Hook-ed

Hi Everyone,

Thank you everyone for your feedback on my post yesterday!  It was a fun day to read all of your lovely comments.  I will take pictures of my visit to the quilt museum and share them with you.

Also, don't forget that you have until midnight tonight to leave a comment on this post in order to have a chance to win the giveaway.  I will announce the winner on Monday.

This month's Schnibble pattern was Hook.


The pattern was announced during the big Mid-Atlantic Quilt Fest.  I already had the pattern so I got it out to read and discovered that a 60 degree ruler would help make things easier and then I realized I didn't have one, so we went back to the show on Sunday so I could purchase one.

Sometimes I have a hard time choosing what fabric to use, and sometimes it is easy.  This month's choice was easy.  I opened up my drawer of charm packs, and Bakesale, by Lori Holt, was practically shouting "pick me, pick me!" So I did.  I have lots of solid white to put with the charms.

When I look at the quilt on the cover of Carrie's pattern, above, I see lots of white space.  I know that appeals to lots of you out there, but for some reason, it wasn't appealing to me.  Luckily, I had seen another version of Hook that Carrie made in which she chose to place another fabric as the plain triangle.

The idea of using another fabric appealed to me, and I knew just which one!  I had yards and yards of a Lori Holt striped fabric from a previous line, and it would coordinate perfectly with Bakesale.  So I got to work.  The way that Carrie instructs you to make and cut the pieced triangle star points is just brilliant!  I loved making them.  I assembled the half-block units and lined them up on my design wall.  I cut the alternate triangles from the striped fabric, and...   ... hated them!  The stripe is complex so it looked all chopped and busy.  I didn't really have enough of any other Lori Holt fabric to use and I still didn't want to use more white, so it hung out on the design wall for a while.

About a week later, I realized that I had some red solid.  One of the charms squares I used in making the star points was solid red, so I replaced those with some others and then cut red triangles and put them in place.  Oh boy!  The quilt started singing!!

Then the fun in the construction of this project came to a screeching halt.  It wasn't that it was hard, it was just that you needed to press seams open.  I don't enjoy that.  And then sewing the long rows together, I had to be careful to match the points.

Using fork pins helped.  But not much.  I ripped out a few places and redid some bits of seams to fix some problem areas, and slowly I got it all together.  After that, it was easy to piece the leftover strips in order to make an inner border and then the quilt was all together.

I love the bright, happy, vintage look to Lori's fabrics!  I did sneak in a few scraps of Sew Cherry (from another past fabric line.)

It would have been a great quilt to stitch in the ditch, but wherever the points meet up, there is quite a lump of fabric, so I just took the easy way out and meandered all over it.

I was able to use the striped fabric as the binding!

If you want to see more versions of this quilt, head on over to Sinta's and Sherri's blogs on the first!  They will also be announcing the pattern for April.

Have a great day,
JoAnne

"Morning, Joe, Sam, Bill, and Ed"

Hi Everyone,

I finally finished this month's Schnibble and I'm really excited to share it.  If you follow me on Instagram (patrioticquilter) you have seen the sneak peek!  The pattern for this month is Morning Joe. 

As you probably know by now, the wonderful Sherri and Sinta host the monthly Schnibbles parades on the first of every month, and the new pattern is announced.  It is seriously my favorite day of the month. 

This version of Morning Joe is named for the line of Pam Kitty Morning Fabric it is made from.  I always enjoy reading how Carrie names these quilts!  When I first saw it, I liked it, but I didn't have an "immediate" vision for this quilt.  Goodness knows, I love star quilts, though.  Later, on the first of November, when it was chosen as our next quilt, I looked at it again.  Earlier that day, I had been rearranging some of the piles in my sewing room and I came across this pattern which I love and keep meaning to make.

 (Whoops!  It came out sideways, sorry about that!)

 

I also had 2 charm packs of Primitive Gatherings' Snowmen Gatherings for which I've been trying to find a good pattern.

