What a Blockhead!

If I hadn't already cut flying geese rectangles from nearly every snowflake fabric in my blue scrap box, I might have left last week's Impact block from the Moda Blockheads 2 at 16 inches square instead of 24 inches square because I think this is such a dynamic layout. But that's part of the fun of a quilt-along, right? Getting inspired by blocks, falling in love with blocks, taking the quilt map and going your own way?


I've loved every block we've done so far. Like many other Blockheads, I now look forward to Wednesdays, when each new block is announced.

The Impact Block from last week is expected to be a centerpiece in the final quilt because it finishes up at 24 inches square. I think a lot of the coming blocks are going to be itty bitties - six-inchers.


Last week's block called for five 8.5-inch squares of fabric, plus four 8.5-inch flying geese squares. Many quilters improvised and did their own thing with the solid squares. It was so fun seeing all the different interpretations of Impact!

Now that we are six blocks into the quilt, it's fun seeing the different fabric choices and colors from other quilters, too. I think I look forward to other Blockheads' finished blocks as much as I look forward to the new block each week. And I'm simply amazed some quilters have their new blocks done before I get home from work on Wednesdays!


Initially, I wanted to make five snowflakes to add to my five solid Impact block segments. I might do that with a new scrappy quilt one day in the future, but for this one, I decided to break up the four corner segments because I joined this year's challenge to empty my scrap box. I didn't have many scraps big enough from which to cut 8.5-inch blocks. I decided adding four more geese segments would add additional impact to my snowflake and my block.

I drafted the corner segments using recycled typing paper and a ruler. It's a good thing my first attempt was paper because I drafted the large corner triangles too small. No fabric was injured during this experiment. However, the next two attempts also weren't quite right, and they joined the scrap box.

Finally, on the fourth try, I got my diagonal geese figured out, and two nights later, my huge Impact block was finished.


I think I'm going to begin layering and quilting my blocks now as a Quilt As You Go project. I've got a pretty awesome idea for joining the quilted blocks. So today may be the last time I share all my blocks together in one photo until the quilt is finished. I don't want to give away my surprise ending!

Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict and My Quilt Infatuation.

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Snowflake Monday

Where did this month, summer and year go? Can you believe it's almost September?!?

I sure can't. It seems like just yesterday I was trying to figure out what I could do with my Snowflake Mondays while my crochet hand takes a healing break. And here we are, at the end of my first quiltalong. But, hey, it's a finish, so it's awesome, right?!?

The most difficult part of the quilting process for me has always been the trimming and squaring up after quilting to prepare for binding. Years ago, when I entered my very first quilt competitions (and shockingly got juried in, even though I had no clue, really, what I was doing), my entry was severely graded down because my edges were not completely, perfectly square. (Also received the memorable lone comment from one judge, "I like mitered corners" because I had not mitered my corners.) (Almost all my corners are mitered now, but still, back then, all I could think was, "What if I like the way I bound my quilt?" and "I'm only allowed to do it your way???")

My overall competition experience was positive because I tried to learn from each comment and set personal goals not to annoy the next quilt judges with the same errors or omissions. My quilting has come far, in my opinion, because of the snarkiness and/or pettiness of a few of the judges. I'm grateful I entered, I'm grateful I received comments that sometimes stung, and I'm sad the Denver National Quilt Festival has died and gone to wherever dead quilt shows go because it was a great learning experience each year, and it provided SO much inspiration and motivation. I wish I lived close enough to go to one of the other major quilt festivals each year because I miss the whole package, from meeting deadlines to standing in line for admission tickets and even shopping the exhibit's vendors.

Nevertheless, it remains difficult for me to this day to cut into a quilt because I'm terrified I might not get the lines completely straight or parallel or perpendicular. I guess it kind of feels like cutting off pieces of fingers or pieces of toes... It hurts!!!


Charmed By Snowflakes was no different. I spent a couple of days just admiring the unbound quilt instead of finishing it up right away because I fell to the temptation of procrastination. Because I didn't want to make any crooked cuts I'd layer regret!!!


