A Sarah's Revival Update

Hi Everyone,

I've been quilting!  I have a few things to show, too!  For this post, I'm going to focus on the hand-applique.  I was just checking to see when I last had an update to my Sarah's Revival blocks, and I was surprised to see that the last one I posted was back in February when I was working away on blocks during the Winter Olympics.  Of course, I probably haven't had much more progress to share!

I have finished two blocks here in Indiana, though.  In case you are new to my blog and don't know much about this project, it is a pattern by Sue Garman.

It features 36 "paper cut" appliqued blocks.  "Paper cut" refers to the process when you fold paper/fabric as you would paper to cut a snowflake--and then cut the pattern out of the resulting folded triangle.

Recently, I completed my 26th block, so I only have 10 more to go!!  (And then the borders...)

Some of the remaining blocks are the most complex yet, so what I really need to do is work at them more consistently.  If I stitch for a few hours a day and then set it aside for a week or longer, it takes a bit to get going again with smooth results.  In Virginia, I was letting two weeks or longer pass between my efforts, as I mostly worked on it at Bee.  Here in our apartment, I'm getting a little station all set up so that I can work at it as I watch TV.   Hand applique gets better and easier the more I do it.  There are two weeks and a few more days until we close on the house, and I don't have much to do in that time but wait, so I'm challenging myself to get three blocks done!  Do you think I can do it?

Have a great day!
JoAnne

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