Gentle Arts Schnibble

Well I actually finished another one - Gentle Arts - and in time for the parade again.  And this one is even quilted and bound!  Wonders never cease!  Many thanks to Sandy Rowe of Loves To Quilt for her wonderful long arm work.  I just used some random fat quarters and barely had enough of the outer border to get it and the binding from the few remaining FQs in the store.  Who would have thought that the fun Lucy's Crab Shack fabric (the fabric with the names and a few others in there) would be the right shade of turquoise to go with the rest of these.  On to the parade!

Let's Have A Parade....

I confess I was sidetracked again....This time by the excitement of a Parade.  I have watched the Parade from the sideline for quite a while, but this time I decided to just join in the fun.  After all I do own probably 99.9% of Miss Rosie's (Carrie Nelson's) patterns.   Full size, Schnibbles, Books.  Love them all.  I think I used to buy them just to read the fun stuff Carrie wrote about each pattern, like how she chose the name, etc.

So here is my parade entry:

 

Hat Trick

 

I made mine with Carrie's extra directions that she has on her website - http://www.missrosiesquiltco.com/Schnibbles.html

 

At the bottom of her Schnibbles page she has what is called her cooking school - I guess since it deals with cakes and such!

It gives direcctions on how to upscale your Schnibble with a layer cake.  Of course I have never been known to exactly follow a recipe.  I started by removing all the solids from the stack.  Then had to figure out lights, darks and backgrounds.  In the original Hat Trick (previously known as Wayne and Gordie due to their team numbers consisting of  9's), Carrie kept each 9 patch with dark squares on the outside - including the one in the center of the big X.  Not me.

Then I tried to just make the X's be very random in their color placement, but I didn't like that at all, so I had to deconstruct two blocks and remake them so I could make the center all red with the blues alternating between medium and dark around the outside.  I did not have enough left to make the 5" long piano key blocks on the top and bottom borders like the original Hat Trick pattern, but I did have some 2" squares left.  I was not overly sure I liked it at first since the quilt seemed busy enough, but I think the addition of the solid navy inner border helped.  I also had to photograph it with a hat!!!  Luckily I only had to have it pieced to put in the parade.  Quilting is for those ladies with long arms - right? 

Rows and Bags

Well I am stil l rowing along with Lori.  After I got these put together, my daughter pointed out that I had the two yellows in about the same location on each row.  Also that one very pale blue print was SO LIGHT, it barely showed up as a mug.

 I had not planned on this becoming an embroidery project too, but hope this is enough to help that mug stand out and look like a mug!!

I also saw this cute free Bunny Treat Bag pattern on Sew Can She.  Thought I would give them a try!  It is that time of EAR, I mean Year!!!  They only take four 5" charm squares to make one bunny bag - great for filling with chocolate covered Cadbury eggs or jelly beans!!!  I couldn't resist centering the ear pattern on some stripped April Cornell fabric I had leftover.  Happy Ear..., er, Easter everyone!

The Apple Row

When I first saw this fabric, - Benartex' Sweet Shoppe - I immediately thought of Lori Holt's Row-A-Long.  Trouble was there was only one green (that minty green polka dot 4th from the right end).  Lori's row had several greens - so for me I had to dig for other apple names - Golden (as in yellow) Delicious, Pink Ladies, Granny Smiths, and all the gorgeous red varieties.  There were also no browns in this collection but I think the Fig Tree carmel is just soft enough to work.  Lori has already published 12 rows, so now the hardest choice is to decide which row to make next - butterflies? mittens? coffee mugs? sewing baskets?  So many choices and all of them fun!

Posties

I can finally post my "Posties" picture.  I sent it to Annie over on freezeframe03.  She sent me a fabulous postcard and has a wonderful tutorial on how to make them (if only I had read that first!).  If you have not seen them you should check them out!   Anyway - she made some comment about working in her pajamas and I saw this adorable childrens book illustration that Madame Samm had posted on Pinterest.  Well the red stripe fabric reminded me of the old fashioned Lanz flannel nightgowns.  It was fun to do and now I am inspired to make some more pictures out of fabric.

 

And here is my inspiration photo:

 

And here is what I got for Christmas...

 

Just kidding - I treated myself to a layer cake of Audre's Iris Garden and three charm packs of Honey Honey - now to decide which Schnibble to make out of it.  But my motto for the new year is "finish two before anything new"  Hopefully that will help diminsh my UFO sightings!

 

 

November Finishes

Well November was a crazy month.  Ups and downs at work, caught this malingering flu bug, but did manage to get a few items made:  Baby shoes for my daughter's expecting girlfriend, and two craft aprons for gift exchanges at my new Heirloom Arts group that Sandy introduced me to.

Ahhhh Retreat!!!

Now I don't want you to think that we were spoiled or anything, but look at some of the fun goodies we got at retreat in McCall, Idaho!  Our extremely generous and gracious hostess, Corrie (Quilt Taffy/Craft Taffy) hung these cute little cloth bags on our bedroom door and each morning there was a surprize waiting for us.  (Can you see there is even a stick pin in the shape of a taffy candy - near the tiny scissors!)  And I don't want to even start about the fabulous food prepared by the awesome Stacy (on the left and always wearing a cute little ruffled apron):

And Corrie's crazy sister, Des, had the few of us that would brave the slight bit of rain we had, outside doing crazy poses!  She even got my mother and I to join a campfire choir group and we performed the "Rootbeer Song" to the tune of Do-Re-Mi from the Sound of Music (my apologies to Julie Andrews and the Von Trapp family singers!) 

One of the crafts we could participate in was making these adorable little purses.  I think the inside is just as cute:

The drive was gorgeous and the weather was wonderful, but one of the funniest sights we saw was this crazy flock of flamingoes!  I never knew they came in so many colors!

Well and there was that Yeti (I think!)

 

And lest you think we didn't get any work done - behold our handiwork gracing the railing on the second floor balcony (mine are the two little hand applique pieces near the left quilt in the first photo)  A few shy people hung their quilts on that back railing:

Leann designed her quilt as she was going along - totally awesome with Amy Butler's fabric line called "Lark".

When all was said and done, we could relax by the fire (On the left is my mom and Peggy, two moms from of the three sets of mother/daughter teams at the retreat, admiring the quilts on the balcony)

Mom even found me some socks with sewing machines on this trip!  Perfect!