 

As I looked at the Morning Joe pattern, a light bulb went off in my brain and I realized that I could make it with the Snowman Gatherings and in the areas where the corner squares of the star blocks come together, I could put a snowman head!

 

I was on a roll.  The fabric line is in cream, lt. tan, dark tan, medium blue and navy blue.  What should I use for background?  I wanted to use some solid creamy white for the snowmen, so having a light background wouldn't work.  I went to my stash and pulled a few possibilities.

 

 

I loved this!  You may not be able to tell, but the little "trails" on the fabric are blue!  And the tan stars are exactly the same tan as in the fabric line.  The only problem?  When making HSTs with this and the tan fabrics, the tan stars of the brown fabric might "bleed" into the tan of the points.

 

 

Can you see the effect in the lower right corner?  That star point on the brown fabric looks like an odd growth off the tan triangle. 

Here, the whole edge looks funny. 

Next I found this fabric.

I loved it, too, but it had the same problem with those tan circles possibly causing the "bleeding" issue.

So I was stumped.  I didn't want to buy anything and I really didn't know what I wanted to use anyway.  I finally pulled out a dark red solid and decided that it would work. 

Disclaimer:  The above process actually happened.  I did not just go for the patriotic color scheme and jump right into red! 

I would be interested in hearing anyone else's suggestions for a background for these fabrics!

The next dilemma I had was in dealing with the choices in the charm pack.  The creamy whites were going to be a problem for me.  If I scattered them in randomly, I thought they would jump right out at you.  Also with the snowmen being the same color, I didn't want it all to look scattered.  I studied the pattern picture again and decided that I could use the creamy white charms in the center of the stars instead of background fabric, as Carrie did.

  I really liked that idea, however, it would mean that I wouldn't have enough charm squares to complete the border.  I contemplated just using a border cut from fabric (not the pieced, saw-tooth border)  as I had a few half -yard blue pieces, but I realized that this Schnibble is BIG and a half yard wouldn't be enough, so I finally ordered a third charm pack.

The third consideration I had was on construction.  If I was making the cover quilt "as is" I would make nine star blocks and then sew them together with the narrow sashing.  But since I wanted a large snowball block for the snowman head, I couldn't do that.  Instead, I constructed it in rows.

Once I had the rows, I could just sew them together.  Once the quilt top was finished, I went on to layering it and quilting.  I'm going to do another post about the quilting, as I "custom-quilted it" instead of my usual all-over meander.  Once quilted, I added the facial features, including the wool nose and the buttons and embroidery.

Here is the finished quilt!

I decided to keep part of the original name.  Instead of Morning Joe (as in coffee, etc.) my version is called, "Morning, Joe, Sam, Bill, and Ed," as if you are greeting the snowmen.

This is Joe:

 

 

This is Sam:

 

 

This is Bill:

And this is Ed:

I love how different they look!  I was so motivated to finish this because I wouldn't get the full effect until the faces were completed.

I'm really pleased with it.  Come back tomorrow for the details about the quilting.

Have a great day,
JoAnne

The Curse of the Clover Continues, or, A Friend, a Finish, and Flavia

Hi Everyone,

Have any of you ever seen a Western Melodrama?  In my hometown back when I was in high school, they had a drama society which would stage them each year.  They all have charming names, such as "Pelican Pete's Amazing Feat" and then a subtitle, such as I have used for this blog post.  Melodramas have a heroine and as she appears, the audience sighs, "awwww," and when the hero is on stage, everyone cheers.  The villain is always fun as he is booed and hissed at and the audience also throws peanuts at him.  The are great fun to watch!

I thought I would name this blog post as if it was a melodrama because, as you know, I've already had some melodrama with making my Clover Schnibble, and it continued.  However, the "heroine" (the quilt) was saved by the "hero" (my new friend) and the "villain" (the curse) was vanquished!

