Sister's Choice Quilts

Hat Trick

Hello beautiful.  This is Hat Trick, a Schnibbles pattern by Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie's Quilt Company, and the Schnibbles of the Month chosen by Sherri and Sinta for the Another Year of Schnibbles Program.

I loved making this little table topper in the summery fabrics called Noteworthy, designed by Sweetwater for Moda.  The fabrics go great with my summer dishes, and I know I will enjoy using it all Spring and Summer.  My roses look wonderful with those colors too!  I did alter the pattern slightly, and added borders on the sides to make a square table topper.  That shape just works best on my round table.

The Noteworthy fabrics are so adorable.  You can't see in my photo, but some of the prints are birds on a wire, which are so sweet.  There is also a darling print with words all over it--I am blanking on what those are called--  They are so popular right now.

Those Sweetwater girls seem to hit it out of the park with each collection they come out with!

I can't wait to see what is up next for Another Year of Schnibbles.

Achoo

Oh yeah.  That's me all right.  Spring is here.  Whoopee.  I know I was extolling the virtues of this glorious season in a recent post, but there is one big draw back all right.  How many times can you sneeze in a row and not have your heart stop?  Well, at least 10, I can tell you that.  If I never post again and you wonder what ever happened to me, evidently 11 is the magic number.  It's been nice knowin' ya.



This weekend, in between sneezing fits, I did get some sewing in.  I am working on those alternate blocks I am doing for the Blogger Girls BOM.  I got Hill Country Baskets off the design wall and will be showing you something else on that space later this week.  The final borders need to be attached to Hill Country, but after all those baskets and the interminable lattices, those borders will be a walk in the park.

It was a glorious weekend, weather wise, but I am pooped from my other responsibilities, and will have to sign off for now!  I got some family time in, some cooking, some relaxing, and some sewing done, so I can't complain.  There are just so many hours in a day, and I have to say I think I am using them the best I can.  If only I could stop sneezing.  That could account for at least another hour...

 

Blogger Girls BOM Setting Squares

I have been experimenting a bit with some alternate ideas for my setting squares for the Blogger Girls BOM.  Here is a little peek at what I am thinking of doing.  Not so many Square in a Square blocks, and more of a chain design.

I am also thinking of doing a diagonal set rather than a straight set. 

Don't you love changing things up a bit?  I plunged into this innovation a bit too quickly however, and realized when I was well into it that I could have strip pieced the strips with the green squares and cut sections of them rather than sewing each and every green square onto a strip.  Sigh.  Oh well.  Guess my mind was on something else while I was cutting out all those strips and squares.  Ack.  Now I have lots of extra work for myself, but I can't do anything about it now.

I like the look of this alternate block and the piecing is easy, so I will just get on it and get the job done.

Thanks for all the handy tips on how I should deal with my naughty dog and his penchant for destroying all things belonging to little Eva.  I am going to look into some indestructible dog balls for him, and when I replace her play balls, they will be kept way out of his reach.  He needs more exercise, which many of you wise readers suggested.  I just wish I had the time and energy to give him more of what he needs.  I will make an effort to make what he needs more of a priority.  Poor fellow, he just wants to be loved and paid attention to.

Arrrggggh. My Dog is SO Annoying.

I've been buying a few outside/active play toys for Eva to use this summer when she is at my house.  This is one of them, a Little Tykes basket ball hoop.  She loves it and got to put one ball through the basket.

Then Ozzie got the ball away from her and now it looks like this:

In about 10 seconds he did that.  Maybe less.  In my backyard there is a graveyard of dead balls Ozzie has killed.

He destroyed this one before Eva even got to put her little hands on it. 

I feel so sorry for that child.  He wants any personal object that belongs to her so he can chew it up.  I can't tell you how many little toys he has mangled to smithereens.  And now he has moved on to eating her bottles and sippy cups.  I don't leave them laying around, honestly.  He actually got up on the counter and got this one and ruined it.

Do you have any words of advice?  Aside from taking Ozzie to the pet rescue center?  In particular, do any of you know of a ball that is dog proof?  The baby needs to be able to play with a ball without the dog eating it up within seconds of it coming into the house. 

Here is how he has been occupying himself while I write this.  Maybe a home for deliquent dogs isn't such a bad idea.

Baskets All Over the Place

It seems as if these baskets are multiplying.  There are certainly too many to be on the design wall all together.  I have to sew rows in sections, then drape them over the furniture in the studio until I can sew the sections together.  That is the middle section you see there on the table above.

The upper left section is on the design wall, and the lower right section is patiently waiting its turn to be sewn together.  My gosh this quilt is labor intensive.  It is taking forever to sew the rows together with the lattice strips.

It's ok though.  I know I will love it when it's done!

Oh.  Guess what I found under the wicker wastebasket next to the ironing board?  Remember that lizard that sneaked into the studio last fall?  Yeah.  Him.  Dead as a doornail, poor devil.  Unless it was another lizard.....Best not go there.

