them is available but I have not had the time to search out alternatives. Quilting takes up most of my time, and I live in a rural section of Ohio and there are not a lot of sources for that kind of thing hereabout. I just need to sit down at the computer and see if I can source them from online and then it would be a simple matter to fabricate the frame. I think I could do a really nice solid cherry or maple frame for less than the Grace plywood model and but for the metal parts it would have already been built. Oh well, It gives me another project to consider. Not that I need one right now. I am actually in the process of working up a design for a Weaving loom for fabric construction. I have made a number of them for various people over the years, and now I would like to do one for myself. I am finally living in a house that is big enough to accommodate such a large item and not have it be the 900 lb. gorilla in the room. I have the perfect attic loft that will take it and still be out of the way but allow the full time setting up of such a monster. I have found that if you constantly have to be putting away and setting up whatever you want to work on it tends to inhibit the spontaneous usage that would happen if there was a dedicated space with full time access to whatever you want to do. I am currently more than half way through the top for the Library quilt and should be ready to make up the sandwich by next weekend. Then quilt the top and take it over and hang it up and sit back and wait for the inquiries. Or at least hope for the inquiries.

John

Thanks Pat

I'll give your suggestion a try. Auditions have begun to see if a border or borders will work for me.

Kate T.

Hey John

Have you taken a look at the Hinterberg, I'm not affiliated with the company but I have one of their frames. You have to buy the poles but you can have any length you want.

When I ran from the hurricane 22 months ago I was able to disassemble the frame completely in 2 hours.

Yes it is made of plywood also.

Kate T.