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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.

Saturday, August 30, 2014

A Parade of My Own Schnibble Quilts

Hi Everyone,

If you are a regular reader of my blog, maybe you noticed that I haven't posted any entries for Schnibbles quilt parades lately?  There are two reasons:  the first was that I missed doing/posting the last two entries and the second reason is that we took the summer off.  Sinta at the Pink Pincushion announced earlier last week that it will resume again on September First and the new round will be called:  Another Year of Schnibbles and a Little Bit More!  The last "round" was called Vintage Schnibbles.  In preparation for the next, Sinta invited us to post our own parade from Vintage Schnibbles, so here are mine!

The first Vintage Schnibbles parade was on May 1, 2013 and featured the pattern Hat Trick.

It is made from the leftovers of my very first Schnibble, and the fabric line is Urban Cowgirl.  That is still one of my most favorite lines of fabric that isn't RWB.



The June 1 parade featured Gentle Art.  The spool blocks were lots of fun to make and looked great in any fabric.  I chose the line, Fellowship, by Jan Patek.  This quilt has since gone to California to live at my sister's house.




On July 1, the chosen pattern was Dulcinea.  At that time, I was into my "39 Days of Patriotism" where I was only working on RWB (red, white, and blue) projects.   For my version, I used bits and pieces of my patriotic fabric stash.


The parade for August 1 was made of quilts using the pattern Lincoln.  The pattern's name of a President inspired me to use a piece of fabric that I had had for several years that featured reproductions of the old collectible cigar silks with the faces of the Presidents.  I made a larger version of the Lincoln pattern in order to use each President that was present on the fabric.

Here is a close up of one of the Presidents--Mr. Lincoln himself,
and below is the entire quilt.




September First was a parade of Canasta Schnibbles.  I made my version from French General scraps and yardage and as a fun alteration, I scalloped the border.  I think it is one of my top five favorite Schnibbles!  I renamed it Colonial Canasta after getting this awesome picture of it with members of a fife and drum corps.


During September, for the parade on October first, the pattern to make was Mercerie. For this one, I went back to using charm packs and yardage from one line:  Seascapes by Deb Strain.  With such an ocean feel to it, I took it to a beach for it's photo.


The November First parade was comprised of quilts made from the pattern Clover.  For a quilt made entirely of 2.5" squares, it should have been easy, but when a quilt is named after a seam ripper, it must be for a reason!  You can read all about my drama here.   I think this was the first parade where my quilt was entered but hadn't been quilted yet.  If you remember, when I decided to participate in this group, I made myself a promise that each entry would be entirely finished--quilted, and bound.  I didn't want unfinished tops to pile up.  Anyway, I did get Clover finished a few days later and it now lives in my parent's living room.


November was now upon us and I was getting into the holiday mood, so when the next pattern was announced, Morning Joe, I decided to make it using Primitive Gatherings "Snowman Gatherings" fabric (with a solid red background) and to also make some changes to make it more snowman-like.  Another difference between this Schnibble and others is that usually I just meander the quilting, but for this project, it felt right to do something more "custom."  I love when these moods come upon me as it gives me a chance to experiment and "grow" with my machine quilting.

Here is my version of  "Morning Joe, Sam, Bill, and Ed."


A closeup showing detail of the machine quilting and embellishments.
I was completely thrilled when Lisa Bongean (Queen Primitive Gatherings herself) made a comment on my blog post!!!!

Since the holidays were now in full swing, there was a break until January 1 when the next Schnibble was announced for a parade on February 1.  

That pattern was Jersey Girl.  Again I changed things up a bit.  I had been wanting/longing for, a "leaf block" Schnibble and so far, Carrie had not delivered!  However, with the addition of some stems, the Jersey Girl block made a perfect leaf.  

I used bits of Harvest Moon by Kansas Troubles.  For the background, I pulled out all sorts of bits and scraps of fabric from my stash that seemed to be the right shade--I loved the scrappiness of it.  I also added a great "piped" binding.




The March parade was "Quilter's Choice" meaning we could make any pattern we wished.  Since my spool block quilt, Gentle Art, went to my sister's house, I decided to make Short Story, which also makes a slightly different spool block.  For it, I used Minick and Simpson's Midwinter Reds with a blue solid background.


