Hat Trick

Hi Everyone,

It was so exciting to have Sinta and Sherri announce the first Schnibble of the Vintage Schnibble pattern for the year.  It is Hat Trick!  I was so excited but first I had to decide which fabrics to use.  I think I decided on two or three different  groups when I remembered the first Schnibble from last year.  The pattern was ISTH and I chose to use the Urban Cowgirls line of fabric for it.  The first lesson I learned is that not every Schnibble pattern works well with different lines of fabric.  I love this fabric, but I struggled and struggled with it.  I ordered more to try different alternatives, and finally finished ISTH.  Consequently, I had lots of leftovers and I've been wanting to use them, so Hat Trick seemed like an ideal choice.

I was limited to my leftovers, as this line of fabric isn't readily available any more.  I made my plan and proceeded.  I didn't have a lot of the cream/neutral fabric so I added in another cream.  I finished the quilt top.  I altered the pattern, which used a pieced top and bottom border only, to just frame the quilt center since I had plenty of the gorgeous yellow floral. 

 

 

It was okay, but I didn't like how the other cream I was using was quite a bit lighter than the cream of the fabric line.  It was on my design wall when I went on a shop hop with some friends.  We went into the back country of Virginia--I'm not sure just where--and even went to a shop in North Carolina.  In that shop, low and behold, she had quite a few bolts of Urban Cowgirl!  With binding in mind, I got a quarter of a yard of the cream and yellow plaid.   Meanwhile, my parents came and so things were "marinating" in my head for nearly a week.  Finally when I got back to my studio, I decided that maybe I could use the cream/yellow plaid for the setting triangles.  So I took the borders off, and ripped the quilt apart and used the new setting triangles. 

 

 

It looked much better!  I even got it layered, quilted, and finished the binding this morning!  After a wash to get it crinkly, here is the result.

 

 

I took the photo outside for better light, but the light was almost too bright and wanted to wash out the fabrics.  I love this picture by the azalea bushes, though!



  I even pieced the back, trying to use up all the leftovers.  You can't tell because of the "washing out" that the skinny light strip towards the center is actually pieced nine patch.

This pieced strip was a failed attempt at a border for the ISTH Schnibble. 

All in all, what should have been a pretty easy project took some rethinking, but I think it came out great in the end.  Examples of the finished projects are popping up all over blogland and the results are so different from each other!  This is going to be a great parade, so be sure to stop by Sinta and Sherri's blogs tomorrow to catch all of them.

Have a great day!
JoAnne

The Winner

Hi Everyone,

I know that it should be Scrap Basket Sunday, but with company all week, I didn't get much done in the sewing room except for working on my Schnibble of the month.  I will be posting more about that this week. 

Today is the day that I'm announcing the winner of my celebratory giveaway.  Before I do, I want to thank everyone for commenting.  Hearing about all of your celebrations was remarkable!  I hope some of you read through them.  There were some extraordinary events being celebrated and my heart
soars for you all!

 

 

 

I let the random number generator do the work and it chose comment number 22.  I had 48 comments over all, but the last one was spam.  There was one other spam one as well, and if that had won I would have disqualified it, however the winner was comment number #22 which was Me and My Stitches who wrote:

 

Congrats on the followers! I want one of these little lights, have seen them all over blog land, but there is no Ikea near me! I celebrate every single day - love my life and my job!

 

I have emailed her and am waiting for a response. 

 

Have a great day!

JoAnne

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Binding Parade

Hi Everyone,

Edited:  I was having some problems with photos and I hopefully have them corrected thanks to my computer-savvy husband.  It is a good thing it is Saturday and he is home!


Thanks so much for sharing your fun bindings!  Going to my email mailbox and finding your photos was every bit as much fun as going to the real mailbox and finding a fun treat. 

First up are these wonderful examples from Linda.  She is an RN and says she is too busy for a blog.  I believe it--when I worked I barely even had time to quilt.

I love how she has trimmed this tree skirt with giant ric rac!

Next is her photo of charity baby blankets where she sewed leftover strips together for the binding.  I love this because I have sewn longer strips together, but I love how the shorter bits look.

