Momma Always Told Me . . .

to finish what I started.  Of course, I hardly ever listened to her advice.  Maybe THAT's why I have a basket full to overflowing with unquilted tops.  Still, I finished something . . .

And gosh darn it, but I'm REALLY early in getting ready for next Easter, aren't I?  I guess momma's lessons about not procrastinating must have gotten through, at least!

I Miss Johnny!

As a confirmed night owl, I find myself watching late night TV quite often . . . while I just finish one more block, sew on that last length of binding, or quilt one last section before stopping for the night.  Most of the time, I'll turn on Jay Leno--I love his bits on typos in print ads, the police blotters in small towns, and wedding announcements of people with funny name combinations.  But oftentimes I find the humor in his monologue predictable, and his delivery slow and repetitive, as if he feels he must pound the audience over their heads with the punch line several times before moving on to the next joke.

I can kind of understand NBC wanting to replace Leno.  Maybe he's just tired and has run his course as a late night host.  But you know what?  I'm certainly not enthusiastic about NBC's replacement ideas.  Remember Conan O'Brien?  Conan was okay, but I always preferred Leno, and the late, late night spot seemed right for Conan.  Besides, that whole mess where Leno left and Conan moved into the early spot was confusing and off putting.  And now they're talking about doing the same thing with Jimmy Fallon.

I think Fallon's sense of humor is aimed at a 20-something audience.  Yes, NBC likes that about him, but I rarely watch more than the first few minutes before I just need to turn it off.  One of Fallon's popular, reoccurring bits is his Friday night thank you notes, which seem kind of stupid and annoying.  I don't know; maybe it's just me, but most of the late night hosts don't seem intelligent in the way Johnny Carson did.  Yes, Carson's humor was pretty dumb sometimes, but he always seemed to be in tune with the news and what was going on in the world and he came across as just a little bit more intelligent and thoughtful than today's crop of late night TV hosts, didn't he?

David Letterman was interesting to watch sometimes when he was new and fresh many years back--he was different, then, from everyone else.  But for me, Letterman jumped the shark when he started throwing stuff off the roof of the building.  Does anyone find it entertaining to see watermelon splattering everywhere?

A couple weeks ago, I turned to Jimmy Kimmel, and I kind of like him so far.  He comes across, at least, as a kind, likeable, and happy sort of guy--not one be hurtful for the sake of a joke.  The bits I've seen him do have been fairly entertaining and haven't left me thinking negative thoughts about him, his sense of humor, or his lack of kindness like I do about some hosts.  So far, I haven't seen very much of his show, but I'll probably turn it on more often now.  Maybe I'll continue to like his stuff or maybe I won't; hard to tell this soon.

I've posted a poll in the sidebar--I'm interested to see which of our American late night TV hosts you like best.  Please vote if you have a preference.  Thanks for listening to my little bit of a rant!

Just a Little Schnibbles!

Sinta and Sherri are starting up the monthly Schnibbles club that they've been hostessing for a few years now--April is the start of this session of Another Year of Schnibbles.  Have you missed out before but thought about joining in?  Now is your chance!  These babies are simple to make and so great for adding a little seasonal/holiday color to your home--or as a gift for someone else.  And speaking of "babies," quite literally, Schnibbles are just about the perfect size for a baby or toddler quilt.

The rules are easy--check out their blogs at the beginning of the month to see what the pattern is, make the quilt top (doesn't have to be quilted) before the end of the month and send them a photo with a link to your blog--if you have a blog (it's not required).  At the beginning of that next month, they'll post photos and there will probably be random prizes.  Fun, right?

April is Hat Trick month.  If you haven't already seen this pattern, this is what it looks like:

Carrie Nelson, the wonderful designer of Schnibbles patterns and head of Miss Rosie's Quilt Company, is calling this one of her "vintage" Schnibbles patterns, and right now--just for the next few days--she has a discount offer in her shop if you buy three of her "vintage" patterns.  Just click HERE to check out her vintage patterns--and from there you can check out the newer patterns too.

