Disaster Quilt (Triple Irish Chain) Part 1

I planned this quilt right after I finished a double irish chain in my first quilting class and chose the colours in September 2008.

My favourite colour is the bottom one with the retro-looking rounded squares. I bought the other colours to match.


What I love most about quilting, is figuring out the pattern. I have a hard time following patterns from books etc, so what I usually do is look at a picture of a quilt, then decide on the size squares I want to use and figure out all my measurements and numbers. You can see some of my notes next to the fabrics in the photo above. It takes a while, but I really enjoy this. For this quilt for example, I decided to have smaller squares than I used for the double irish chain quilt (2.5" strips) and cut 2" strips, so that I'll end up with 1.5" squares making the pattern on the final quilt.

I started cutting and strip-sewing, but hadn't picked the colour for the large patch (see bottom blocks, off white material) yet, as I was trying to find a perfect match for the background of the multi-coloured material.


As you can see, I eventually gave up and went with unbleached cotton - I think I actually like this better as it pops the pattern out more. So this February, I had all the fabrics together and got serious about triple chaining. Except, not serious enough. Finished all the chain-blocks (pile on top of picture), but didn't measure them all, only the top one. So I based the measurement for ALL the type 2 blocks (pottom pile) on that one type 1 block. Big mistake. The amount of tugging and pulling and non-perfect corners I had to go through to make up 1/4 inch discrepency turned quilting from a relaxation-activity into utter frustration. Hence the name Disaster Quilt - but I still love the pattern and the colours :).

Here are the blocks for half the quilt lined up and laid out - I needed some kind of encouragment in the form of seeing it come together, so that I could keep going with this ardent task of really really stretching tiny cotton squares.

And here is the whole top without borders, sewn together, ironed to my best ability (though quite bumpy due to all the tugging).
I guess despite the tugging, the squares look reasonably lined up from a distance...