A List of Snowball Night Friends...Want To Join?

No one wants to have a Snowball Night by themselves, right? That's just no fun at all! So here is a list of blog names and the links to all the ladies who have joined in the Snowball Night fun. Just click on the blog title in red

Life in Bonetown...USA
Cotton Cocktails...United Kingdom
Quilting in My Pyjamas...Australia
Needled Mom...USA
Sandy's In Stitches...USA
Sewing Seeds 4 You...USA
Sunshine? Paradise?...Australia
Such A Sew And Sew...USA
Quilting Along Life's Way...USA...will be joining in soon
Taradiddle and Malarkey...USA
Cloth Stitched...USA
Embroideroo...Australia
Fonville Farm...USA
O'Quilts ...USA...and you have to go see Diane's snowball quilts from her May 24, 2010 post, so beautiful. So sorry I left you out!

All these names are from the comments on posts I've done so far...if I've left anyone out or you'd rather not be on the list please let me know.

I hope the list helps so we can all pop over and follow along with our snowball friends. Plus, it's always great to find a wonderful new blog. So go for a visit and say hi!

I'll be back tonight with the winner of Sharing on Sunday and the new give away prize for the coming week.

Be right back,
~Karen~

Snowball Night Update...Chain Piecing

Hi all my Snowball Night Friends. I hope you didn't think I left you out in the blizzard all by yourself. I was cheating a little. Instead of just doing a few snowballs a night, I wanted to sew all my I Spy squares I had from a swap into snowballs. That way I could share what a full quilt might look like.

Here are the 120 blocks laid out, but not sewn together. If you want to move a little further along than a few blocks at a time, the best way would be to chain piece the snowballs.




Start by sewing a corner square to a block. Then without breaking the thread, place another block down with a corner square on it and keep on sewing. By the end all the blocks should be attached like this.



When you are finished with the first set of corner squares sewn to the blocks, take them off the machine and find the first block you sewd at the beginning of the chain. Place a corner square on the opposite corner and chain piece down the whole line again. It's much easier now, because all the blocks are attached together.

Just bring the next block up to the previous one...

add another corner square and sew to the next block right through that open space.

When you reach the next block, you can keep on going, but I like to do a little back stitch at each end.

This is what it looks like with 2 corners of each block sewn with a corner square.

Here they are in a long chain.

To finish the other 2 corners, you first have to snip all the threads between each block.

Now start the chaining process again for the other 2 corners...

chaining to the next block.

Snip them apart after all you corners are on.

Trim all the corners to 1/4 inch. I just eye balled it and cut it with scissors instead of rotary cutting. These are only 5 inch blocks...if they were larger, I might rotary cut the corner off.

Press all the corners open towards the corners.

Here's a close up of a block.



Aren't these I Spies cute. That was a great swap. Thanks all my I Spy Friends!

Here's the full layout again. Can't wait to sew it together, but there are 2 quilts ahead of this one...sorry I Spy, you'll have to wait. Right now you are classified as a UFO.

Hope you are all having fun sewing your blocks. I am doing another post tonight with the list of all Snowball Night participants. That way we can all visit each other and see our progress.

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Talk to you soon,

~Karen~

Snowball Night Update...Add A Nine Patch

First, I would like to thank everyone who is joining in on the Snowball Night. It's going to be so much fun looking at all the different blocks throughout the week. I am compiling a list of all the ladies who are joining in. If you would rather not have your name on the list just let me know. I also wanted to mention to Jenn who asked "do you need a blog to join in"...you sure don't!! We would love to have you join us. I couldn't answer you in an email, because it was a no reply. If you want to share your pictures, you could email them to me and I'll post them for you!

Secondly, I have a great big Thank You to my new blogging friend Elizabeth from Such A Sew and Sew. Do you know she made me a code for my snowball button out of the goodness of her heart. Can you see it...top right of my side bar. I was just blown away by her thoughtfulness. She took the time out of her day to make my button a little easier to grab. You are a peach Elizabeth and I can't thank you enough. Go for a visit to her blog and give her some blogging love. She has great quilts, tutorials and yummy recipes.

As you're busy sewing your snowball blocks, maybe you could consider adding a nine patch to your design.

The only issue with using a nine patch with your snowball block is that the math would be a whole lot easier if the snowball you are making was a size divisible by 3...like a 6", 9" or a 12" snowball.

Here is a quick look at a snowball nine patch with a 6 1/2" (unfinished) block.

You will need 2 1/2" squares for the corners of the snowball and for all the squares in the nine patch.

Make your snowball with the tutorial from the first post.

Now make your nine patch. I used alternating white patches for this design. I will have another post with a nine patch with all colored squares for a different look.