About a year ago, I invested in a much bigger cutting board. It's too big to put on my dining room table. I have to use it on the floor. It's still not quite big enough to cut an entire quilt side in one easy slice... I still have to move the quilts two or three times each side. Yet it's better than the 23-inch square cutting board I'd been using for so long, I can actually see through some of the most popular cutting lines now. Ha ha!

I also hated having to cut off inches of quilted fabric and batting that might be suitable for nothing more than waste, although I do try to use as much of it as I can to stuff my amigurumi (which production slowed to a standstill when I developed mouse elbow last winter/spring). Sandy said she uses three inches of overlap so she can use it as binding after trimming her quilted masterpieces. Brilliant! I'm going to try that method with the next quilt I finish, if I have enough fabric to go that big. Simply brilliant!


I've read somewhere in the last couple of years that one of the professional quilters I admire most (but can't remember now which one) cut her binding at 2 inches because she likes a narrow border. I'd always done 2.5 to 3 inches because I like a thick border, and I have to confess I do like 3-inch bindings the best.

I also used to sew all my bindings onto the front of the quilt by machine, and then hand sew the binding to the back. When I'm trying to finish so many quilts per year, I don't have time for the hand-sewing at all, so I have been using the machine to attach both edges of the binding. I've used internet tutorials from Crazy Mom Quilts (my favorite), Cluck Cluck Sew and Missouri Star Quilt Company.


I did not use a bias binding for this quilt. I don't use bias bindings most of the time. It depends upon how much binding fabric I have and how much time I have to create the binding. Most everything I do these days is on a deadline, and I've never had trouble attaching a straight-cut binding. I do, however, join my binding strips together on the bias.

I do, however, save my triangles!!! One day, I'm going to have a magnificent scrappy triangle quilt!


I also save the leftover binding. I figure one day I can do a scrappy binding on a really scrappy quilt with all my binding leftovers.


I measured around the quilt to determine how much binding I need (circumference around the quilt plus about 10 to 15 inches for good measure) and did not write it down so don't have a hard number to record here.

I selected one of my dark snowflake fabric remnants that had enough yardage to bind the entire quilt, did the math on a calculator and cut 6 3-inch strips, then sewed the strips together to make one long binding. I then pressed the seams flat, then pressed the entire binding in half.


I do not have a walking foot, so I use my regular presser foot. I attach the binding to the back of the quilt, starting in about the middle of any side, leaving about a 9-inch tail. Using the corner method Jenny shares on the above tutorial, I work all the way around, then mark the two binding tails with a chalk marker, cut, join and press the 10 or so inches of unattached binding. I sew on the rest of the binding, then turn the quilt over and machine sew the front side down.

Voila! A finished Charmed by Snowflakes quilt!




Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Crazy Mom Quilts.

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Snowflake Monday

I couldn't resist. Please note, I DO believe in God, but I also wouldn't mind future solar eclipses being national holidays. But, vacation days work, too!

I want to see if I can book The Lizard on a flight for the next total eclipse, wherever it might be, so he can enjoy a view like this.


Okay, now that's out of the way, how's your snowflake quilt coming along?

I've finished quilting straight lines a quarter inch from each charm square seam, also called outline quilting. I wanted to do something quick and easy because I'm on a quilt deadline, and I really wanted the fabric to shine for this creation, not the stitching. I also am working with an inexpensive Brother sewing machine that has a very small throat, and trying to get big quilts through that small space is not my idea of fun.

Quilting took me four nights after work. I removed the safety pins as I went. I almost caught two safety pins on the sewing machine, which could have left some mighty big holes. Luckily, I was sewing slow enough to notice and stop the catastrophe from wrecking havoc on my quilt by removing said pins before finishing the line of stitching. Straight line quilting across the length of the quilt also means no ends to bury after you're done. Yay!

I'm very proud to report this is the first quilt I've done in a long time that didn't have any tucks or folds in the back, so I'm on cloud nine right now. The size of the sewing machine made this project difficult for me, but I overcame adversity and triumphed! No seam ripping at the end, and nothing had to be redone! YIPPEE!!!








