Two and a half inch squares are adorable, and they are an adorable way to “sample” a cute fabric line, but how do you turn such a tiny bit of fabric into a beautiful quilt? Let’s take a look at Modern Irish Chain by Nancy Scott from Make Modern Magazine’s Pretty Precuts.

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Like me, you’ve probably seen dozens of Irish chain quilts in your quilting experience. You may have even made a few! But each time I saw one, my emotions were torn between “that looks lovely” and “whew, that looks fiddly.” And, I have to admit—I felt the same way when I saw Nancy Scott’s Modern Irish Chain. Therefore, what surprised me most about this pattern was honestly how easy it was— not just the piecing but the cutting, too!

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Pattern Review

Modern Irish chain was written by Nancy Scott of Masterpiece Quilting for Make Modern Magazine. It was republished in Pretty Precuts as a 2 1/2 inch square (sometimes called mini charms) friendly pattern. It features a single chain offset from the center of the quilt on a background of plentiful negative space.

The pattern proved easy to both cut and piece because it only uses five blocks, so there’s not a lot of cutting, and it chain pieces easily together. The trickiest part of the quilt top, as you might imagine, was cutting and the piecing on, the large negative space pieces that are on either side of the chain. In fact, I mis-measured mine and had to add an extra bit of fabric at the bottom of each. Fortunately, it was an easy fix and will be basically invisible when the quilt is quilted.

Design Ideas

Nancy’s original design features multicolored squares on a white background. It’s a fun quilt that way, but I can also think of several ways to use color to change up the look of the quilt.

First: background. Y’all know me— I’d love to see this quilt pieced with a background color other than white. Navy would be a cool twist (especially paired with a yellow and orange chain), but print fabric would also create a neat look and add a lot of movement to the negative space.

The chain itself could also be changed up. For example, I used grayscale squares for mine and created a color wash effect. It changes the whole mood of the quilt from playful to something more sophisticated.

Quilting Plans

With all this negative space, Modern Irish Chain is practically a blank canvas for your quilting pleasure. Because this is a modest size quilt that works up quickly, this is truly a great quilt to start (or continue) your quilting journey and practice making and executing a quilting plan, even if you are a beginner. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

All Over Design

If you’re not an ambitious free motion quilter yet, no problem. This quilt would look adorable with some simple stitch in the ditch around the chain to make it “pop” then a basic meander in the background. Granted, this isn’t “truly” an all over design, but that little bit of extra work will let your piecing shine. You could also replace the meander with some basic wavy lines (using a walking foot if you don’t have an FMQ foot or if you’re not confident with it yet) that echo the “curves” of the chain.

Semi-Custom and Custom Designs

Since the chain is the focus point of the quilt, it makes sense that various quilting plans would emphasize and imitate its shape.

Nancy’s original quilting plan did this by imitating the outer lines of the blocks and extending that on point grid across the quilt. I love the way she created a triple line of stitching (a walking foot would work well), then filled each block (and “block”) with switchbacks. It creates the illusion of additional piecing and adds a lot of texture without distracting from the Irish Chain.

Modern Irish Chain is, of course, a modern take on a very traditional quilting pattern. You could double the bond between the modern and traditional by imitating the chain with quilted chains of feathers. The trick, of course, is in adding such ornate quilting without overpowering the pieced chain. Therefore, I would recommend stitching in the ditch and echoing the pieced chain to ensure it continues to stand out from the background, and I would recommend matching thread for quilting the background. To maintain some “snuggle factor” in the quilt, be sure to use cotton batting and thread, and pick something simple and not too dense, like a meander, for the negative around the feathers.

Conclusion

Modern Irish Chain is a fun way to use up some 2 1/2 inch squares, bust some background yardage, and, especially, to practice drawing and executing interesting quilting plans. If you’re excited to try your hand at one of the quilting plans above, but you’re not a confident free motion quilter, be sure to check out my free guide, 3 Steps to Confident FMQ, to get you started:

Looking for the rest of the Pretty Precuts Stash Busting? Click here!