On the day of the Great Sewing Studio Clean-Up, a couple of Saturdays ago, I unearthed this nearly-finished top. I'd started it two years ago this fall, when I admitted to the world that I'd never made a Schnibble. My good friend Pat lent me her sizable collection so I could make a selection to try out. I picked "Mon Ami" and got a couple of charm packs.
The experience was awful. These little blocks were far more complicated than I wanted them to be, and it turned out the fabric was way too busy. Charm packs will suck you in and, in this case, spit me right out. I found the borderless flimsy along with a bazillion HSTs I'd cut to make the intricate border that Mon Ami called for. I couldn't do it. I didn't like the top enough to go to all of that effort. Besides, this quilt project was from Before I Took The Pledge*. So I found some nice, really nice, go-with fabric, and put a plain border on. It's at the machinist's now for quilting. I'm calling it "Opium Butterflies" because -- not that I've taken opium, mind you -- these are what I think butterflies would look like to an opiumist. You can click the picture to make it bigger, but I like it a lot more small! The fabric is just too large of a print for this kind of a project. But it is done, except for binding, and actually, truth be told, it makes a pretty cute quilt for a baby.
Another Before I Took The Pledge* quilt, HSTs made from a charm pack and Kona snow. I had them all laid out on the design wall and Himself came along, took a look, and rearranged them so they were in more-or-less solid rows instead of how I'd had them. So I put them together that way, using a totally different fabric from the charm pack line for the setting triangles and border. Someone I know is expecting a little boy, and this quilt will be for that fellow. I then had to set to work with another charm pack or two to make another batch of HSTs to put together the way I want! That one is not photographed yet, but it has a not-from-the-same line border, too.
Of the three baby quilts, this one is my favorite. This charm pack is nice little prints in nice primary colors. I bought a totally different fabric for the cornerstones and the border and yet another different one for the binding.
*I Solemnly Swear I Will Not Make A Quilt From All One Line Of Fabric.
Comments
I love your name for the butterfly quilt. Very funny.
I haven't taken any such pledges, but I don't often go with "collections" (other than KT). My Christmas Flurry quilt is my first use of a charm pack.
Nancy -- go water those poor basil plants right now!
The number of quilts I've made with one line of fabric can be counted on one hand, I think, so I've never felt compelled to "take the pledge". I'll just keep on mixing and matching as the spirit moves me!
TOTALLY envious about how productive you've been lately!
I've never made a Carrie Nelson Schnibbles quilt, though I do have three of her Miss Rosie books. (I haven't made anything from those, either.) Another designer, Kathleen Parman in Wisconsin, had a jacket pattern she called Schnibbles--a very different concept from Carrie N's--I have often wondered if KP sued, or threatened to sue, CN for copyright infringement. I made a Schnibbles jacket that I still wear, and I like it a lot. (KP is known for her Herky Jerky applique technique.)
I made the Mon Ami blocks as my 1st venture into a Schnibbles pattern, too. Mine is table topper sized, in pinks, for Valentine's day - and is totally scrappy. No two fabrics could possibly be from the same fabric line. I found the blocks to be more complicated than they seemed, too.
Hugs!