You are here: Home > Users > Fun Stuff > Mystery Quilts > Benni Harper Mystery Lessons > Lesson 2

Benni Harper Mystery Lesson 2: Irish Chain

quilt design by Tina Davis

This is one version of the Irish Chain, a pattern with many design variations. The origin of the Irish Chain quilt pattern is unknown, but it is very old. The color arrangement of the fabric pieces creates the "chain" effect. The single chain in made with two contrasting colors or prints, but can also be expanded to make a double, triple, or quadruple chain. The color combinations become more varied and the pattern more complex as chains are added. The chain can go on and on, making a quilt as large as desired. It is only stopped with the quilter decides to end it.

Start the Irish Chain project

1. Open EQ5.
2. Click the Create a New Project tab (it appears immediately when you open EQ5).
   OR
   On the FILE menu, choose New.
3. Type: Benni-Irish.
4. Click OK.

Get ready to draw

5. On the WORKTABLE menu, click Work on Block.
6. On the BLOCK menu, point to New Block, click EasyDraw. A blank block appears, with the EasyDraw tools.
7. Look at the bottom of your screen, just above the task bar. It says "Snap points."
   

   Snap points are what we call the grid points across the EasyDraw block. Lines must snap to these points.

   The reason EasyDraw got its name is because it lets you create patches by simply drawing lines (rather than drawing complete patches, as in PatchDraw). This makes it easy for you to draw a nine-patch with four tic-tac-toe lines rather than needing to draw nine squares and fit them together.

   But in order for EQ to create patches from the lines you draw, you need to start and stop your line so all segments of the drawing connect to one another at "Snap points." When EQ finds these points where segments touch or intersect each other it can define a patch. But EQ can't define a patch unless it can find these points.

   When you choose a finer grid (more snap points) not all of the dots are drawn because it makes the drawing board too cluttered. If the number of points is 32 or less, all dots are drawn. For horizontal and vertical settings of 33-64, every other dot gets drawn; units of 65-128, every 4; settings of 129-192, every 8th dot gets drawn.

   Think of Snap points as graph paper divisions. Example: If you only had 3 graph paper squares, you could not draw a 4 patch block. It just wouldn't fit. In the same manner, your drawing must fit the Snap points on your block.

   Most blocks can be drawn on 24 x 24 Snap points. But 5-patch, 7-patch and others, can't fit on 24 x 24 Snap points.

   General Rule: Your Snap points must be evenly divisible by your patch number.
   24 x 24 Snap points are evenly divisible by 4 and 9 for a 4-patch or 9 patch, for example.
   25 x 25 Snap points are evenly divisible by 5 for a 5-patch.
   28 x 28 Snap points are evenly divisible by 7, for a 7-patch.
   

   

   Test Question: Look at this block. Could you draw this block with 24 x 24 Snap points? Hint: Count the number of times the small square patch would fit across the block. Does this number divide into 24 evenly?

   Answer: Yes. You can draw this on a 24 x 24 Snap point grid. The small square would fit 8 times across the block, which evenly divides into 24.

8. Click BLOCK on the main menu bar and choose Drawing Board Setup.
9. If necessary, change the Snap to Grid Points to 24 x 24. Change the block size to 8 x 8 (you do this only to change the ruler markings, to aid you in drawing. The block can still be any size when you print it.
10. Click OK.
11. With the Line tool selected , draw 4 lines to divide your block up into an uneven 4 patch, as shown. Start your lines at the 2" and 6" ruler points.
12. Now draw two lines across each small square, making each a 4-patch, as shown. Start your lines at the 1" and 7" ruler points.
13. Finally, draw two lines to divide the large center square into an uneven 4 patch, as shown. Start your lines at the 3" and 5" ruler points.

Color the block

14. Click the Color tab.
15. Color the block however you'd like, but to get the chain effect in your quilt, color all the squares the same color, as shown.
16. Click Save in Sketchbook .

Make a quilt layout

17. Click WORKTABLE on the main menu bar and choose Work on Quilt.
18. Click QUILT on the main menu bar, point to New Quilt and choose Horizontal.
19. Click the Layout tab.
20. Make the number of blocks 4 Horizontal, 6 Vertical.
21. Make the block size 12. (It doesn't matter that we set block size for 8 when we drew the block. That was to help draw, making the ruler show 8 markings across the block.)
22. Make the sashing 0.
23. Click the Borders tab.
24. Make the border style Mitered, and the size .50. It will look like a binding.

Fill the layout with blocks

25. Click the Layer 1 tab.
26. Click the Set tool . Click the block you drew to select it.
27. Click a right-facing arrow beneath the block to display your colored block. Hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard as you click on any blank block in your quilt. Your quilt will now fill, and you can see the chain effect made by the chain of squares.
28. Click the Paintbrush tool . Color your quilt border (binding) however you would like. If you want to zoom in on it, click the Zoom in tool , then drag the cursor to form a zoom in box on the border. To zoom back out, click the Zoom out tool .
29. Click the Save in Sketchbook button .
30. Click the View Sketchbook button and click the Quilts tab.
31. Click the Notecard button.
32. In the top Name field, type: "My Irish Chain quilt".
33. Click the "X" in the bottom-right to close the Sketchbook.
34. Click the Save button to save your notecard information.
35. Your Irish Chain project is now complete, and saved on the hard drive.

Print the blocks (optional)

36. To print templates for the block, be on Layer 1. Click the Select tool . Click on a block on the quilt. Click FILE - Print - Templates. Click the Size from quilt box. Click Print.

Here's how Tina Davis' quilt looks. How does your quilt look?

to be continued with another Benni Harper mystery quilt