About my friend...  I first need to share a bit of background.  I love, love, love my Bernina and the way it sews and "feels." It is a 1080 and there is a bit of a cult following for the 1080/1090 by their owners.  Bonnie Hunter had one that she plum wore out a couple years ago and she was broken-hearted about it.  When it happened, I remember thinking "what am I going to do if I lose my baby?"  About that time, I decided I wanted a smaller machine to take to bees, etc. and also to have so I could still sew when my Bernina was in the shop.  I got a Janome Jem, and it is "okay" but doesn't feel like my Bernina.  It feels a bit stiff and slow in comparison.

Last summer, a shop down in Virginia Beach began carrying Jukis.  I have read about Jukis in the blog world, and so I wanted to check them out.  A few months ago, I sat down to one and fell in love!  The power!  The speed!  The way it sews!  I was truly smitten.  I wanted one!  But, I had a little chat with myself with the gist of it being that I already have 2 great machines and I really don't need another.  I managed to walk out of the shop without one.

Several weeks later, the topic came up at our Bee.  One of the other ladies mentioned that she had a Juki that she bought and never took out of the box and if I was interested, she would sell it to me.  Again I was tempted, but again I said no.  And then my Bernina went away for its adjustment (for 2 whole weeks!)  I caved.  I emailed her and she named the price and I accepted.  It was a very good deal:  I got a new machine for a "used" price.

I brought it home Wednesday evening, but was unable to try it until Friday morning.  I wanted to read the manual first and I had some busy days, but when I tried it on Friday, I was so thrilled with it!

It is a Juki TL-98Q

 

I spent Friday morning oiling it (the directions say to oil it everyday!) and then learning and practicing.  I will use this mostly for machine quilting.  I practiced free-motioning for a while until I was confident I could control the speed.  Then I picked up Clover so I could finish it.

 

Remember that I had begun to quilt it with my Bernina.  Plan A was to quilt it with a serpentine stitch along all the diagonal seams.  I did two complete ones and then looked at the back and it had pleated the backing!  So ripped all of that out.  Next I fell back on just doing a free motion meander over the whole thing, but that was when the Bernina started skipping stitches, so I ripped quite a bit of that out.  Now I was finally going to finish it on the Juki!  I put it under the machine and quilted away.  When I had gotten a nice chunk done, I stopped to rearrange it and smooth it out, as I periodically do while FMQing.  Only the left edge wouldn't straighten out!  What on earth?  I looked underneath and couldn't believe it!  I had quilted it in half!  Instead of quilting through 3 layers, I did 6!  Because the Juki is so powerful, and I still don't know the "feel" of it, I hadn't even noticed!  That is how powerful this machine is!  So I had to rip all of that quilting out.  I got going again and it was all going great and then I noticed that the backing along one side had gotten turned under and I quilted over it, so I needed more ripping.  I have never ripped out so much machine quilting ever!  I'm just about convinced that naming this project after a seam ripper has "borrowed trouble" so to speak, and created a curse!  Finally, though, I finished the quilting, and got the binding on and it is finished.  Whew!!

 



I had told myself that I couldn't begin on the new Schnibble until this one was complete.  When I saw the selected pattern for next time, I immediately got a great idea and I couldn't wait to get started on it, and indeed, once this was finished on Saturday I plunged right in on the new one. 

As many of you know, while quilting I like to listen to audiobooks.  I have a new favorite!  Do any of you "know" Flavia DeLuce?  She is the 11 year old protagonist in a series of books by Alan Bradley which begin with The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.  

The books are set in England in 1950 and are mysteries.  The character development is wonderful.  My favorite part?  The writer knows a lot of facts and the reader/listener can learn many tidbits about music, literature, and chemistry (in particular--poisons!) in a fun way.  I'm nearly finished with the second one and plan to stop at the library today to see if the next one is "in."

