Ever since I quilted my “Windmill Chain”….
I have been on the lookout for other quilting designs for Irish Chain Blocks.
I saw this version on Facebook and HAD to know more…..
The quilter is Carla Wilson-Neff and her Irish Chain quilt is called “Skittles”…
Isn’t that the PERFECT name!!
When I asked about her quilting journey, she said…..
I am fairly new to quilting.
I ordered in a sewing machine in late 2020 to make masks for my husband and me (and a few friends). My seams were pretty horrible as I had never used a sewing machine before, so I decided to make a quilt to practice.
Turns out that I LOVE quilting!
We invested in a longarm in February of 2022. I have arthritis in my hands so it can be quite painful for me to quilt on a domestic machine. The longarm allows me to continue exploring the world of quilting.
I have taken some online quilting classes with Bethanne Nemish… love her teaching style and her amazing quilting!
I am learning to slow down my process when it comes to quilting. I used to just start. Now I think a bit about how I want the quilt to look when it is finished… what I am confident about stitching and what needs practice…. how do I want to break up the space on a quilt?… what will be the final use for the quilt.
The quilt tells me what it needs.
And yes… trying out cool patterns I find as I scroll social media. Some things click for me and some don’t.
Talking about quilting “Skittles”….
For this quilt, I wanted the Irish Chain pattern to pop… so I quilted close set lines in the white squares of the 9 patch block to flatten those areas.
In the neutral block, I wanted to practice a flower from the online botanical quilting class I just finished in December. It was time consuming because I broke thread to stitch the inner square in each block…. a fairly simple flower inside the square.
I stitched “C” curls for the inner white border, simple 1/4 inch lines to quilt the piano key border- to pop them up.
My longarm is a 20 inch Amara. I do ruler work and free motion quilting. I do not have a ProStitcher.
The only thing I can say here is WOW!!
One thing really stuck out to me…..
…slow down the process of quilting!! Take time to figure out what I want the quilt to look like BEFORE I start!!
Thank you, Carla for sharing your thoughts, your process and THIS AMAZING QUILT!!
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Love the quilting, the close-ups, and especially hearing about Carla Wilson-Neff’s thought process creating this charming and fun quilt. Skittles, even the name makes me smile. Beautiful!
I agree Maureen. When I saw her photo oh facebook I KNEW that I had to get to know her!!
What a lovely quilt!