Next week, I trim the edges and bind it. Woohoo!

Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Crazy Mom Quilts.

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Snowflake Monday

Welcome to Week 4 of the Snowcatcher Snowflake Quiltalong!

Today I'm going to piece the back for my quilt. I have to piece the back because I ended up making the quilt top bigger than initially planned, and I didn't buy enough backing fabric.

I had planned all along to add 2.5-inch strips I cut from my blue snowflake stash to the backing if it wasn't big enough. So I didn't worry when there was an even bigger shortage than I'd expected.

The final flimsy measures 52 inches square, and I'd purchased 2 yards (or 72 inches) of 45-inch wide Wilmington Prints Quiet Bunny & Noisy Puppy for the back. After cutting off the selvedges, I had nearly 20 extra lengthwise inches of backing fabric that was roughly 9 inches short on the fabric's width.

I used to cut my backing (and batting) almost exactly the same size as the top because that's how my grandmother did it back in the '60s, and she and her quilting bee ladies would polish off a quilt by hand every Saturday morning in the basement of the church with the layers stretched out on a sawhorse quilt frame one of the husbands built for them.

One of the women would then bind the quilt with purchased wide (about 2 inches!) Wright's Double-Faced Quilt Binding by machine using a zigzag stitch, like store-bought single-layer blankets. I'm not sure that type of binding is even available anymore! But I certainly saw my share of it while I was growing up.


The women never had a problem with the layers ending up different sizes at the end of their quilting, probably thanks to those handy sawhorse quilt frames. Before I met my husband and before he built such a frame for me after we married, I didn't have that problem either because I hand-basted all my quilts on either the splintery old frame I inherited from my grandmother or the gorgeous and smooth frame Lizard crafted. Once I began trying to learn to free-motion quilt, however, I stopped hand-basting to further speed up the process. The layers inevitably would shift as I worked, or even stretch unequally, and I often had to cut off an inch or more of a quilt to square it up again after I finished quilting. I once added a two-inch triangle to the corner of a nearly finished quilt so the backing would be the same size as the top.

Now I cut my backing and my batting a couple inches bigger than the quilt top. I HATE the waste this creates, but I use the discarded cuttings to stuff my amigurumi. And I never have the problem of the sizes being unequal at the end anymore. It's a trade-off, but it also is a bit faster and easier than trying to get the layers lined up on my quilt frame by myself so I can hand-baste before attempting to machine quilt.

(The Lizard always helps me line up layers when he's home, if I wait for him when I get to that step. Sometimes I'm too anxious to get going on the quilting, and so I'm doing the layering by myself.)

This means my final backing size for Charmed by Snowflakes would need to be approximately 56 inches square. I used five-inch strips leftover from the extra charm squares I made to enlarge the quilt top as backing fill-in. I also threw in a five-inch leftover of some peacock feather fabric I'd used for a winter dress because it has faint snowflakes tossed in with the metallic peacock feathers. In retrospect, I wish I'd thrown in a charm square of this fabric on the front, but having it just on the back makes it sort of a fun I Spy activity, in my opinion.




I forgot to take photos of how I lined up these layers to pin baste, so I'll try to get another quilt sandwich made so I can snap a few photos to share the process of making a quilt sandwich by the time this post is published. If no pictures appear yet, it's because I didn't get another sandwich made. I will add photos as soon as I can if I don't finish on time.


Very excited there's enough wide mottled black backing for a second quilt!


wide backing cut to fit


Pun of the day... batting lineup. Ha ha ha!


batting cut to fit


backing taped face-down to the floor


Doesn't matter which side of the batting faces up or down.


Quilt Sandwich, pin-basted and ready to quilt!
Using packing tape, I taped the backing to our hardwood dining room floor face down, pulling tight in all directions without pulling the tape up. I then centered the batting over the backing and taped the corners and side centers into place. Then I centered the quilt top over the batting, face up, taping down the corners one more time and pulling tight as I could without pulling the tape up. (I've used wide masking tape in the past, and although it's easier to clean up when I'm done, it also doesn't tend to hold the fabric to the floor tight enough. Yet another trade-off.)