I have a really busy week!  There is something going on every day.  I won't be posting tomorrow--it is election day and I'm working.  It will be an early morning!  I have to be there at 4:45 AM. 

Have a great day!
JoAnne

If a Quilt Pattern is Named After a Seam Ripper...

Hi Everyone,

This is my post about this month's Schnibble.  Some of us in blogland work on an assigned Schnibble pattern by the hugely talented Carrie Nelson and then "enter" the quilts into the parade on the first of each month over at the wonderful blogs of Sinta and Sherri.  If you have a few minutes tomorrow, check it out.  It is always so much fun to see all the fabulous quilts that go on display.

Carrie has been busy lately writing new patterns.  At the end of last month, there were 4 new ones, but one stood out for me.

Clover!  All day while waiting for the parades to come up and the new pattern to be announced, I kept chanting:  Clo-ver, clo-ver, clo-ver!  I guess my mental telepathy worked because Clover was indeed the next pattern for the group!  Little did I know....

One of the reasons that I fell in love with this pattern immediately was because it looks like it is one that you can use nearly any fabric with.  The other main reason I wanted to make it was because it is downright gorgeous!  Having an immediate love-fest with a quilt can cause you to go to any lengths to make it. I once forced myself to learn needle-turn applique to make a quilt I had to have.  You are probably looking at this pattern and scoffing at me right now. "How hard can that be?" you may be saying.  Hmph....

About a year and a half ago, (or maybe longer), I was asked to make a quilt for my parent's living room.  They recently "freshened" up the room and repainted, etc.  They had a space on a wall that would be great for a wall-hanging quilt.  It just needed to "go with" the furnishings in the room to include their sofa and the new painting they had purchased.  I readily agreed and then spent a year looking for the perfect pattern, trying to get just the right thing.  As the months slipped by, it was often that I wished I could just do a Schnibble for them--but no Schnibble seemed to "feel" right for the room.  But Clover did!

I had some Bali Pop strips from a couple different packs that would match the room, so I proceeded to make my Clover with them.  The thing with Clover is that you need to cut all the small squares and lay the whole thing out on a design wall!  There are no blocks to assemble and include in a larger format. 

I will quote Carrie from the pattern instructions:  "This diagonally-set quilt is made entirely of plain squares and four-patches..."  So it sound easy, right?  You just piece a few (16) 4-patches and then sew them to plain squares--easy peasy!  Yea, don't overlook the "diagonally-set" factor here.  Carrie says she named this after her seam ripper because she wore it out as she changed her mind repeatedly about the design.  I wore mine out because it is diagonally-set and I don't know about you, but as soon as you turn something 45 degrees, I get totally confused!  So I messed up a few times on the piecing and would have to rip the entire row apart because I couldn't see where I made the mistake.  Eventually I worked out a system and finally got all the rows pieced and could start sewing the rows together. 

The only issue I had using 2.5" strips in the construction of this was that I didn't have charm squares to cut diagonally twice for the side triangles.  I considered piecing larger squares from the strips, but in the end, I wanted to use a blue fabric that matched my parent's sofa, so that worked well.  I incorporated the same blue fabric into the center 4 four-patches as well.

Now I know that you have not missed the pins that are on my Clover and the fact that it is not quilted!  I'm so upset by this.  When I decided to join in with the Schnibble group, I told myself that I was not just going to make a bunch of flimsies--if I was going to do this, I would present a finished quilt each month.  This is the first month that it hasn't happened!  I feel really bad, but my Bernina began skipping stitches as I was quilting, and that is the way "Bernie" tells me he needs his annual cleaning/adjustment.  Actually, it was nearly two years since the last, so he has been a trouper.  Anyway, my backup machine is a Janome Jem and it is small, so I couldn't quilt on it, so Clover is unfinished.

In Carrie's version, she made the center squares of each "block" out of the background fabric.  I decided to use a gray fabric in mine. 

