Monday, March 9, 2015

Clover Irish Chain Table Runner Pattern

The Clover Irish Chain table runner is at least pieced! Quilting for it and matching place mats will come later this week. 


Irish Chain table runner border pattern by QuiltFabrication



The border pattern for this 20" x 62" table runner is now available as a downloadable pdf pattern at Etsy.

irish chain border drawing


Keep in mind that this pattern is for the border only. The four twelve inch blocks can be the clovers I used from Natalia Bonner's Sunday Stitches at Piece and Quiltor they can be anything you desire!  Just be sure they finish at 12 inches.

This pattern is an intermediate skill level, and assumes some paper piecing knowledge. I have pictures of the paper piecing, to help out with the construction.  Just so there is no confusion, I used the freezer paper piecing technique, because, frankly, I hate the chore of tearing out paper! Check out this tutorial on using freezer paper for paper piecing.

Here's the first piece (A1 and B1) ironed on.
first fabric ironed on for freezer paper piecing
In adding A2 and B2, I sped things up by chain piecing on one long strip, then cutting them apart.
chain piecing part A units
A3 and B3 were a bit tricky because I wanted the straight grain on the outside edge.  So, on the front of the block, I folded the piece at the angle needed to achieve that.
checking for straight of grain
Holding it in position, I laid it flat.
freezer paper piecing
Holding it steady again, I flipped it over for sewing along the folded edge of the paper.
stitching along the paper edge in freezer paper piecing

Here the B units are sewn, trimmed, and pressed (topside on the left, backside on the right, top to bottom).
crossover unit parts pieced
The last A piece was sewn in, then B was sewn to A, with careful matching of the seams so that the ribbon matched up.
seam matching of crossover units

I used the "take a few stitches" technique I used in Sewing Diamonds to make sure everything was good to go.
test stitches for seam matching

Then stitched the whole seam. And voila! Success!
irish chain crossover piece

To make your own bit of Irish luck, the border pattern consists of instructions, plenty of diagrams, and actual size templates. Enjoy!

Happy Quilting!



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7 comments:

  1. Your table runner is wonderful! I love the green shamrocks and the border just finishes it perfectly. Thank you for sharing!!

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  2. Oh this is so nice! Thanks for sharing the pattern!

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  3. Nice border! Thank you for sharing.

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  4. This is a great runner! Wish I'd seen the shamrock block a couple months ago...I recently made a quilt for a dear friend who is Irish, used the Irish Chain setting, named it Shamrock, and quilted a shamrock shape in one block. An actual shamrock block on the back would have been so cool! Ah well. I did the freezer paper method of pp for the Snowalong I was in last Fall, so very very neat of a technique.

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  5. How fun is this!! Love the fabric and your border!! Sew Pretty!!

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  6. This is a great shamrock pattern - thank you for sharing.

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Thank you so much for commenting...you just made my day!