March Shamrocks and Irish Chains

Instead of a kit from Shabby Fabrics' Pieceful Patchwork Banner for March, I bought a pdf for the pattern. "I have plenty of greens," I told myself. "I can pull and use up some of my own fabrics." Well that I did, and what chaos I created in my sewing room trying to get nine different greens as called for in the pattern. Yes, I did have that many greens, but none were the correct "emerald" green illustrated in the pattern cover and associated with St. Patrick's Day. Some were too olive, and some were too yellow, and some had non-subtle prints that did not read like a solid. I did cave and pick up three fat quarters from my local quilt shop In Between Stitches to fill in my "emerald" green gap. 

This is the set of colors I was trying to imitate followed by a photo of the nine greens I did decide upon. I decided that a pure green hue, my shamrocks (colors 1 thru 5) could have a dash of yellow and be more lime and the Irish chain blocks (colors 6 thru 9) could have a dash of blue and be more teal.

I had to choose my background fabric and, although I could have chosen white, I wanted something with a bit more interest. I considered a white with tiny navy dots, an ecru subtle stripe with green eyes peeping out, or a soft ecru with subtle same-size-but-random dots. I really like the eyes fabric. I remembering buying it in Cinnamon's Quilt Shoppe in Jacksonville, FL during a Country Heritage Tour in March of 2019 as one selection in a fat quarter bundle with an alligator theme. Put in an Irish banner they would become leprechaun eyes in my imagination. I decided against them as the background because with the flipped corner triangles, the orientation would be in different directions and pretty hard to control. To be logical and make it easy on myself, I chose the subtle dots as the background. I still "eyed" those green eyes with longing though.

After sewing three four patches for each of the two shamrocks, I "rounded" each leaf with corner flip triangles of my background subtle ecru dots. A completed shamrock is the last in the following trio of photos.

I took no in-progress photos of the Irish Chain block, but here a closeup of an assembled one is shown in the second of the following pair of photos. The Irish chain block is made up of five four-patch blocks and four two-tone blocks that look like picket fence posts.

There was still some fussy cutting in this banner's future. I decided that the sashing between the blocks could still be the eyes of the leprechauns hiding amidst the shamrocks. I cut the sashing on the straight of grain or across the grain so all eyes faced the same way. I did cut all the tile-like print outer border on the straight of grain, and I centered each  petal image along the border strip. 

My fabric selection for the binding was a solid teal, referencing back to the solid teal of the Irish chain blocks, but I did not have enough of it. I seamed it lengthwise with the second color hidden within the binding and made it work. To make the binding 2½" wide I joined a 1¾" strip of teal with a 1¼" strip of another green. Calculation: 1¾" + 1¼" - ¼" - ¼" = 2½". In the following photo the upper image of the seamed binding is shown from the inside, before folding in half. In the middle image, the folded binding is shown from the back, which will be concealed inside the binding when attached to the quilt. In the bottom image the teal binding is shown as it will look before sewing to the quilt.

All these decisions took time. When I mull things over I am not very speedy about it. After March's experience with a pdf pattern using my own fabric selections, I appreciate even more the convenience of a kit. Also, kits generate fewer scraps. I now have quite a few partial fat quarters in the green family because I used only a fraction of each one. Do these go in my fat quarter drawers to frustrate me in the future when I think I have a fat quarter but a chunk is cut out of it? Or do these go into oblivion in my scrap bins? Ah, more decisions even once the top is constructed!

Next up is sandwiching, quilting, labeling, binding, and adding a hanging sleeve. Stay tuned for the completion blog post.

Chilly the Wooble Frog

Today I finished the Wooble named Chill-lieve in Yourself along with his Tiny Buckle Backpack. My ten-year old Grandson in Oklahoma loves these little critters and puts in his requests for Grandma to make them for him. This is the fourth in his collection after Strawberry the Axolotl (post for 1/22/24), Creeper (post for 10/15/25), and VAN (post for 2/6/26). The main body generally works up very quickly and then I stall and procrastinate making the appendages or accessories. This time I moved right ahead to do the belly and eyes on the frog.  He came out amusing and huggable. The backpack is tiny and easy, but fussy to do. After the bright turquoise and rich gold, the dull gray and black color combination was uninspiring. I dragged my feet to complete the Tiny Buckle Backpack. Once I started it, though, it was no big deal at all. I kicked my self for delaying — yes, kicked myself with those very same feet I had been dragging. Here are the frog and his accessory completed. They are both incredibly adorable.

The Chill-lieve in Yourself Bundle came in a series of packages. I worked from a tray to keep all the components organized and together. The illustrative teaching videos are excellent. I am right-handed but it is good to know that there is a left-handed learning option as well. For those with enough crochet background, there is a straight text pattern option to follow also, so your pace is not constrained to video speed. Though, as a perk, the videos themselves have selectable speed options. Another feature to be praised about these Woobles is their customer service.  I had trouble locating the directions for the backpack. I did not know that they were separate from the frog itself and needed a different designated password. I texted the customer service number provided in the kit; within an hour I got a reply! After a couple of exchanges over the next two hours, my issue was completely resolved. I was given a password to move forward, and I went merrily on my crocheting way. This occurred on a late Saturday evening — now that's service!

Here is the promotional photo for advertising the completed project on the left, next to my own version of Chilly on the right. The stitches attaching the belly look different, so I either misread the directions or the video described a technique for attachment other than the photo. When you cook up a recipe, it is alway gratifying if your creation looks like the picture. The same is true of needlecraft. Close enough and still cute... I am pleased. I also strongly believe Isaiah will love them.