New Idea for Wine Coasters

Pretty neat, huh?  This is a new idea for wine coasters that I found on this tutorial.  I have been making mug rugs to sell at my son in law's tasting room, but lately they haven't been selling all that well.  They are rather labor intensive, and I am thoroughly sick of making them.  These are much quicker to construct, and make great use of charm packs or scraps of fabric collections you may have left over from other projects.

You can use them as regular coasters if you like, or insert the base of a wine glass into the overlapping sections of fabric.  I thought they were pretty darn cute, and plan to make six sets of four and see how they do at the shop.

Lots of baby drama yesterday.  I was attempting to do some gardening, and she was trailing around behind me, happy as can be, when she tripped, fell and smacked her little mouth on the bottom step up to my deck.  Good grief, what a lot of blood.  It was completely terrifying for me, and I rushed her over to the Urgent Care place up the street.  No loose teeth, no stitches.  She just has a sore mouth and a fat lip.  Poor baby.  What I wouldn't do to take away any hurt from that precious baby.

We have planned a play date today with a friend who has four (!!!!) grandbabies under the age of 4.  We will go to the park, have snacks and definitely lots of fun.  Hope that helps make up for the boo boo.

It's Spring Here Too!

Gorgeous weather here, and I am trying to surround myself with as many pretty blossoms as I can.  I ran out to the garden center (part of my local Ace Hardware store) when they opened at 7:00 AM today, and picked up a trunk full of blossoms.

These are only petunias, as we don't get the variety one might expect in a more civilized area.  I love them though.  They are cheerful, colorful and will do the spill-over-the-edge-of-the-pot thing for weeks and weeks.

And check this out!  That lilac bush I bought last year is about to bloom! It's only a foot tall, but who cares?

Sneak Peek

This past weekend, on my full day of sewing, I was able to start and finish the Schnibbles project for this month!  Hat Trick by Miss Rosie's Quilt Company.  I will show you the full top on the last day of the month when everyone does their reveal.  Maybe with luck, by then I will even have mine quilted.

This little project went together so quickly!  If you want to make one too, you can get the PDF download pattern in an instant here.  The fabrics I used were a layer cake of Noteworthy by Sweetwater, and some of the background fabric from the line.  In the pattern, the setting triangles are pieced, but if you want to use one fabric and not piece the triangles, cut your setting triangles from 6 1/2 inch squares and cut in half once diagonally.  Corner squares are 5 inch squares cut in half once diagonally.  That is what I did anyway, and it worked for me.

I am excited to get this on my kitchen table, as the fabrics should look nice with my summer dishes. 

Happy Birthday Mary Ann

Oh dear, how did your birthday sneak up on me?  I am late with your gift and feel awful!  It is going in the mail today, and I hope you will like it.  A little table topper in your beachy oceanic colors.  I used a marvelous template called The Crumbler, designed by Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie's Quilt Company to make the blocks.  I love the colors too!  I hope it works out on your kitchen table and will enhance many a meal you and Ahren share.  When it comes time to wash it, just toss it in the washing machine with regular detergent, and it should come out just fine.

There will be something a bit more personal in the mailing envelope as well.  Enjoy!

Wish I could be there to celebrate your special day!  Lots of love coming your way from California.

Mission Accomplished

Well, no, it isn't finished, but I am making great progress on attaching the lattice on my Hill Country Baskets blocks.  A reader commented on my last post that she could not see that fussy cutting the striped fabric for the lattice was worth all the trouble, but I could not disagree more.  What would be the point of a striped lattice that was all wibble wobbly?  It would completely detract from the integrity of the quilt in my opinion.  I love the look of the fussy cut stripes and think it is worth every extra minute of effort to get it right.  What do you think?  Pointless exercise or worth it?

On Saturday I had the entire day to sew, and got so much done!  My student came over to work on her new project and we stitched away companionably.  I have decided that since she is a captive audience while she is sewing with me down in the studio, I should introduce her to the joys of audio books, in an effort to show her there is entertainment to be had beyond video games (her obsession).  My first choice of book may not be high literature, but I thought it was a pretty sure bet to interest her.  Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer.  Being An Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jackie" Faber, Ship's Boy. "Life as a ship's boy aboard HMS Dolphin is a dream come true for Jacky Faber. Gone are the days of scavenging for food and fighting for survival on the streets of eighteenth-century London. Instead, Jacky is becoming a skilled and respected sailor as the crew pursues pirates on the high seas.  There's only one problem: Jacky is a girl".

I knew we were in for an educational experience when I told my student that the book was set in the time of Napoleon.  "Oh, cool, during World War One", was her response.

Okaaaaaay.  The good news is, she loves the story and didn't want to leave to go home.  She stayed for six hours and finished all her blocks.  "When can I come again next?"  she kept asking me.  I think my plan is working.