 

 

Next up, Karen from Moose Bay Muses share a few of her striped bindings.  The first one, on her dynamite version of "A Bountiful Life," features a very subtle stripe.

 

 

 

 

And this one has a lovely tone-on-tone stripe.

 

Norece sent some nice pictures and mentioned that she no longer has some good examples, and I discovered that was true for me, too.  I know I have photos somewhere, but I recently took most of my older pictures off the computer and I have no huge desire to load them back on.  Anyway, it is no surprise that I love this patriotic-striped binding.



 

 

 

 

Here is a nice plaid one:





 

I have to point out that Norece used the serpentine stitch to sew her binding down just like I did on those charity baby quilts.  This must be a popular technique for quilters.

 

 

 

And here is her final submission--this cool Halloween stripe.  Stripes are so versatile! 

 

 

Michele from Island Life Quilts sent me these two pictures of striped bindings: 

 

This black one is so perfect for the fabrics!

 

 

 

And a bias striped binding on a Christmas quilt always looks like candy canes!

 

 I also heard from Marti from 52 quilts who shared this tutorial for a wonderful binding with a flange.  I'm going to have to try this!  You can see the tutorial here and this is a photo of how it looks:

 

Isn't it cool?

 

 

Way back in the beginning days of my blog, I shared my own tutorial of how I matched the stripes while sewing the binding strips together for my Roll Roll Cotton Bole Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt. Here is a photo so you can get the general idea and then you can click the link for more information. 

 

 

I looked through my quilts to see what other interesting bindings I had and came up with these:

 

Another stripe, cut on the bias for the diagonal effect



I love the look of a homespun plaid cut on the bias as well.  Perfect for an old-fashioned scrap quilt.

 

 

Probably my most "interesting" one.  This is my Doc Schnibble.  I used a fancy stripe for the binding.

 

 

Thanks again to everyone who shared!  This was a really fun post to do.  Come back tomorrow to find out the winner of my Celebration.  The deadline was last night at midnight and I've already drawn the winner, but she will have to wait until tomorrow to find out!

 

Have a great weekend!

JoAnne

 

I'm Back!

Hi Everyone,

My parents left this morning so I'm back to writing and reading other blogs.  I'm afraid I've missed things, but maybe I will get caught up.  While they were here, we had a really good time going on different outings and seeing fun things.  Flat Kiley is still visiting (I need to mail her back on Monday) so it was fun taking her out and posing her.  Here are some highlights.

Note: please don't share this with anyone in Virginia (or the South for that matter).  If this photo gets out, I may be kicked out of the state! (Ha ha ha.  I think....)

Yes, I had the audacity to put a paper doll on the statue of Robert E. Lee!  Just so you know, I waited until everyone else left the room.  They take their Robert E. Lee REALLY serious here!

 

The statue was in the Virginia Capital building in Richmond.





Our family really likes to visit state Capitals.  They are so historic and usually very beautiful buildings.  Virginia's was designed by Thomas Jefferson!  Do any of you like visiting Capitals and have you visited your state's?   When we signed the guestbook, the entry ahead of ours said that this was their 46th one--just 4 more to go.  Whoever it is has seen more than me!

We went to the Great Dismal Swamp.  This week is their big birding festival.  We went a few days before it started with high hopes.  We saw one buzzard fly over.  That was it.  The scenery was gorgeous, though.

 

 

We also went to a local Nature Park and as we were walking along, this blue heron decided to step out right in front of us. 

 

My parents hadn't yet been to Colonial Williamsburg, so we went there.  The best part was seeing the Marquis de Lafayette.  This re-enactor is brilliant.  He speaks French and is so knowledgeable and animated.  (By the way--we saw more birds at Colonial Williamsburg than any of the nature preserves combined!)

 

The very next day we went to Yorktown battlefield.  In case your American history isn't strong, Yorktown was the battle where the British forces surrendered to the Americans and French--the place where we EARNED our freedom.  During the course of the battle, two British redoubts had to be captured.  One was taken by the Americans, under the command of Alexander Hamilton, and the other was taken by the French, with General Lafayette in command.  At the museum, they even have his cannon--the real one, and not a reproduction.

 

Kiley is perched on the wheel of Lafayette's cannon.