It's kind of funny because I thought I'd made this before but I couldn't quite place it.  A search of my blog, though, refreshed my memory--WAAAAAAY back in 2008 I made my own version:

Yeah, it looks a little different, doesn't it?  But it's really pretty much the same quilt, just divided into four parts with sashing and a border added.  The colors in this photo aren't great, but the quilt is all blue and white with some yellow in the border.  I think I need to get that quilt out soon and on the kitchen table--it's a nice choice for spring once the Easter pastels are done.

But, heck, if I've already made it, am I really going to make Hat Trick again?  You betcha!  And since this was one of those patterns I gave away on my blog once I thought I was done with it, I purchased it again tonight as a PDF download direct from Carrie Nelson's shop.

I'm working on a little something else right now, but I should be ready to start Hat Trick soon.  How about you?

Easter Leftovers

Did you have a lovely Easter?  We did.  Hubby surprised my friend Lisa and me with Easter baskets while we--Lisa and her husband and Hubby and I--were out having dinner and going to a movie on Saturday night.  He was so thoughtful!  He filled our baskets with bath bombs from Lush, a gift card from Starbucks, candy from See's, and a few other goodies gathered from here and there.

Our Easter Sunday was spent fairly quietly.  I reflected on the days when the kids would wake us up early to hunt for Easter eggs.  Things have changed for us since then, but it probably won't be too many years until my kids are experiencing early Easter wake ups.

Soccer Son and his Lovely Wife joined us in the afternoon for a visit, a couple games of Apples to Apples, and some finger food--they'd been to brunch at his Lovely Wife's grandmother's house, so I didn't plan a big meal, but what we had--smoked prawns with a homemade dipping sauce, egg rolls, small ham sandwiches on Hubby's homemade honey wheat rolls, and chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches--was pretty darn good.

Oh, and I finished the Easter Toss quilt on Saturday--the binding was sewn on and the quilt was washed and dried.

It replaced an embroidered cloth on the top of the drawers in the kitchen--just in time for Easter!

When the Easter festivities wound down and Soccer Son and his Lovely Wife went home around 7 p.m., I headed into the Sweat Shop--after all, I had an appointment with my scrap basket.  But I ran into a little problem:  my iron was dead as could be!  I tried turning it off and turning it back on; I tried unplugging it and plugging it into another outlet; nothing.  And it had worked just fine in the morning.  Darn!  Where could I get a new iron at 7:15 p.m. on Easter Sunday?

Well, WalMart, of course!  So after a quick trip to the store and a delay in my appointment with my scrap basket, I finally got a little quality time with my scraps beginning around 8 p.m. while I watched the start of the new season of Call the Midwife and the first episode of Mr. Selfridge--a lovely way to end a lovely day.

Let The Scrapping Begin!

First of all, I want to wish all of you a very happy Easter!  Second, today's the first Scrap Basket Sunday, and I want to welcome all of you who are joining in making scrap blocks or just looking for something to inspire you to use your own ever-growing scrap pile.

I have two large scrap bins--one full of Thimbleberries fabrics and one full of non-Thimbleberries fabrics.  I seem to use the Thimbleberries scraps now and then, but not so much the others.  I'm hoping to change that, starting now.

I've looked through several block sources:  Quilters Cache, magazines, and books.  I finally settled on this book by Kim Diehl and the quilt on the cover called Pie in the Sky.

The blocks finish at 8", and there's what looks like a 2" sashing between the blocks so I think I probably want to make somewhere between 49 and 64 blocks or more (more for a little more flexibility in positioning the blocks, even if I do end up with extras).  I thought if I make between two and six blocks a week, I'll have enough to make the quilt in a few months.

My plan is to work on my blocks on Sundays when I can, but if Sunday isn't possible due to other activities, then I'll make them during the week.  In any event, I'll post photos of what I've made on my Sunday post (which I write on Saturday nights).  Here are my first four blocks:

Of course, if you want to join in, you absolutely don't have to make the same blocks I'm making.  On her Pink Pincushion blog, Sinta said she was thinking about making a quilt from the Kim Brackett's book, Scrap Basket Beauties.   And you don't have to make your blocks on Sunday, either.  Whatever day of the week works for you is great!  But it would be wonderful if you would post photos of your blocks on Sundays and then add your name to the Mr. Linky list that I'll post on my blog every Saturday, so everyone can pop over and visit you to see what you're working on.  And please include the source for your blocks, so if others are inspired, they can find the pattern and make blocks too.