"Hook" was the pattern for the April parade.  I was crushing on Lori Holt's Bakesale line so that was the charms I used.  I struggled more to find a good background fabric.  I tried a few options before settling on a solid red.  This pattern was a little bit more technically challenging, too, since it was made of angled pieces.  It went together fine for me, although sewing the rows together required pressing things open, and there was quite a bit of bulk where all the points came together.


The next parade was to feature any pattern by Camille Roskelley at Thimbleblossoms.  By then I was really busy with other things and did not participate.  The final pattern was Carrie Nelson's once more:  X-Rated.
We could either make the version using 5" squares or 10" squares.  I didn't blog about mine, but I did use a layer cake and made a version.  The reason I didn't share is that I made it with Grant Park fabric and it was for the backing of my Blogger Girls BOM quilt.

Here it is.  It did make a great back for the quilt, too!  This pattern was fun and quick to make.

And...  that's it!  We've been "on break" ever since, and I'm really excited for the next phase!  I hope some of you play along.  If you are interested, you can get details here.

I hope all of you here in the US have a great and safe holiday weekend!
JoAnne

14 comments:

  1. Loved seeing your parade. Here's to a great new season of parades....

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  2. Lovely parade of quilts - enjoy your holiday weekend.

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  3. I really enjoyed seeing your parade of Schnibbles, and reading the accompanying comments. Those quilts look like they are so fun to do (because they're small???), but I've always been involved in other projects and haven't joined the fun. Anyhow, since you talked about doing your own machine quilting, I wanted to tell you about a class I just took with Sue Nickels. She is an award winning machine quilter, who has been machine quilting for about 30 years, so she really knows her stuff. (I've taken 2 other mach quilting classes from people, who, it turns out, really didn't know very much about it.) I took Sue's class in Ann Arbor, MI at the Ann Arbor Sewing Center (not too far from Indiana, and worth the trip!!) She also teaches at quilt conventions, sometimes, and is sponsoring a quilt retreat w/ her sister. She is excellent!!! I never thought I'd be able to do machine quilting on my home machine, and now I have the confidence to do it. If you have any interest in doing machine quilting, I highly recommend a Sue Nickels class.

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    1. I second your comments and feelings, Margaret. I took a two day class with Sue Nickels while living in Pittsburgh, PA several years ago. It was tremendous and the hands on attention she provided every single student was REALLY helpful. Recently I attended AQS in Grand Rapids and had a chance to take her lecture on tips and tricks for the home machine quilter ... again, AMAZING information. Sue Nickels is a wonderful teach and anyone who can should take her class! She and her sister (Pat Holly) have week long workshops in Elk Rapids, Michigan ... taking over the forum that was headed for many years by Gwen Marsden, another great name in quilting. Check out the details on Sue's website! Linda

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  4. I love a parade that I can enjoy from the comfort of my own home! This was pure delight, JoAnne! I don't know how you all keep up making a specific little quilt each month. I could never do it, but I sure love seeing the results of your efforts. Very inspiring! : )

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  5. Amazing parade! Thanks so much. I know that post took forever to write!

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  6. Great eye candy, JoAnne. You do such great work! Love your color choices and would have to say that Jersey Girl was probably my most favorite of the ones you shared with us. I am very (VERY) tempted to check into the new phase ... may just have to check out that link you shared! Again, thanks for the mini quilt show and can't wait to see what you pull out of your stash going forward! Linda

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  7. Fun to take a trip down memory lane with so many adorable quilts! I'll be curious to see what the new year of Schnibbles brings....

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  8. The Canasta Schnibble my favorite!

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  9. Wow...loved all of these! Great job...and amazing that you used the X-rated for a back! Looking forward to see what you come up with in the next parade!

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  10. Well done JoAnne! Great post and great parade! My two favourites of yours are Canasta and Gentle Art. I really need to try a scalloped border. Looking forward to your next Schnibbles.

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  11. They all look so great together! I'm still impressed that you managed to finish them all (quilting included) each month. I'm looking forward to Sinta and Sherri starting back up for another year. I didn't join in as often as you did, but it's still a lot of fun!

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  12. Awesome, JoAnne! It's amazing to look back and see all that we have done. One of my favorites of yours is Mercerie, love the fabric and your photo shot location!

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  13. You have an amazing collection of Schnibbles...I enjoyed your parade. I look forward to the monthly parades.

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