Braided Irish Chain featuring Expression Batiks

Hello Riley Blake friends!! It’s Melissa Corry again, from Happy Quilting and today I am am just so excited to share with you an all time favorite quilt design and I have a special bonus to share along with it!!! (more on that soon) I have made my Braided Irish Chain Quilt so many times because I just love the finish every time and it is just such a fun quilt to make!!! So when I decided to make a new King Size quilt for my own bed (yes, every once and a while I actually make a quilt for myself ) I of course, went back to this favorite!!! And I think this new Breath Expression Batik version might be my all time favorite!!!

You see, My husband absolutely loves the ocean!!! Hawaii is our favorite vacation and I think my sweetheart could snorkel all day 🙂 So when I decided to make a quilt for our bed, I wanted to pick out fabrics that would remind us of the ocean. I instantly feel in love with the Breath Batik Collection. The prints have a “coral under water” vibe to them and I just love all of the soft colors on those beautiful “low volumes”. So with all of my beautiful low volume prints, I needed an ocean inspired background!!! And this Expression Batiks Mountain High Delft was the perfect match!!! And doesn’t it just bring out all of the colors in the print when it is in the sunshine, so pretty!!! And I am happy to say, my husband absolutely loves it as much as I do, yippee!!!

And while this might look a little complex, the Braided Irish Chain Pattern is truly is a beginner quilt with basic quilting techniques.   It uses Strip Piecing for a lot of the patchwork and then 3 basic patchwork blocks that come together to make the “big block” for the design. And depending on the size you choose to make, you can add some sashing around the blocks to add to the braided chain. And isn’t that braided chain just so pretty!!!

And remember how I mentioned that special bonus . . . Well today, Jenny Doan from Missouri Star Quilt Company is sharing a step by step video tutorial of my Braided Irish Chain Quilt pattern!!! Isn’t that just so great. So now if you are a little nervous about following patterns, you can also have Jenny walking you through the whole quilt 😉 So get your Braided Irish Chain Pattern in my Etsy Shop and then watch Jenny’s Braided Irish Chain Tutorial here at Missouri Star’s You Tube Channel and make your own Braided Irish Chain Quilt 🙂

I have made the King Size Quilt, and Jenny is sharing the Picnic Size Quilt, but like all of my Happy Quilting patterns, the Braided Irish Chain Pattern has multiple size options, so you can make whatever size you like from a baby size all the way to a California King Size 😉  And that strip piecing and big blocks means it will come together super quick. But be careful, once you start, you can’t make just one, trust me, I know 😉 I have a baby size in the works right now as well 🙂

Oh, and a fun thing about a chain quilt, is you can make the chain pop!!!! When it came time to quilt mine, I opted for small swirls in the background and then to leave the chain unquilted. That super dense quilting in the background just makes each of those little “coral prints” just pop and I love it so much!! It took a little while for all of that dense quilting, but it is so worth the finish look 🙂

And that is my Braided Irish Chain Quilt featuring the Breath Expression Batik Collection! I hope you have enjoyed this post and make your own Braided Irish Chain Quilt!!! And if you do, I would love to see it! You can share your projects with me on social media with the hashtags #happyquiltingmc and #braidedirishchainquilt and tagging @happyquiltingmc and @rileyblakedesigns or email me a picture at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com. I can’t wait to see your Braided Irish Chain Quilts!!

Thank you so much for sharing this finish with me!! I just love getting to Happy Quilt each and every day and I am so grateful to my wonderful friends at Riley Blake for having me here to share my love of quilting with you all!!! 

I hope you have a very Happy Quilting Day!!!