I chose the gray to match the painting and also because I didn't have enough background fabric to cut any more squares!  I was really nervous that I wouldn't have enough of it, but by not using the center squares I had only one extra square!  Whew!

One last "issue" I had was that when I looked over the instructions, I somehow missed that Carrie said to cut all those squares 2 1/4 inches.  Since I was using a bali pop, I cut 2.5" squares.  When I realized my mistake, I had already cut all of them and arranged them all on my design wall.  Should I take them all down and trim them or make the 16 four-patch blocks a bit bigger?  Hah!  No contest there!  Since I had plenty of fabric, I made the four-patches larger.  This makes my "finished" size (since it isn't finished yet!) approximately five inches larger than the pattern!  Who would have thought a quarter inch difference could add up to 5 inches?

I hope you all have a great day!
JoAnne

Mercy Me!

Hi Everyone,

It is pretty near the end of the month so it is time to share my Schnibble.  This month the group could make a brand new pattern, Mercerie.



This was a fun pattern because you could "square up" the block nicely prior to sewing them all together. 

I have noticed in making all these Schnibbles that not every charm pack collection is conducive to a given pattern.  I found that out when I made my first one.  Since then, I carefully look over each collection and pattern to see if they will work--by having the right amount of darks, medium, lights, and the correct "feel" for the pattern.  The fabric line I chose for Mercerie I have had for quite a while because it just didn't seem right for any of our previous patterns.  I was really happy to be able to use it this month:  Moda Seascapes by Deb Strain.

Undoubtedly due to my Hawaii influence, I fell in love with this line of fabric and really looked forward to making something with it. 

Sinta and Sherri host the Vintage Schnibbles group and show off everyone's finished quilts on the first of each month.  I look forward to those blog posts all month!  It is a lot of work for them and I can't thank them enough.

I played up the beachy-ness of the fabric when I photographed it.

I love how the colors of the sky and the water are reflected in the quilt!

Have a great day!
JoAnne

Colonial Canasta and Cannons!

Hi Everyone,

Last night was the finale of the TRADOC band's summer concert series, Music Under the Stars.  The finale always features, as the last number, the 1812 Overture with the accent of real cannon fire from howitzers.  If you have never heard a performance of the Overture with cannons, I highly recommend it!

The park where the concerts are held is the place with the neat fence that I like to use in photographing my Schnibbles, so I brought along Canasta.  We have learned where to park that is close to a good, scenic spot, so I took some pictures and then we put it in the car, got out our chairs, bug spray, beverages, etc. and walked over to the concert area.

Once I got the center of the quilt done, I decided to use a print for the border.  I also knew right away that I wanted to scallop the border, so I cut the border wider than the directions, at 4 1/2 inches. 

 

While constructing the blocks, I had to decide if I wanted to leave the center background squares as background, or if I wanted to use something else.  I tried both and decided to use both.

I did keep all of them in the same dark red as the background.

 

 

This park really is a great place for pictures!

 

 

After the photo shoot, I put the quilt away in the car and we headed off to the concert.  The event was opening with a performance by the Fife and Drum Corps from Colonial Williamsburg.

 

 

I love the Fife and Drums!  When I saw them I had an idea so I ran back to the car for Canasta.

 

 

It now has a new name:  Colonial Canasta!

 

Have a great weekend!

JoAnne







Lincoln and Fellow Compatriots

Hi Everyone,

I'm finally getting to show and tell about my Lincoln Schnibble.  I always read the pattern directions and sometimes read a whole quilt book from cover-to-cover.  You never know what tidbit might be in there.  I particularly enjoy Carrie Nelson's patterns because she always says something about how she names them.  In the case of Lincoln, she mentioned how there are 13 stars and striped blocks and Lincoln seemed to be perfect. 