For the last couple of years or so, I've been putting my layers together outside on the driveway, and using an adhesive fabric spray to hold the layers together. This process, of course, does not work in windy weather, which we frequently have, and it doesn't work at all when the driveway's covered in snow or melted snow. Or mud...

Lizard does NOT like when we spray the adhesive in the house because the fumes are not pleasant. He also wouldn't be too happy if I got the spray on the hardwood floors and left it there. (Yes, I did get some on there twice, and I did my best to clean it up. But he could tell, and not just because of the smell. How about that?!? I rhymed!)

My quilting friend Ruthie in New Mexico has been putting her layers together with curved safety pins for many years, and I had been curious about how well that would work for me, even though I don't own any curved safety pins. (Ruthie learned the process from Eleanor Burns and uses Burns' curved pins. Curved safety pins are available on the internet and at craft stores, as well as Target and Walmart.) I have a huge package of not-cheap large, but fine, safety pins, so I tried the pin-basting method for the first time on Purple Haze, and I'm comfortable enough with the process now that I'll probably use it most of the time. Saves money, too, because that quilting spray is darned expensive.

I started at the center and pinned each charm square through all three layers, working around and around until the outer edge. I then lifted the tape up as gently as I could so Lizard wouldn't be frustrated with me for leaving small pieces of torn tape on the hardwood floor. Good fingernails helps with this step.






Next week, I'll be quilting by domestic machine, a process I expect will take up to four nights.

Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Crazy Mom Quilts.

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Snowflake Monday

Welcome to Week 3 of Snowcatcher's Snowflake Quiltalong!

I opted not to sash my snowflake charm squares but promised to share how I sash blocks just in case you'd like to use sashing in your project. I will be making nine boy quilts by Christmas (I hope), and I'm putting together a quick boy quilt top today to share how I sash blocks all the same size with the same color sashing throughout.

I haven't looked to see if anyone else has done a tutorial on my method, but there's no such thing as too many tutorials, right? Also, some of my regular (crochet) readers have expressed they have little to no experience with quilting, and they are hoping this QAL will be beginner-friendly.

This method of sashing really speeds up the process, I think, and it's simple to boot. The quilt top I'm making for this QAL installment also is fast and easy, the perfect quilt for a last-minute gift.

For today's project I started with 12 desert-colored batik layer cake squares (10-inch by 10-inch). I've previously made this same pattern multiple times with 12-inch blocks I cut myself from scraps and leftovers. I can finish this type of quilt in three or four nights, from fabric choosing and block cutting to quilting and binding. I've made three so far with nothing but scraps and leftovers, so this is a fantastic way to use up existing stash.

EVERYTHING in today's project is from my stash leftovers, so it cost me zero dollars and cents. $0.00!!! That kind of price tag is always a boon, right?


As I was playing with the block layout, I decided these desert rock colors also reminded me of volcanoes and lava. My own kids were fascinated by volcanology while they were younger, and almost all the little boys I've met in the last decade or two are obsessed with dinosaurs. So I have a theme for this young boy's quilt, which I'm now calling Lava Beds.

I pulled out my existing batik stash to determine which colors would harmonize best with the blocks I'd chosen. I picked an amber tone because it reminded me of the amber in "Jurassic Park" that started the fictitious amusement park. I sliced up 12 2.5-inch strips from the 44-inch width of the fabric. I ended up using only 10 of them for the sashing, and the two remaining strips go into the jelly roll section of my scrap collection for the next time I'm assembling a scrap quilt with mixed sashing.




If you prefer, you may cut your strips into 12 10-inch and 12 12-inch pieces (for 10-inch layer cake blocks) or 12 12-inch and 12 14-inch pieces (for 12-inch blocks). I don't cut my jelly roll strips first. I just start sewing and cut as I go. I do one block at a time, and I do two sides only on each bock. Typically, I will try to make the sashing seam line the same on each block. I was rushing during this project and forgot to pay attention to that tiny detail, so some blocks were sashed on the side first, and some were sashed on the bottom first. My final quilt top looks fine with the inconsistencies. It probably helps knowing it's not going to be entered into competition, where a move like that would have resulted in scorched earth.




