Lucky Irish Chain Table Topper

We finished our lucky Irish Chain and made it into a table topper, just in time for the St. Patrick’s Day feast!  To the quilt center that we showed you how to make last week, we added borders and four more of the same nine patch blocks for the corners.  Each of the borders are made of three 2.5″ strips sewn together, then cut into 18.5″ lengths.We also finished off the shamrock appliques with embroidered stems and blanket stitch edging.  We used fabric from Windham’s Petit Fleur for the shamrocks.We did free motion quilting around each shamrock and diagonal straight line quilting throughout the nine patches and borders.  Domestic machine quilting on a small project is really fun if you have Bernina’s BSR foot for free motion and a walking foot for the straight stitch!  The BSR is pricey, but if you do a lot of free motion it’s well worth the money.  How did we ever get along without them?For the backing, we picked the green medallion print from Riley Blake’s Madhuri line.  As promised, here are the real shamrocks (kind of) in bloom.  Also shown is a handmade moss egg, featured years ago on Audrey’s long-forgotten craft blog.  You can still see the tutorial here: Moss & Aspen Decor Egg.This is the second of our seasonal table toppers this year, after our Valentine’s XOXO.  We hope to add a few more to the collection throughout the year!  Have a lucky day tomorrow, and we’ll see you next week.  Be sure to tag us #theclothparcel with your projects!