A Little Folks Snowball Quilt Top

It's taken me awhile to get finished, haven't had much stitching or blogging time lately, but here it is, a finished quilt top.

Little Folks Snowball Quilt on my design wall

I am totally hooked on the lovely Anna Maria Horner's voile Little Folks fabrics. They are so floaty and buttery and wonderful, I can't get enough of them.

Though the voiles were no trouble to applique they are a little more slippery compared to regular cotton so my applique pins would fall out from time to time. Apart from that they applique beautifully (I used the needleturn method here).

Very happy with the applique design, I came up with this one as I was looking out my kitchen window where we have some beautiful fern trees. They look a little ferny I think.

I took a photo of the quilt top in the sun, I adore the stained glass window effect.

 I will definately be making another quilt in these divine voiles (er yes, I may have bought some more after saying I was only buying the full set in fat quarters, slightly addicted to these voiles, oh dear!) xo

Sue Ross BOM & Kaffe Quiltalong

It's been ages since I've shown any of my blocks from the Sue Ross/Material Obsession BOM. That's cause it's been ages since I've worked on them! This year has been a little all over the place and its already halfway through April. I think I've missed a month somewhere!!! I am quite behind in this BOM now, but I have got an applique block finished. This is my 'practice' block in bright fabrics.

It's a fun, reasonably quick applique to make up, and I'm thrilled with the way the bright colours have worked out on this block.

I have begun work on the actual applique block I received from MO, but have put it aside for the moment while I'm working on my snowball quilt applique.

It's a start!

Oh, and if you are interested in a quilt-along with Kaffe and Liza, check out the details here I'm very excited!

How to Make a Snowball

For my sweet Sister who lives 1800 kilometres away from me!

For those of you who are living in a country where it snows, I realise you are probably very sick of seeing snowballs as you are coming out of winter. I promise these snowballs are a lot brighter, very cheery, and will eventually make you warm! This is how we throw snowballs around here:

Take one large square and four small squares (I cut them 6" for the larger square and 2 1/4" for the smaller).

Place the four small squares onto the corners of the large square, right sides facing. (Remember you need to layout your entire quilt to work out which colour squares go where...refer to this post!)

Sew diagonally across the small squares, I eyeball this line however you can rule a pencil line across first.

Measure 1/4" from the sewn line and cut off the top triangles.

Iron the blocks out flat and there is your first snowball block. So easy!

My applique design for my snowball quilt is finished and I'm very impatiently waiting for the postie to bring me some fabric so I can get started on the applique (I didn't have quite enough for the applique). I decided to go with a bit of a fern leaf look....this is the applique pattern for the larger square:

this will be the applique pattern for the smaller square:

On a different note, thanks  for all those asking about my shoulder. It is still very sore after work and computer work, so I may not reply to comments yet for awhile (I love reading them though, so keep them coming, I truly appreciate them), luckily stitching and even cutting out seem to be different motions and therefore don't seem to hurt my shoulder. I am still being careful though not to do too much too soon.

Now if you want to see a beautiful snowball quilt, the wonderful Nedra at Cactus Needle Quilts did a lovely post on my unfinished snowball (thank you Nedra), and showed her stunning Kaffe snowball (I love Kaffes!). Nedra based her colour choices for her snowballs on the desert where she lives, I think it is stunning!

 Nedra's Kaffe Snowball Quilt

Little Folks on my Design Wall

Did you have a wonderful Easter? We had a fairly quiet one this year, with two wonderful Church services Friday and Sunday, a lovely meal with some friends, a bit of walking and lots of relaxing. In between all that I have managed to cut into my Little Folks fabric and place it onto my design wall ready for sewing. I decided to make a snowball quilt with this scrumptious fabric. In almost every Kaffe Fassett book (yes, I own them all) there is a variation on the snowball quilt. I have been admiring Kaffe's snowball quilts for so long I thought it was time I made one for myself.

First I cut out the larger squares and arranged them onto the wall until I was happy with the layout. Yes, I realise there are two blank squares in there...that is where two little applique blocks will go!!

These Anna Maria Horners fabrics are sooooo yummy. I was very nervous when I began cutting them (didn't want to waste a scrap!), but I soon relaxed and enjoyed cutting out these divine fabrics. I'm sure I've mentioned before how amazingly soft they are. Next I cut out the plain voiles and the dobby voiles to make the corner diamonds. Initially I put one square in each corner just to check my colour layout.

Once happy with the colour placement, I laid out all the corner squares (which will eventually become diamonds again once sewn, cut and pressed). Can you see the pattern? I can't wait to make them into diamonds again.

Lastly I pinned all the little squares onto each larger background square, collected up each row and now I have a pile of squares ready for sewing.

Aaahh I've had so much fun playing with all this wonderful colour, how satisfying it is to be a quilter!!!