hannajo

I am very amateur and recently made a single Irish chain quilt using only two colors. Very simple and I was happy with it that I even had the confidence to give it to someone.

quiltingcandy

I love the Irish Chain - especially the double and triple. They are easy to do by hand unless you are doing it in strips. I have one that I am hand quilting and it was all hand sewn. I used a pencil to draw on the 1/4 inch but only did it was I was getting ready to sew it. And I use the masking and/or painters tape for the quilting line. You could easily use it if your fabric is too dark to draw on.

mimiof4

Sounds like a great idea, like someone else said any quilt can be hand pieced. I have hand pieced grandmothers flower gardens (2) double wedding ring and many others. Love to do it.

JuneBillie

Thanks everyone for great ideas and comments. I think I will start with the single Irish Chain, and I plan to use 2 colors. I like the idea of drawing a line for the seams, and also the tape sounds great too. Wonderful ideas. Thanks Mary Mo.

I also was wondering about the strip method when piecing by hand.

ManiacQuilter2

You might want to check out Eleanor Burns book that covers everything about an Irish chain patter. Never pieced any quilt by hand except for my Grandmother Flower Garden. That took me over 2 years to piece all those flowers.

RST

Strip piecing and hand quilting are not a match. Machine stitching can take the slicing of making sub-cuts. Your hand quilted seam, no matter how tiny your stitches, will not. So cut your pieces to exact size for handquilting.

RST

nanac

I tend to do 95% of my quilts as hand pieced, and have made several Irish Chain quilts by hand. The thing that really helps me is to use graph paper to color out my "rows", then to sort my pieces out exactly as I color them out. This is a little extra step, but then I don't have to think about it when I am sewing - just pick up the next piece, and go/
I know it probably isn't necessary, but I take a tiny backstitch at the beginning and end of each block, as well aseach time I pull up the thread. My LAQ has often commented on how nice my piecing is

Boston1954

I'm sure you can do it by hand. When I think of all the quilts I saw in the Shelburne Museum (Vermont), and they were ALL made by hand. They were fantastic! I applaud anyone who can piece by hand. I am too chicken to even try. One of the ladies in my church quilting group does it all by hand, and I think it's wonderful.