When I first began working on what would become Norwegian Chain, the idea was to stay very close to the original inspiration: the tiny black cross-stitches on the white headscarf of my bunad (Norwegian national costume). That naturally turned into a calm, classic two-color quilt.
My bunad is from the Sunnmøre region of Norway.
But then, as often happens, I started playing around with the blocks and colors. And suddenly the same structure felt completely different. A little more playful. So this pattern ended up becoming two quilts in one.
Norwegian Chain comes in two versions, and both are included in the same pattern:
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A 2-color version — calm, graphic, and very close to the original embroidery
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A 5-color version — built from the same blocks, but with a much more playful and lively feeling
The construction is almost the same for both, with just a slightly simpler sashing in the 2-color version.
2-color, bed size
5-color, small throw size
Three sizes
The pattern includes three sizes:
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Baby: 38" x 38" (97 x 97 cm)
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Small throw: 54" x 54" (137 x 137 cm)
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Bed: 82" x 82" (208 x 208 cm)
The photo below shows the bed size on a 180x200 cm bed, which is a tad smaller than a king size bed. As you can see, the bed size isn't large enough to drape down on both sides of a bed this big, but you could always add more blocks to make it even bigger.
Easy to sew, easy to adapt
Norwegian Chain is a beginner-friendly pattern, and a lot of the quilt is built using strip piecing, which helps keep things accurate and makes the process faster.
I also added a coloring page to the pattern as usual, because this is exactly the kind of quilt where it’s fun to try out a few ideas before you start cutting fabric. And if you've tried some of my other patterns, you know that I also like to include info on how to make it scrappy, and some labels to keep stuff organised as you go.
A little bird watching over the label! PS: This fabric is from the Bird is the word collection by Ruby Star Society.
The cover quilt has a solid warm white background and I've used a variety of black fabrics to go with it.
The story behind it
This design is rooted in Norwegian textile tradition and my own bunad (national costume), and if you’re curious about that part of the story, you can read my blog post about the inspiration.
The name kind of gave itself, out of its resemblance to the classic Irish Chain quilt pattern!
Look how extremely tiny that cross-stitch is!
Get the pattern
You can find Norwegian Chain in the shop here. I’d really love to see which direction you take it — calm and classic, or playful and colorful.