When you are done with all the blocks, take 5 snowballs and 4 nine patches and now you will build a bigger nine patch.

Sew the 3 blocks across in all 3 rows...



Then sew the first row to the second....

then the third row to the second row. Now you have a big snowball nine patch block that measures 18 1/2" x 18 1/2". Keep making these along the way and all you do is sew these big blocks together for a larger quilt. This is much more manageable than sewing all the smaller blocks together row after row.

Here are some old pictures of quilt tops I made years ago. In the picture below, the snowballs are made with adorable sheep fabric with black and white polka dots for the 4 corners. The nine patch is made with 5 squares of the black polka dots and 4 squares of blue back ground fabric.

The way the fabric is positioned, the black fabric looks great around the snowballs!

Here's another old one. I made the nine patches with half square triangles in the 4 corners. Great look from far away.

Here's a close up.

Look for more posts to come, but in the mean time you can always google snowball nine patch quilt and click on google images. There are thousands of inspirational pictures.

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Hope you're having fun sewing!

~Karen~

Let's Have A Snowball Night...

I know, I know...it's summer here, but I want to have a Snowball Night!! I never liked snowball fights, so this is much better.
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Sometimes sitting down to sew a whole quilt or a stack of blocks can be daunting, especially with crazy schedules (or a quilt "to do list" a mile long). I was thinking...why don't we pick a night that works best for each of us and sew a few snowballs (get it..sew instead of throw ok, you all know me by now!). If we do a few snowballs a week, before you know it, we'll have enough to put together a whole quilt and just in time for winter.
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Grab my button (see it up there in the top right) if you'd like to participate. It will be linked to all the posts I will be doing along the way for tips and tricks with snowballs and inspirational pictures.
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I don't do well with the codes, so you just need to...

• highlight the button and save it to your picture file.
• go to your layout section of your dashboard and click add gadget
• click add picture
• then just fill it in with the title, picture and link (url) to the snowball post, then save it
• easy, easy well easy for me because I don't do codes. It took an act of God just to get the button made without photo shop, but that's a whole different post!

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Sew...let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!
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This is the basic tutorial for a snowball block. As I add more information to this event, there will be different block configurations that go along with the snowball block!
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First, I am starting with an 8 1/2" block. The larger of the squares will end up being your actual snowball.
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You will also need 4 squares cut at 3 inches.
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If you would like to make different sizes of snowballs you can follow this guideline

• 5" snowball (charm pack) you will need 4 corner squares at 2"
• 6 1/2" snowball...you will need 4 corner squares at 2 1/2"
• 10" snowball (layer cake) you will need 4 corner squares at 3 1/2"

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Now, back to sewing...draw a line in pencil from corner to corner on each smaller square.

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Place all 4 squares on the snowball right sides together. Pin if you'd like.

This is an extra step, but oh so worth it for the bonus blocks in the end. Mark a dot a 1/2" away from the first line.

and draw that in pencil too.

Now sew on all the lines.

Use your center guide line on your machine to help you along the way. The diagonal line is so easy to follow with a guide line or tape on your machine, you might not need the pencil line once you get going.

Here are the four main lines all sewn. I left the strings on to show you a tip...

Much like chain piecing, sew a line, lift your presser foot, pull on the thread a little and then bring your next square to the needle without cutting it. Saves thread and saves that bunching up thing on the back that happens when you begin a new stitch.

Here is the finished snowball all sewn up.

Now cut between the 2 lines. Because the space is 1/2" wide each piece should have a 1/4 seam.

Press all 4 corners.

Then lift up each square and press back.

Tah Dah!!! This snowball is so much better than the other kind!

Now press those little extras that we cut off. Press open to the darker fabric. There will be other posts about these little gems later. These will square up to 2".

Now for a little inspiration to get you started... Three very generous ladies have allowed me to share their photos of their absolutely beautiful snowball quilts. You must visit their blogs, they are AMAZING!

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First, is Nicole from Sister's Choice Quilts. Aren't these just beautiful. If you look through her archives under 1-22-2010, 7-7-2009, 10-22-2007 and 9-18-2007, that's where I found these photos. Actually, you just have to look through her whole blog, because every picture is better than the last!

This stunning quilt is from Twin Fibers. A wonderful blog from twin sisters Jennifer and Jessica. Their blog is just spectacular...you have to go visit. The photographs are amazing, as is every project they post about. This quilt is from their 1-14-2010 post. Just the prettiest quilt and the fabric...to die for.

Thanks so much ladies for letting me share your wonderful creations!

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Now let's get the Snowball Night going.

• Post my Snowball button on your blog
• spread the word
• and as you get sewing, pick a day during the week to post about your mounting pile of snowballs

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Happy Sewing and look for more snowball posts this week,

~Karen~