Because I cut as I went, I had to piece sashing as I went. My goal is to get up from the sewing machine many times during a project; it prevents my back from getting as stiff. I also like that I used up every inch of my home-cut sashing possible. If I had cut the pieces to length before sashing, it probably would have taken up all 12 strips instead of just 10, and I would have a bunch of small leftover pieces instead of two nearly full-length strips.


After finishing the first row of blocks to be sashed, I could envision what the final project would look like.


Once all the rows of blocks were sashed on two sides, I sewed the blocks together in rows.

After all the rows were put together, it was time to sew the rows together. I have to be really careful every single time I put rows together because I'm famous for sewing at least one row on upside down. Every. Single. Time. Unraveling has never gone out of style at my house. My seam ripper will never experience rejection issues.


Once the rows were sewn together, I prepared strips for the two unsashed sides. The quilt top at this point was roughly 33 inches by 44 inches, and one 2.5-inch strip was not quite long enough to sash the long side of the flimsy. I pieced together 2 2.5-inch strips, then finished sashing the flimsy quilt top.


What do you think? Does it bring to mind "Dante's Peak"? (My kids' absolute favorite movie when they were young.)


This quilt top didn't seem big enough to me for a growing boy, so I cut and added two border rows of lava-toned 2.5-inch strips from my existing batik stash. All of the home-cut jelly roll strips for this project, by the way, are leftovers from Leaf Me Alone. Lava Beds now measures 43x56 inches, which I think will be plenty big enough.

I plan to back it with a lava-hued Wilmington Prints Essentials Cosmos because the nebula-like design looks to me a bit like hot, bubbly lava. I'm planning some fun motifs for the quilting of each block, recycling and renewing a plan I had two years ago for a different quilt but didn't have the courage to attempt because I was still such a beginner free-motion quilter. That design, however, will not involve snowflakes. So I'll save it for another blog post on another day.


Meanwhile, I've been piecing together my rows for the Snowflake Quiltalong, and thankfully, these rows didn't matter too much when I sewed a few together upside-down. (I still had to take them apart and put them back together so the triangle edges would line up properly.)


We were treated to a visit by my mother-in-law while I still had this project taking up most of the dining room floor space, and she commented how perfect my seams were matched. (!!!!!) Thankfully, she didn't look at each individual intersection with a magnifying glass because they are not 100% perfect. But from a distance, they do look pretty good.

I do not nest my seams. When you get deep into quilting, you will hear, see and learn about "less bulk" by nesting seams, which means pressing all the seams to one side so that when the blocks match up, stacked fabric on one side lines up perfectly with stacked fabric on the opposite side. I've been sewing most of my own clothing since I was a teenager, and I've always pressed all my seams flat, except in tailored collars. If you really think about the math, which I try not to do because my brain is allergic to math, pressing the seams to one side or the other is no different than pressing them open because you have the same number of fabric layers either way. You didn't add or subtract layers.

Some people may obtain better-matched seams by nesting, and that's fine. I pin my seams, and if I sew over the pins, I do so VERY slowly, turning the wheel by hand, to make sure I don't break a pin or a needle. I'm still haunted by the nightmares my ninth grade home economics teacher drilled into our collective heads by telling us we'd puncture our eyes if we ever sewed over a pin. You really shouldn't ever sew over pins, even if you go slow. Period.


Pinning my pressed-flat seams takes a bit longer but results in better-looking intersections.


Did you catch that?!? I finished TWO quilt tops in one week! Doesn't happen often in my neck of the plains-meet-foothills!


Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Crazy Mom Quilts.