I found this past week that making these blocks are addicting--I really wanted to keep making more just to see how they'd turn out.  Potato chip blocks:  because you can't make just one!

If there's a lot of interest and participation in this Scrap Basket Sunday idea, I may organize a scrap swap in the next couple of months and there may be a few random prizes now and then.  We'll see how things develop.  But I hope you'll join in making scrap blocks or at least enjoy looking!

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P.S.:  I was thinking about how I use my Thimbleberries scraps, and I realized I often use them in smaller projects.  If you want to join us in making things from scraps, it doesn't HAVE to be blocks to make a larger quilt--please feel free to make something smaller from your scraps.  Just as long as you're playing with scraps, you're more than welcome to join in!

Getting Scrappy!

I know--you aren't used to seeing me on Saturdays anymore.  But since we're doing Scrap Basket Sunday, I thought I'd create a brief Saturday post each week for sign ups.

So far, it's been a crazy first experience for hosting something like this.  With the help of Crafty Carol, I think--I THINK--I may have come up with a blog button for Scrap Basket Sunday.  Please feel free to copy the button onto your blog--it's there in the sidebar.  And if it doesn't work?  Let me know and I'll start over.  One thing I DO know:  there's a very good reason why I don't mess around with writing computer code for a living.  Okay, make that TWO things:  I quilt better than I code.

I thought we'd try out a Mr. Linky link list that I'll post on Saturdays for sign ups and see how it works, because I know not all of you will have blocks to post every Sunday, and for those of you who want to see what others are doing, I don't want to waste your time hopping to blogs and looking for scrap blocks that aren't there.  So here it is--please add your blog if you'll be showing us your scrappy block goodness this week:

Into the Home Stretch!

Thank you all for the compliments and encouraging words.  I made more progress tonight--I have about half of that outside border left to quilt, so maybe about an hour worth of work and then the binding.

As I was quilting, I thought about my crazy design process and I wondered whether you enjoy seeing something like this develop.  You know, with this one, it all began with the idea for an egg.  I thought strips of fabric sewn together and then prepared for applique in the shape of an egg would make for a fun project.  Probably pretty fast too.

Then from there, after I appliqued the egg shapes onto background squares, I had to decide what to add and how to set them.  I've always liked the pieced tulip blocks so that was an idea.  And no Easter quilt is complete without carrots.

After that, the ribbon border came along and then I thought bunnies were needed, but I was running short on time.  So I prepared the applique pieces but instead of hand sewing them, I stitched them down by machine as I was quilting the piece.  Here you can see better how I did that.

With the quilting, I wanted to give the bunnies some defining lines but not flatten them too much--I'd decided to meander the background and I wanted the bunnies to be a bit dimensional and puff up.  I think the quilt lines on these guys make them look a little like Pacific Northwest Native American animals--I'm not sure why, but that's what they remind me of.

I think I was a little slower tonight than I would have liked, but I had Rehab Addict on the TV (DIY Network, I think) while I was quilting, and I kept stopping to see what Nicole Curtis was doing--have you seen that show?  I love her and her ideas about recycling and restoring old homes.  For such a tiny thing, she's surprisingly full of energy, guts, and drive!

I kind of hate to stop this close to finishing, but I have another day of work before the weekend and I need to get some sleep.

See how easy it is to start with a simple idea and watch it grow into a quilt without planning anything specific ahead of time?  Now that Easter's nearly here, it's time to start thinking ahead to the next season and holiday.  I'm thinking about red, white, and blue with flags and stars.  I think I'll start by making a flag and see what it grows into.  How about you?  I challenge you to make a flag and then use your imagination and quilting skills to see what happens next.

