Changed up Hat Trick

It's time again for the Schnibbles parade!

The first of the May will be first Vintage Schnibbles parade of the year!  WooHoo!

Sherri and Sinta have once again graciously agreed to host the parade of small quilts on their blogs at the beginning of each month.

Be sure to stop by and visit!

It's so fun to see the wonderful variety of quilts, all made with Schnibbles patterns designed by the amazing Carrie Nelson.

I hope you can join us by creating your own quilt too!

  

Speaking of variety, that's certainly the category that my Hat Trick quilt falls into this month!

Mine didn't turn out quite like I planned!

Simply Color and Cuzco were the bright, fun charm packs I mixed up to make it. 

I was going to follow the original pattern Carrie created, but I made the mistake of choosing side corner squares and background fabrics that were a bit too busy for the pattern, at least that's what it looked like to me once I got it all laid out.

  My attempt at low volume ended up being a bit too high volume for me!

  

No worries!  I'm not showing any pictures of that phase of the quilt. It wasn't pretty!  Thank goodness I don't even have any!

It just looked too blended together.

 So, it was back to the drawing board!  

I decided I could salvage the quilt and make it even better than I had originally pictured, by leaving out the nine patch blocks from the center of the X's and substituting some quieter blocks all around the quilt.

I switched from charm squares to Kona Snow for the background fabric, which helped tremendously!  

Now I love it!

I still intend to make a quilt just like the original Hat Trick pattern someday. I'm kind of disappointed that it didn't work out for me this time.  

I'd also like to make a quilt using low volume fabrics too!  This just wasn't meant to be the one.  I need to collect some true low volume fabrics to make it work.

I discovered that this is not a pattern that I could jam so many busy fabrics in and expect it to be fine.  I knew it was a bit risky to try, but it all worked out in the end.

At least I think so!

I guess there is no harm in changing plans as you go along.  I need to keep that in mind and take some quilting risks more often.  

Not knowing exactly what you might end up with adds to the fun!!