As I mentioned before, I would have been really happy to make up a nice red, white, and blue patriotic version.  I may still!  However, I got a little hung up on the title.  I went to my stash and began to look through things.  I began thinking of many of our other Presidents--I guess since we had just visited 4  Presidential homes this month, I had them on my mind.  Then I remembered this fabric:

I bought this several years ago.  I fell in love with it.  It is supposed to reproduce the look of the old cigar silks featuring Presidents.  While I really like it, it isn't the easiest fabric to work with.  First of all, the portraits are rectangular.  It is really hard to use rectangles in quilting--especially something that looks traditional.  Second of all, the colors are a bit...  strange.  Some of the backgrounds of the portraits are cheddar, some just cream, some greenish, and even a few pink ones!  The red is a very dark wine.  I just couldn't figure out how to use it.

I considered using it for Lincoln.  I measured the portraits and compared them to the size I would need for the star squares.  My fabric was a bit too big.  I decided that wouldn't be too bad, I could make the blocks slightly larger.  In this case they finish at 5."  What about fabric to go with, though?

I took the fabric to one of my local fabric stores and found some red nearly exactly the same as the background of the portraits.  I got that for the star points.  I decided on a simple cream for the background of the stars.  The solid fabrics really let your eye focus on the portraits and helps the stars stand out.  Those blocks were easy.

The other block in the quilt is a rail fence.  What colors could I use for them?  Red, white, and blue?  I didn't really like anything I was pulling from my stash.  Then I remembered the new line of Historical Blenders Collections for a Cause.

 

The colors seemed like they would go great, except for the reds, so I got a jelly roll.  I was right!  They went really well with the Presidential fabric.  I pulled all the dark, winey red from my stash and cut strips from them, and then pulled out some blues and backgrounds from the jelly roll (along with a few more from my stash) and made the rail fence blocks.

As I fussy-cut the Presidents, I realized that I had every President up to the 1900s.  There were 24 of them.  Lincoln had 13 star blocks, so not only was I going to make my blocks a little larger, I was also going to have more of them.  I was able to use the same layout as Carrie did in Lincoln, only with more blocks.  The numbers even worked out perfectly!  This is how it came out:

It is really a masculine quilt!  Not only because it is full of men's pictures, either, but also because of the color palette.

Here is Mr. Lincoln himself.

 

 

Here is William Henry Harrison who took a chill during his Inauguration and died of pneumonia just a few weeks later.

 

 

This is James Monroe--the owner of one of the homes we visited in Charlottesville.  He  consistently comes out as one of the best Presidents after the top 5 or so.  I'm not sure what criteria is used, but that was one tidbit we learned from our guide. 

 

This is Grover Cleveland.  He was elected for one term, was defeated after it, and then won the next election, so he served two terms, but not consecutively.  Another interesting fact:  he ordered a baby carriage for the daughter of his good friend Oscar Folsom.  When Oscar died, Cleveland became guardian for the child when she was 11.  When she turned 21, she married Cleveland in the White House.  I believe it is one of a very few marriages by a President while in office.  It's a little creepy, if you ask me.  At 21 she is the youngest ever First Lady.  I'm actually featuring him because he was a very distant cousin of my Great, Great Grandfather--thus making him my cousin as well!

 

 

 

I took it back to my favorite fence for some photos.

 



I'm really pleased with the crisp cream in the background of the star blocks.  I'm afraid if I had used something darker, they would have blended right in to the rail fence blocks and the whole thing would have been a bit muddy. 

We are off on another trip--we are headed to Niagara Falls for a few days.  It is near the top of my bucket list to visit and ride on the Maid of the Mist.  I'm pretty excited.   I'm crossing my fingers that Kate has the royal baby while we are there.  Canada celebrates the birth by lighting the falls either pink or blue---I think it would be fun to be there to see!

Here's a question for you:  If you were the car phone charger that I just bought prior to our trip to North Dakota, and haven't seen since, where would you be?  Please don't say "still in the rental car in North Dakota!"