I Think My Dental Hygienist is Trying to Kill Me

Yesterday I went for my six month check and teeth cleaning.  I remember a few years ago, when I complained to my friend Lisa, a dental hygienist, that my jaw had been achy after I'd had an appointment with my own gal, Lisa said that was a good thing because it meant she was doing what she needed to do.  And yes, yesterday afternoon, a couple hours after the cleaning, my jaw was achy again.  No big deal. What I didn't expect was that today, the day after the cleaning, my shoulders, neck, and the back of my head would ache.  It took me awhile to relate it back to the cleaning, but it finally occurred to me that what probably happened was that while she was working on me, I must have tensed up my muscles without realizing it.  A day later, and those same muscles were as achy as could be!

So I took a couple doses of Tylenol IB throughout the day and I may have had a margarita at lunch--for purely medicinal purposes, of course.  Again, not a big deal.  But I wondered how on Earth I was going to be able to sit down at the sewing machine and quilt all evening with all that achiness going on in the same body parts I'd be using for the quilting.  Ha!  I needn't have worried after all, because as it turned out, all that achiness finally wore off by the end of the work day, so quilting was no problem at all!

I could quilt AND I could do it with clean teeth!  And thank goodness I don't have to return to Frau Scraper for another six months.  Woo-hoo!

I think I'm pretty much on track to get this done by sometime this weekend--hopefully before Sunday.  Tonight I finished quilting all of the center up through that first turquoise ribbon border.  Tomorrow night I'll move onto the bunny corners and maybe even get out to that final border.

Now, though, I'm going to go soak for a little bit in a hot bath.  Because even though I started the evening without any serious aches, after quilting for several hours, a few of them have come back.

Down and Dirty

With only four (FOUR!) days left until Easter, I knew I'd need to take a couple of shortcuts to finish the Easter Toss quilt before the big day.  Will I finish, though?  That's far from certain, but what I'm doing to hurry things along is something I've done a time or two in the past, and it seems to work out okay.  Instead of hand appliqueing the corner bunnies, I've prepped the pieces and glued them in place; now I'll stitch them down by machine as part of the quilting.

Tonight I finished prepping the bunnies and pinned the quilt.  I also have the Juki out and cleaned, the thread picked out to match the quilt, and I'm ready to start quilting tomorrow night.

And for those of you who are curious about the pattern for the bunny, I started with the one I designed for the Spring! quilt pattern, redrew him a bit smaller to fit the corners, and adjusted the legs and ears, also to fit the space better.

If I can get the quilting done Wednesday and Thursday nights, I'll have Saturday to sew on the binding and anything else that needs to be finished.  Wish me luck!

Bits and Pieces

I'm so tickled that several of you want to join in the Scrap Basket Sunday group!  And I'm even more tickled that Carol offered to help me with a blog button for the group.  I think sometime this week, we'll probably have something you can add to your blog.

I know several of you have also said you want to make the Kim Diehl quilt I showed on my blog--that's the one I'm working on.  I had a little bit of trouble when I started making my blocks in that the pattern is written using fat quarters and strip sets.  However, I carefully read through the directions and did some calculations and came up with the cutting measurements for single scrappy blocks.  If you have the book and just need the measurement conversion, email me and I'll be happy to give you the info, but please don't ask me if you don't already have the book.  (I'm not being mean; I just don't want to violate copyright laws.)  I have my first four blocks made and I'm excited to show them to you, but I have to wait until Sunday, darn it.  I know this is going to be fun because these are like potato chips:  it's hard to stop with just a couple!

Besides the scrappy blocks, I took a little time to make the April block for the Thimbleberries BOM I started this year--it's the very first BOM Thimbleberries ever did, and it's fairly simple really.  Here's April's block:

I worked on it while I watched Murder on the Orient Express on PBS on Sunday night--another oldie but goodie.  Here are the first four blocks up on the design wall together:

I'm kind of surprised I've kept the blocks up there for the past couple months and I'm sure I'll need to take them down before too long for some other project, but it's kind of nice to have them there for now.

Tomorrow night I'll get back to the Easter Toss quilt--I'll be sure to show you how it's coming along.