 

Don't forget that if you have pictures of fun binding ideas, please email them to me at patrioticquilter@gmail.com today.  Tomorrow is the parade of ideas and there are some good ones! 

 

See you then!

JoAnne









Scrap Basket Sunday #4

Hi Everyone,

I'm back linking up with Kim over at her blog because she is organizing Scrap Basket Sundays.  On Sunday we write a blog post about the projects that we are working on to use up our scraps.  The past several weeks, I've been making small quilts from the book, Simply Charming, however, this week I took a break.

At our Bee meeting last Wednesday, we discussed that our group should really make a Quilt of Valor.  When I got home, I googled around for some possibilities and on Pinterest found a mention of using Bonnie Hunter's Star Struck quilt pattern in red, white, and blue as a QOV.  I decided to pull out my 2.5" strips and experiment.

I love the way it came out!  I actually had 4 more, but I have temporarily misplaced them, so I don't have them to show you.  I made a mistake with two and ended up with a mirror image of this block.    When I showed them to my husband, he couldn't see the error so I told him, one set of stars spin one way and the other spin the other way.  He deadpanned in a near-perfect Phil Robertson imitation:  "I like the way this is turning..."   (Phil is from Duck Dynasty--we love that show!)  Now I want to make a quilt in this pattern for me, so I can call it that! 

This pattern is so easy--I could quickly use up a whole bunch of strips.  We'll see if the other ladies like it.  I know that I do--and it is so quick and easy!

Also, don't forget to leave a comment on my blog post here for my celebratory giveaway.  And also, if you have binding ideas/photos please email me at patrioticquilter@gmail.com so I can share them in an upcoming post next Saturday!

Have a great day!
JoAnne

A Celebration!

Hi Everyone,

I really want to write and thank all of you for visiting and commenting.  It has been so much fun getting to know many of you!  I really enjoy all of your feedback.  This post is to celebrate the fact that I now have 100 followers (a goal for a long time) AND that this is my 250th post.  Who would have thought I would have enough to say to write that many times!

To celebrate, I'm going to have a giveaway.  One of "the lights" that I got from Ikea plus I have a few other things to tuck into the package.

To enter, all you have to do is comment on this post by midnight next Friday.  In your comment I would love to hear something that your are celebrating or are anticipating celebrating soon. 

I'm having company for the next week so I'm not sure if I will be posting much.  Don't forget to send any binding ideas to me at patrioticquilter@gmail.com if you would like to have them featured in the parade.  The deadline for that is also next Friday.  A few of you have already sent some and I'm loving them!  It will be a great post on Saturday, the 27th.

Have a wonderful day and thanks again for being such great people!
JoAnne

A Few Finishes

Hello Everyone,

Boy, this has just been a terrible week!  I fervently hope that it can be over without any more big news stories.  We woke this morning to the news about the big explosion in West, Texas.  We used to live at Fort Hood, Texas, and whenever we drove back to South Dakota, we would stop in West at the Czech Stop for kolaches.  I'm Czech on my father's side of the family and although no one makes as good kolaches as my Grandma did, theirs are pretty tasty.  (a kolache is a pastry)

I am happy to show some finishes today.  First up is a purse that I've been working on the past week.  When I went to the quilt shop in Manassas (after our Ikea experience) I found this pattern and got it.  It is by Pink Sand Beach Designs and is called "Barbados."

The pattern called for using fusible fleece to provide the substance, however, on other projects, I've used ByAnnie's Soft and Stable and I really like the body that product provides to bags and purses, so I experimented and used it.  Because the Soft and Stable isn't fusible, I had to do some quilting to attach the fabric to the product, but that was easy enough.  The only issue is that I also used it in the lining, and I think that made for a bit too many thicknesses--the lining doesn't lay as nice as I would like, so the next time I make this, I'll use the S&S on the outside, and fleece on the inside.

It is a great size with the necessary pockets for my tastes.  On the front is a zippered pocket as well as a large pocket behind the tan batik accent strip.

The back features a large pocket that is divided into two--perfect for sunglasses and cell phone!

There are two small pockets inside, as well.  Now that I made the pattern, I can see that one could easily add more pockets to the lining. 

