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Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Fabric... Welcome to the Patriotic Quilter where I like to share all things quilty as well as red, white, and blue! Please feel free to look around and enjoy yourself! I would love to hear from you.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

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

15 comments:

  1. Ooooo... very nice! Very nice indeed!

    How cool that you were able to find additional fabrics... you did luck out!

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  2. How very lucky for you! It does blend in so much better too. I'm very impressed that you got yours quilted as well, even after all the extra work. I finished my top and got it basted, but that's it. I struggled with the fabric just like you. You're right about not ever fabric working for these small quilts, but I think yours turned out very pretty!

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  3. Beautiful :-) I had to reconfigure mine a bit too! I love your final result! Love that fabric too :-)

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  4. I love it !

    I have this Urban Cowgirl fabric & your quilt is just adorable ! I have a layer cake & already bought my backing for a quilt I have in mind :-D

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  5. Very nice! You did a wonderful job with it.

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  6. That's one of my favorite lines of fabric...it's so pretty.

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  7. I liked your quilt in the first picture but I loved it in the second picture. Good idea to chance the setting triangle fabric made a big difference.

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  8. I really love your version and the fabrics choice, wonderful !

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  9. Ripping out was definitely the right thing to do. I love how your Hat Trick turned out and I especially love the 9-patch strip on the back. Great job!

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  10. I love the soft colors and the border print--very pretty!

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  11. Yep--I just found out the truth about "not every fabric works" myself--I changed the border out (like you) to get some of the quilt to mellow out, and then tried to reinforce that with quilting. I suppose everytime we do a Schnibbles it will be another learning adventure?

    Beautiful quilt--it turned out really lovely.
    Elizabeth E.
    opquilt.com

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  12. Well JoAnne you did it again! Another great looking Schnibbles. I have to agree with you, the second try with the different setting triangles is so much prettier. Just a warmer look. What really blows me away though are the flowers beside your little beauty! Gracious we still have patches of snow in our yard. Daffodils are starting, but there sure is not much green around. on my walk yesterday I noticed there are still pussy willows. It would seem we are worlds apart as far as weather.
    I have to say I love the back of your Hat Trick. It is so nice to have surprises on the backs of quilts and that lovely little line of nine patches is just the ticket! well done!

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  13. JoAnne....I am not a fan of a seam ripper....but I do use one when needed. You redoing those setting triangles was the right thing to do!! LOOKS GREAT!

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  14. I love it! Good job!

    I loved that Urban Cowgirl line too but I also struggled with making the collection work. There was too much of this... not enough of that... at least that was my problem with it.

    I also agree - while some of the patterns will work with almost anything, some of them only work with a few collections. (It doesn't help that some recent collections have 30 fabrics that are all the same value and scale... grrrr.)

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