Have a great day!
JoAnne

Lincoln

Hi Everyone,

I have not been quilting as much as normal yesterday and today.  I really need to do some much-needed housework.  I'm assuming that you don't want to hear about that, so I thought I would share a bit about an ongoing project.

The Scnibble pattern for the Vintage Schnibbles parade this month is Lincoln.



I have been wanting to make this pattern for ages.  Can you see that it consists of star blocks and rail fences--stars and stripes! I even have some perfect charm packs--Old Glory Gatherings.  But then a different idea started germinating in my brain and I have pursued that.  I'm thrilled with how it is turning out.

It is competed and layered and waiting to get quilted.  Hopefully I can get the toilets scrubbed today with enough time left to do some free-motioning. 

Vintage Schnibble and Blogger Girls BOM

Hi Everyone,

Boy was yesterday an exciting day.  First of all, theApril block pattern for the Blogger Girls Block of the Month was posted.  I know I have mentioned it a lot the past week or two, but just in case you don't know, it is a free BOM being offered by Monique Dillard at Open Gate Quilts.  You can read about it here.  If you aren't interested now, but are considering it, the patterns are free for a few more months and you can go get them. 

This month's blocks seemed a little bit more "fiddly" than usual, but they were by no means difficult.  It was fun to select the fabrics.  Remember that you can make just one block for a smaller quilt, or you can make two for a larger one.  The idea for the second block is that you manipulate the fabrics so that the second block looks totally different from the first one. 

Here is my first one.  As always, I included a bit of focus fabric in the middle.

 

 

Here is the second version.  Sometimes I have the focus fabric in the second one, and sometimes I don't.  I didn't here.  I love how different it looks from the first one!

I spent the morning working on these and then I took a break and read some blogs.  I had just taken a sip of tea as I was reading Thelma over at Cupcakes 'n Daisies when she mentioned my blog!  She is one of the Blogger Girls helping with the BOM and she mentioned that I had made sashing AND she linked back to my tutorial from last week.  Well, I nearly spewed my mouthful of tea onto my computer!  I had no idea she even knew about my blog. 

The next awesome thing was all the comments that I got on the blog yesterday about how I use small quilts!  It was a last minute idea to post and I really just ran around in my pjs taking some quick pictures.  Thanks for your comments!  I really appreciate all of them. 

Finally at around 5:30 or so, came the thing I was waiting all day for.  The new Schnibble was announced!  The new "theme" is going to be Vintage Schnibbles and we will do some of the older patterns.  I have had several people ask what it is all about and here are the details:
Sinta and Sherri have the details at their blogs so you can click on their names and read more about it.  Basically, they announce a Schnibble pattern by Carrie Nelson at Miss Rosie's Pattern Company and everyone makes a version of it during the month.  When you finish prior to the last day of the month, you send a photo and a link to your blog post about it (but a blog is NOT necessary) and they post them on the first of the next month.  It is so much fun to see all the different versions!  Sometimes people alter the pattern and make a runner or make other changes.  I love seeing all the different fabrics and colors used.  Often the participants are put in for a drawing and can win a prize, so that is exciting, too.  The good news is that you can get the pattern at Carrie's website here as a PFD that is instantly delivered via email (or you can get a paper version and wait for the mail) so you all could join in. 

The pattern for this month is Hat Trick



I love nine-patch so this is going to be fun!  The patterns are designed to use charm packs (each one usually requires 2 packs) however, by no means do you have to use them.  You can use fabric from your stash--they don't take much!  The finished size is 26" x 32" so they are quick to make, easy to quilt, and a great size for the wall or even for baby quilts.

Whew, it was an exciting day!  I didn't even fall for any April Fool's jokes.  (I hope.)  I hope you all have a great day today.  I'm going to look over my fabric (again) for Hat Trick.  I've already "made up my mind" twice now on what to use.  I'm going to have to make a final decision!

JoAnne