Scrappy Irish Chain

I love Irish Chain quilts - they come in all sorts of colours and the diagonal chains can be single, double or triple.

Simple single Irish Chain baby quilt

Triple Irish Chain Quilt Top

A year or so ago, I started sewing small 1.5" squares together into these blocks for a double Irish Chain quilt. The main diagonal chain here are scraps of yellow. I didn't have enough in my scraps already cut, so I happily cut into some fat quarters and larger scraps to get what I needed.

Block A

 The first block is all background (white in this case) with four scrappy corners. You will need four 1.5" scrappy squares, one 3.5" square white, and four 1.5"x3.5" rectangles.

Block B

The second block is made up of twenty five 1.5" squares. Four white squares, Nine yellow (or other dominate colour to make the main chain) and twelve assorted scrappy squares.

Building a quilt

There are just two simple blocks to this quilt - keep making blocks until you have the size of quilt you want or you run out of scraps. I did this project as a leader & ender project (inspired by Bonnie K. Hunter of Quiltville.com)

Complete with borders

 The border is a piece I received from a friend and it is a great match for the scrappy blocks. This one finishes up at about 53"x63", just perfect for a summer lap quilt!

And finished with beautiful sunflower quilting

 My long arm quilter Marie from Blueberry Hill Quilts found the perfect sunflower quilting pattern to finish it off.

Close up of the quilting

 Doesn't it look cozy?

Completely finished!

And it's even great as a piece of wall art (as most quilts are!)

--Ann

Easy Peasy Charm Square Quilt

I love collecting charm square packets and often will pick them up at quilt shows or quilt shops when I don't have a shopping list of fabric I actually need!

Charm Square quilt top & backing

These little 5" pre-cut squares are a real time saver if you need a quilt done quickly. Here's a quick little pattern for you that uses these charm squares.

I started with 2 packs of charm squares of the same fabric line, but you can use coordinating fabric lines, squares cut from your own fabric scraps or from yardage of your favourite fabrics.

Using a design wall to lay out the pieces

The white strips between the charm squares are cut 2.5" x 5". Lay out your squares in a pleasing arrangement - on a design wall where you can step back and look at it overall, or on the floor or bed if you don't have a design wall.

Sewing the rows together

Each charm square pack had 42 squares in it, so I did my layout with 7 square per row and a total of 12 rows. The final quilt measures 43" x 52" - a great size for a lap quilt on the sofa!

The finished Charm Square Quilt

Sew your rows together - odd numbered rows will have a charm square on the left and end with a white strip on the right. Even numbered rows will start with a white strip on the left and end with a charm square on the right.

Next, sew your rows together. You will want to line up the center of the white strips with the center of the charm squares in the row below. I just usually eye-ball it and sew without pinning, but if you are particular about things lining up perfectly, you will want to measure and pin those centers together. Other than that, there is no matching up of seams, making this a great quilt for a beginning quilter. The outside edges of the quilt will NOT line up - you will trim them after your rows are all pieced together.

When your rows are sewn together, you will have trim the bits of the charm squares that are sticking out on the edges of the quilt. You can add a border at this point or just leave the quilt top as is like I've done.

Click on picture & zoom in to see quilting details

Quilt as desired - this quilt lends itself to quilting in straight lines as I've done on this one I did for my grand-daughter or in an all-over pattern as I had my long-arm quilter do for me on this Christmas charm quilt.

All over quilting pattern

Equally nice from the back!

Make this quilt as large as you like! It's definitely a quick and easy one and the abundance of choices for charm square packs make the choosing of colors for your quilt equally easy!

--Ann

(This quilt is FOR SALE here!)

Musing About Holiday Craft Sales

Craft sales are not my most favourite thing about my quilt business. I'm an introvert at heart and the full day of meeting and interacting with people wears me out! And at most craft sales vendors are limited in the amount of space they are allowed. That makes it hard to display larger quilts, so I tend to make up smaller items that are easier to display. I find that buying a bed size quilt is a large purchase & most people are not willing to purchase a large quilt unless they've thought about it for a while or unless it's a custom quilt that is a perfect match to their décor.

This past year (2015), I only booked myself into 2 in-person shows. And this year (2016), I have had some health issues that led to me cancelling all 3 sales I was booked for.The first from last year was way back in September 2015 and was the Etsy Made In Canada Day Sale in Calgary.

The second was in November and is one I've done for a number of years and I've built up a bit of a relationship with the regular shoppers there.

But I never quite know what is going to be a good seller for me or not. It turns out that the September sale was a great one for baby quilts - I had a much larger inventory there of baby quilts than I usually have and apart from the ones I sold, I gave out cards to a number of moms who were expecting and either didn't know the gender of their babies or exactly how they wanted to decorate their nurseries.

When I had time to reflect after I went home, I realized that to woo those customers, I would need to get more or better information from them in the future. I'm really not an in-your-face aggressive person, so my usual default is that customers will contact me if they really want one of my quilts. I usually have a little notebook with me at sales to keep notes and jot down suggestions that customers make regarding colours or possible items they would be interested in.

It's not too much of a stretch to take down name & contact info of customers who didn't see the exact thing they wanted and might have bought if I had had it made. So, when I ran out of blue baby quilts, I could have taken down a name, phone or email and turned that into a custom sale.

The next sale in November, I had my plan in place along with my notebook and a pen! And didn't sell any baby quilts. But the mug rugs and snap bags were great sellers and the tissue covers that were a hit in September didn't get a single buyer. I did take down a few orders for a custom mug rug and snap bags in colours that I didn't have ready made. I also had a few requests for eye glass holders, so I wrote that down for a possibility for next Year's markets!

A few other things that I've been considering as possibilities are having an open studio tour & sale maybe a couple times in the year where my larger quilts can actually be shown off to their advantage, which is difficult when there is only a 6' wide table to display everything.

And maybe an email newsletter that could come out 3-4x a year, maybe in advance of a studio tour.

What do you think? How do you like to connect with artisans & crafters? Where do you buy handmade items locally? Do you like things ready made? Or do you love the custom touch of a one of a kind item made just for you?

--Ann