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Snowflake Monday

Last week, I invited readers to participate in a snowflake quiltalong. In the list of required materials if making the same basic charm square quilt as I am making, I said I'd be using at least 49 snowflake charm squares which I had cut from my blue snowflake fabric stash at least couple of years ago (and 36 focus/background fabric then yet-to-be-cut charm squares).


preparing to cut my own focus/background fabric charm squares
Once I began piecing, I realized 7x7 snowflake blocks I'd planned to do would not be quite big enough. I wanted to maintain an uneven number of snowflake blocks across horizontally and vertically, so I jumped up to 9x9, and my heavens, adding two rows was such a huge jump! I had to cut more charm squares from both the snowflake fabrics and my focus fabric!


My working name for this WIP for years has been Charmed by Snowflakes. It just got a whole lot more charming!

To make the same size quilt I am making, the project now requires 81 snowflake (or other theme) charm squares and 64 focus/background fabric charm squares. It might also require more than two yards of backing, but I had planned all along to use snowflake fabrics from my stash to fill in if the 2 yards I bought is not enough. (I am pretty sure now it won't be enough. Three yards might be required if you don't want to piece your back and you are making the same size quilt as mine.)


I also forgot about the triangles for the edges of the on-point rows. My first quiltalong, and two major changes in just the first week. Let's hope I've got my act together now and don't have to make any more fabric requirement changes or upgrades...

To make the same on-point quilt I am making the same size I am making it, you will need to cut 8 5.5x5.5-inch blocks from the focus/background fabric, which will then be cut in half diagonally into 16 quilt border triangles. You also will need one 6x6-inch block, which will then be cut in half diagonally twice to make 4 quilt corner triangles.


cutting blocks for border triangles




I hadn't initially planned to duplicates of any of the snowflake fabrics in this quilt. Making it larger made multiples necessary.

One of the ways I increased the variety of snowflake charm squares was to applique crocheted snowflakes to three non-snowflake blocks. I have a stack of blue solid, gradient and tone-on-tone charm squares left over from another project years ago, and I selected a cobalt blue batik, a Stonehenge gradation and a fairy frost. I would have used more applique squares, but apparently I gave away most of my finished white snowflakes last Christmas (to Children's Hospital, no regrets), and I guess I haven't made many white snowflakes this year. All I could find that were small enough were three.

In the past, I have hand appliqued my crocheted snowflakes. This quilt will be for a specific Frozen-adoring granddaughter, and I wanted to make sure the crochet snowflakes would stand the test of time and youth. So I appliqued them by machine.

First I glued each snowflake in place, eyeballing the centering. I used school glue because it washes out. One of the snowflakes had been stiffened with liquid starch, and that will wash out, too. However, it did make the sewing machine work harder to penetrate the layers.

Whenever I applique crocheted snowflakes, by hand or machine, I use sewing thread to match the snowflakes. That way, the stitches don't show.


I sew a circle on the inside of the snowflake to hold the center in place, following the first or second round of stitches if I can, and then I outline the outer edges of the snowflake, making sure to catch every single picot so the snowflake (hopefully) won't ever be pulled off.

If the inside of the snowflake has designs such as hearts or smileys, I also stitch around those to keep them in place and to maintain their shape. I pull the loose threads through to the back side of the fabric, tie knots and I DON'T trim the ends off. The loose ends are going to be buried in the quilt, and they aren't going to show through with blue fabric, white snowflakes and white thread. Just a little more insurance the snowflakes will stay in place.




After getting all the blocks arranged on the floor (because I don't have a design wall), I've begun sewing blocks together in diagonal rows. Make sure to clip your dog ears and loose thread ends.


Remember last week when I said I'd also begun cutting up blue scraps for a little boy quilt? Guess what happens when you have two projects going on at the same time in the same place...


Luckily, I noticed before I finished this row and was able rescue the sea life out of the deep freeze before they became landlocked!

Sashing could have been an option to increase the size of a 7x7 quilt, but I'd already decided not to sash these blocks. I had promised to show how I sash blocks, so I'll take a tiny detour from exclusively snowflakes next week just long enough to share the sashing process on a different quilt, this one with 10-inch layer cake blocks. It's a super easy and quick method that produces a child-size quilt with just 12 squares and approximately 10 44-inch jelly roll strips.

So if you are sewing along and plan to sash your blocks, hold tight just seven more days, and we'll get that sashing done.


Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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