"Chains and Rails"

I was able to get pictures of this quilt that I finished around the first of the year!

This is number 40 in my upcycled blues series.

Finally!

It is a super simple idea - but I had a lot of light blues/shirtings I wanted to use up. So here they are!

Here’s a little closer up!

I like chain quilts, and so naturally when it felt like I had more lights than darks, the logical thing to make is yet another chain quilt.

And while it isn’t a real “wow” quilt, I really do like it. Simple, but effective.

I straight line quilted it by quilting through the middle of the squares. At least I tried to go through the middle. Since I was eyeballing it, I wasn’t always 100% successful. But that’s just how it is with me sometimes…

The back

I did piece the back, as usual for these quilts. I managed to find a piece of blue fabric left - a duvet cover, but it wasn’t quite big enough for the whole back, so I put some other pieces in there!

If you do something like this, be sure to make your chains bold enough to contrast well with this very busy background. I decided to use navy and burgundy because they shouted - and since the background isn’t exactly “quiet”, it worked. If I had gone with a medium blue, I might have had to fight to find the pattern and I really prefer a nice clean look to a design.

I think that sometimes a close up is necessary. You can see how busy these fabrics actually are. But the contrast is enough so that you can very obviously tell it is a chain quilt! Your eyes don’t need to strain to see the pattern.

And, as usual, the quilt roll -

And now you know…this is what I’ve been up to!

I did update the pattern with new pictures on the free patterns page - look for Chains and Rails and I put it on the upcycled blues page.

Have a great day wherever you are!

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Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store!

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