"Retro Chain Serenade" top finished

This quilt is a hybrid of many quilts - but something like my Candy Chains and a simple Double Irish Chain quilt and the Double Star Beauty.

Let me show you these.

It is however, much more complicated to make than either of the first two shown above. Double Star Beauty was every bit as complicated, however.

I needed a design wall for this and ended up using my floor of the living room as one.

I chose my vintage fabrics for this one. The idea was to use up thirties prints. However, because I didn’t actually research each fabric to know if it was that, I am just calling it vintage or retro prints. Some of them are actually feedsacks. Yes, they really are. I can tell by the feel of them - they are a bit coarser than fabric made nowadays.

But then some of these look like they came straight out of the 70s. That bright yellow was a dress or shirt that someone took apart. I know that from when I cut up the pieces needed for this. Actually I’m sure it was fabric originally purchased from a lady in Brooksville, FL who was liquidating her mom’s stash—from which was the beginning of Quilted Twins.

Anyway, what do I think of it?

Oh, it’s nice! Really nice!

It took me literally HOURS to get this one put together - but I did finally get it sewn together as a top. I think it was about 10 hours just to put the alternate chain blocks together and laid out on the floor. A few days later I put the whole top together, but it was actually lying on my living room floor for several days as I had a weekend outreach/ministry “interrupt” the process.

Let me show you. There are two blocks in this quilt. Let me call them Block 1 and Block 2. It was making block 1 that took all the time. I had to lay out the Block 2 in place before I could actually go through and make up Block 1. I took pictures all along the way.

I was working with 2.5” strips, so these blocks are 10.5” unfinished.

 
 

But here’s the finished top. Yes, I really like it.

Yes, it is another Double Irish Chain variant.

It’s definitely not a regular Double Irish chain - as they don’t normally make those with different colors of fabrics in the big empty spots. Usually that is all one color. I will use a solid black to bind it. It is already 90”x110” so I didn’t choose to add a border or two. I had originally designed it with a small white border and a wider black one to finish it off, but I just revolted at the idea of making this one even larger. I was so tired of working on it!

Here is a close up.

I don’t know about you, but this type of quilt is so satisfying to me. No, it’s not a picture quilt, but the fun of putting together two blocks to get a chain like this creates - it’s just like magic to me!

I know that some of you are probably curious how I put it together. Let me share that with you in a gallery form, from the first row to the last. When I started with the day long process of making the alternate blocks, I had finished the first row. So, here goes. This is just the process of making the blocks, row by row.

Once I had the blocks all made, I carefully pinned the rows together by stacking the blocks one upon the other, pinning each pile and then taking them to the sewing machine and sewing them by rows with the row number pinned to the first block with a piece of paper.

Once this first part was done, sewing the rows together was relatively easy by comparison. I did keep checking, as I finished sewing each row together, however, making sure I wasn’t messing anything up!

Click on the arrows to make the pictures go faster.

 
 

I had to lay out the chain blocks first to make sure I matched the fabrics that went in the middle sides and middle top block to match the surrounding fabrics.

My husband walked downstairs, saw it and and told me, “I can see how you could get this one messed up easily!” I told him, “Yes, and that is why this one has to be laid out and sewn row by row.” And it did take me a while.

But the end result is very satisfying. And yes, I do really like it.

Thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

Becky Petersen3 Comments