I had never made a pattern from this company before.  While I found the pattern to be confusing while just reading it (I always try to read the pattern first, before I start construction) when I was working with the fabric and had a visual in front of me, it was easier to see what was meant in the instructions.  I will be making more of these bags!

Here are my other two finishes:

Our king sized quilt came back from the longarmer!  I bound it entirely by machine. 

While it was in the laundry, getting all crinkly, I made the bedskirt.  Both the binding fabric and the skirt fabric are from Old Glory Gatherings by Primitive Gatherings.  Not surprisingly, I LOVE that fabric line.

Don't forget that you can email me photos of your favorite bindings and please come back tomorrow.  This week I got my one hundredth follower and my next post will be my 250th, so I am celebrating with a giveaway!  See you then!

JoAnne

How Would You Like to Share?

Hi Everyone,

I got many comments on my post on Sunday about using binding made of checks, plaids, and stripes.  It seems that I am not the only person who likes those types of fabrics as bindings.  I thought it would be fun to showcase some of mine as well as some of your favorite bindings.  They don't necessarily have to be plaid, check, or stipe, but if you have a picture of a creative binding and would like to share it, I would love to have a parade of bindings!  Just email me a photo or two at patrioticquilter@gmail.com by a week from Friday.  I will plan the post to be on Saturday, April 27. 


Meanwhile, this package arrived.  A large box and lots of packing material--all that was in it was a quilt book.

 

The book is totally awesome, by the way.  The Blue and The Gray by the Country Threads ladies, Mary Etherington and Connie Tesene

Thanks for sharing!
JoAnne

Night Guild Presentation

Hi Everyone,

We were very lucky to have two really great programs at guild this month.  The presenter at the night guild was a local man by the name of Steve Albright.  He is a retired city planner.  When he worked, he usually had to travel quite a bit and early on he began visiting antique stores and flea markets, etc.  He quickly realized that if he bought textiles, they were much easier to pack in his suitcase than say, china figurines.  So he began collecting old quilts and quilt tops and fabric.  He is now an expert in old fabrics and restoration.  He admits he does something a bit controversial.  He hand-quilts many of his old tops and finally makes them into a finished quilt.  He hand-quilts beautifully.  Anyway, he brought a trunk show for us.  AND HE LET US HANDLE THE QUILTS!!!

He began by saying that he normally finds most quilters to be really happy people.  (I had never thought about that, but really--it is true!)  He said quilters really like to eat and usually have great food, too.  Finally, he said since most quilters are women, he never has a line for the restroom.  He said none of that ever happened at his realjob! 

Anyway, enough chit chat--lets get to the eye candy!

 

That being said, these first two are antique tops that he won't ever finish and couldn't be passed around as they are too fragile.  I believe he said the brown one above was from the 1840s.  Look at the chevron border!

You can never go wrong with nine-patch, can you?

 

 

Look at this one!  Do you see the problem towards the bottom?  Sigh...  red and white.

 

 

This one was just the blocks when he bought them, and he put them together with the double-pink.  In this case, the double-pink is the old fabric, not a repro.  He found yards of it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I guess I'm getting lots of nice pictures of the backs of the head of the ladies in front of me, but still, the quilts are so nice!

Look at this double T

 

Now they are coming around to me so I could get closeups.

 

This is that red and white one.  Look at the black polka dot fabric!  I love how far apart the dots are.

 

 

Here is the detail of the strippy one.  That red fabric looks exactly like one from Minick and Simpson!  I have some of it!  Steve quilted lovely leaves in the background.

 

He had several "kit quilts."  I'm in love with this dogwood one! 

Here are the closeup pics.

 

The brown bits look just like chocolate chips, don't they?  Lots of applique!

Details of the quilting.  And below is the backing.  It is a reproduction, from the period of the quilt, which is 1930s, of course.

 

 

Closeups and the back of the flying geese one. 

Pickle Dish.  In yellow.  Be still my heart!

If I'm remembering correctly, he found this as a pair and quilted them both--one with yellow thread, and one with white. 

 

 

Another spectacular kit quilt!  The applique is amazing.

Did you notice the cool scalloped borders?  It reminds me of another picture that I saw on facebook.

 

 

Have a great day!
JoAnne