Irish Chain • Moda Lissa

Hello and Welcome,
I am thrilled and nervous at the same time to kick off Melissa Corry’s Irish Chain Blog hop. Melissa has all kinds of fun things planned for this hop. Each day you will be visiting 2 different stops and I guarantee there will be so much color throughout.

Did you play with Pick Up Sticks as a kid? I found them quite challenging and spent hours balancing those little buggers. Melissa’s pick up sticks quilt is a realistic interpretation of thin colorful sticks balancing end to end throughout the quilt. Melissa used Carolyn Frielander’s collection which also gave this quilt an architectural feel.

I wanted to mix mine up and started with the classic colors of Red and White but was not to happy with my choices. I kept coming back to Melissa’s version. We have all agonized over color and fabrics, right? I wanted mine to look exactly like the one I saw, Exactly. Please tell me you have done that.

I did 15 jumping jacks to get my heart pumping and blood to the brain.
Then I decided I would do a positive – negative version of her quilt. I still wanted an architectural, yet almost industrial look so I went with an assortment of greys and used whites as my sticks.
My quilt top looks like steel buildings with reflective windows climbing the skyline.

If you squint at the picture above it almost looks robotic.

Squint again and there is a chunky plus sign shape that will be quilted as an overall design. I think this will give the quilt a sleek secondary look.

The fabrics are a combination of greys, whites and cremes from Amy Ellis and Zen Chic. They are so perfect for a quilt for a man in your life.

Hop on over to Fat Quarter Shop to see the quilt that Joceyln is making.

Check back every day as these talented quilters each share their Irish Chain.

June 8th – Happy Quilting – Blog
Hop Intro

June 9th – Moda Lissa – Lissa Alexander

Fat Quarter Shop – Jocelyn Ueng

June 10th – Piece
N Quilt – Natalia Bonner

In
Color Order – Jeni Baker

June 11th – Amy’s
Creative Side – Amy Ellis

Sew
Kind of Wonderful – Jenny Pedigo

June 12th – Quilt
Story – Megan Jimenez

Diary
of a Quilter – Amy Smart

June 15th – Freshly
Pieced – Lee Heinrich

Christa
Quilts – Christa Watson

June 16th – Moda
Cutting Table – Carrie Nelson

Little
Miss Shabby – Corey Yoder

June 17th – Fresh
Lemons – Faith Jones

V
and Co. – Vanessa Christenson

June 18th – A
Quilting Life – Sherri McConnell

Stitch
This! – Jenny Wilding Cardon

June 19th – Happy Quilting – Wrap
Up & Grand Prizes

Melissa has some goodies lined up for her Grand Prize Giveaway

There will be a Grand Prize Giveaway on the final day of
the blog hop along with the Charity Quilt Reveal. There are 2 super
fun grand-prize Giveaways with lots of fabric, books, and even a mini quilt. To enter the giveaway, they just
need to leave a comment on the MELISSA’s Intro Post. ( CLICK HERE FOR A LINK TO MELLISSA’S POST TO ENTER.)

Pom Pom De Paris by French General

We have had a bit of sunshine for the first time in weeks. The deluge of
rain seems to have stopped so I thought it a perfect time to pull out
another quilt and document the specifics. I thought this Irish Chain
would be good to talk about since next week I will be taking part in
Melissa Corry’s Irish Chain blog hop.

This old quilt is just the opposite of what I will be showing next week, but
more on that Monday.

When I say old, spring 2011 was when this fabric was available in stores. Seems like eons ago.

I love the look of Blended Quilts that Marsha McCloskey and Sharon Yenter are known for. This fabric collection seemed like a perfect fit.

So many of the prints were large scale and disappeared or blended into each other when cut smaller for the irish chain pieces. I guess that is the point of blended quilts, right?

I love the muted butter yellow prints in this collection. The quilt has been washed a few times adding to it’s well loved look.

I
did not let one scrap go to waste by adding the large prints, butter
yellows and woven textures along with any orphan blocks or pieces from
the quilt top to create a 2 sided quilt.

A feathered wreath design was quilted in natural thread filling all of the natural area.

This is also the time for my public service announcement to document your quilts. I did not do that so I can remember who the quilter was. Maggi, was it you?