Carrie Nelson's Schnibbles

 

 Carrie Nelson is another great designer I met at Quilt Market. She is the creative woman behind the very popular Schnibbles patterns.  Above is a photo of Carrie autographing a copy of her new book to me.  She's a delightful lady and it was a pleasure to chat with her later in her booth.

 

Let's see how well I can do at describing what "Schnibbles" are.

"Schnibbles" are "little bits".  Carrie explained to me that they are little pieces.... little leftovers or little samplings.  Her Schnibbles patters are to make little quilts.  Most of these gems measure about 30 inches square.  They are not to be confused with miniature quilts.  They aren't miniatures with the teensie weensie seams and tiny blocks.  The blocks aren't big, but they're "normal" small blocks.  There's just aren't very many of them.  

Her new book, "Schnibbles Times Two", features a small Schnibbles and a little bit "less small" quilt.  She gives instructions for quilts that are about 30 inches square and then the same quilt measuring about 70 inches square (give or take).

I've had requests from several friends and customers to carry Schnibbles patterns and kits, and even a few requests for a "Schnibbles of the month" kit.  Waddaya think?  Carrie says you can make a 30 inch top in about a day.  There's a pretty darned good chance that you're going to see them on my website soon.  I'm trying to decide if I should just carry the book and patterns or if you would like kits.  I'd love to hear your feedback.

I'm thinking that a new little quilt would look great on my dining room table- instead of the traditional table runner- a new one each month.  I don't know where I would hang all these little quilts, but I could have one dedicated spot for them and rotate them- hanging different ones when the mood strikes.  Have any of you made any Schnibbles, and how do you display them?

As if I needed another reason to like Carrie, her helper is a Golden Retriever named, Rosie.  (see below).  This old girl has seen a lot of quilts in her day!  What a lucky furry friend to have Carrie for a mom.  We're a family of pet-lovers.  If you'd like to see a picture of my Golden or of all my grandpuppies and grandkitties, I have them all in my gallery. Speaking of the gallery- I'm pathetically behind on adding photos to it.  So many thoughtful customers have sent me photos of their quilts and I have been delinquent in getting them loaded onto the gallery.  That's on my short list of things to do.... I'll let you know when I get it updated.

Edyta Sitar and Laundry Basket Quilts

More from Quilt Market.....

 I think my new favorite pattern designer/ book author is Edyta Sitar. She does amazing piecing and applique.  And when I heard her speak at Quilt Market, I was captivated.  She is very personable and it's a pleasure to listen to her speak.  Her accent is charming and she speaks comfortably to her audience, as if she were conversing with a few friends. 

Behind her is the quilt from the cover of "Hop To It".  She learned during this class that the book is now an award winner.  Her publisher surprised her with the honor just moments after this photo was taken.

Here's a closeup of the breath taking quilt.  It's even better in person than on the cover of the book.

And the bunny block.  :-)  The applique on this quilt is all fused/ raw edge.  Her stitching is so clean-- right on the edge of the pieces.  It's hard to tell that it's raw edge without getting very close to it.

The rest of these photos were taken in her booth.  It was hard to photograph them because the booth was so crowded.  She was VERY popular.

These patterns are so amazing.  I think they will be showing up on my website!

This was very pretty in blue and white.  She generally uses more color and I was surprised to see this one.  Very nice!

 A VERY pretty pineapple.

 Beautiful!

Spring 2011 Quilt Market

The caption here should read, "Ready to SHOP!".  My friend took this photo of me at the entrance of the Spring 2011 Quilt Market in the Minneapolis Convention Center.  Quilt Market is held twice each year.  It's in Houston in the fall, and it's held in different cities each Spring.  Attendees are wholesale customers in the quilting industry.  The majority of the shoppers are quilt shop owners- or those who support the industry such as long arm quilters.  Vendors include mostly distributors, fabric manufacturers, pattern designers, book authors, and suppliers of specialty notions.  For the most part, a shopper such as myself doesn't come home with anything, but places orders for product to be shipped in the near future.  That, of course, doesn't explain why I had to go to Target and buy a new duffel bag so I could get things home that I somehow "accumulated" while I was there.  I have no idea how a "few" catalogs and samples filled another whole bag to check on the airplane.

I really enjoyed Minneapolis.  I had never spent any time there before- other than layovers at the airport which really doesn't count.  This photo was taken right outside the convention center.  The whole area has these overhead enclosed walkways connecting the convention center, hotels, parking garages and shopping.  Once you figure out where you are, it's pretty cool.  I was impressed by how clean the city is... at least where I was.

I had dinner with my friend, Sandy Pennington (Quilted Roses) at Britt's Pub.  What a fun place!  We sat outside and did some people watching with a glass of wine and some yummy burgers.  It was a very pleasant evening with a good friend.

Here's a random item that caught my eye. Buttons are attached to the ends of floral stems and they are placed in a vase.  I'm not sure I'll ever take the time to make this, but it just tickled me for some reason.

I met a lot of designers.  This is me with Marilyn Foreman.  Marilyn is the designer for Quilt Moments.  I carry most of her patterns and have Celebration as a kit.  I love the way she writes patterns.  She has you make blocks from the inside out, and square them up as you go.  I find that I do very accurate work when I follow her patterns.  Marilyn is a very nice lady and it was fun to meet her.  It was also fun to see the quilts in person that I had only seen on patter covers before.  They ALWAYS look better in person!

I have more pictures of quilts and designers...... I'll post more tomorrow.