Snowball Block: Making the Octagon

The snowball quilt block has been around for a long time. The basic block is an octagon that gives the illusion of a circle. According to a little online research, it's an Amish block. I make no claims as a quilt historian but one thing I do know is it's a wonderfully versatile block. Check out all these quilt tutorials curated by Quilt Inspiration that use a snowball block. So many variations are possible. This is the version on my design wall right now.

The easiest way to make a snowball block is with small corner squares that are stitched across the diagonal, trimmed, and then flipped open to form corner triangles. While this method uses more fabric than sewing triangles, I find it fast and easy. All you need is one big square and 4 small squares for the corners. No bias edges to contend with.

No need to let those trimmed corners go to waste either.  Once I've gotten a decent start on making the blocks and have a handful of trimmed corner triangles, I use them as leaders and enders when sewing the rest of the blocks. This way I end up with lots of half square triangles sewn and ready for a second project like a mini quilt or pillow. It's like making two projects in one. Gotta love that!

So you might be asking how do you know what size small square to use? Well, the size is often determined by the quilt setting you are using. Because a snowball block is frequently paired with another block in an alternating setting, the size of the corners is usually determined by the breakdown of the alternate block. In other words, If the alternate block is a 9-patch block, then the side of the snowball block is divided by three. If the alternate block is a 16-patch, then the side of the snowball block is divided by four. Here's a great source for determining the size of the corner squares for various sized snowball blocks.

The most common sizing for a snowball block calls for dividing the finished size of the block by three and then adding a half inch seam allowance. This would then align with a 9-patch block as shown above left. Whatever number you are dividing by you will still add 1/2" seam allowance. For my quilt the finished block size is 6" so the squares would be cut 2 1/2" x 2 1/2".  (6 divided by 3 equals 2 plus 1/2" equals 2 1/2")

Since my quilt is made entirely of snowball blocks, the size of the small corner squares didn't matter so much. The triangles didn't need to line up with any points on an alternate block, they simply line up with each other.

I started with the typical directions and made a sample block using the 2 1/2" corner squares. It didn't really seem as much like an octagon as I wanted. All eight sides of the octagon aren't the same length. Of course they'll change a little once the seam allowances are taken into account but it still wasn't going to be a true octagon. Here's what it looked like.

Wanting a more true octagon, I turned to my computer to see if I could figure out a better size for the corners. Since I didn't know the mathematical way to draw an octagon in Illustrator, I estimated using a small grid. For my finished 6" block I found that if my corner squares were cut 2 1/4" the end result was as close to a true octagon as I could get. In other words all eight sides were of equal length. You can see the difference below between the 2 1/2" square (left) and the 2 1/4" square (right). The one on the right is closer to a true equal sided octagon.

I know this is a small thing to some of you, but it was worth the effort to me. Not to mention I could get more small squares from my yardage so I needed less fabric. All together I need 900+ of the small squares so I have a lot of cutting to do.

I'll be back with another post soon showing you my quick method of sewing the corner squares without any marking. It saves a ton of time.

Until then, I'm curious, have you ever made a quilt that included snowball blocks?

I'm linking up this week to Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation. It's been far too long since I've played along. Hop over and see Kelly's latest quilt finish.

Follow

2016 Planner Cover

A couple of my 2016 goals, sew from my stash and use a planner to help me  accomplish more, were the focus of my sewing earlier this week.

True confessions . . . I've never really used a planner before. I buy them. Every year. I just don't keep up with using them. This year I decided it was time to truly use one . . . for real.  To actually have a day-to-day plan to help me stay on task. To get more done. So I bought the Quilter's Planner by Late Night Quilter.

Admittedly I got off to a very bad start as far as January is concerned. But with February here, it's time to get in gear. I chose these fabrics. Modern leafy prints that tie in nicely to my blog name and identity. All from my stash. I even found a zipper in my stash so the only thing I needed to buy was the fusible fleece and elastic. So far so good at working from my stash.

Motivating to sew non-quilty things is usually a struggle for me. I think it has to do with following directions. Silly isn't it? After all, I write directions for quilt patterns so following directions for other things shouldn't be that big a deal. I used this tutorial by Amanda of What the Bobbin that was resized specifically for this planner.

I customized the inside front and back pockets to hold three business cards. One pocket for me in the front, two pockets in the back for my daughter and husband's cards. You never know when someone might be interested in jewelry, graphic design or fine art.

One thing that didn't work out quite right was where the elastic fell. I followed the directions but wish the elastic was set just a little farther in. It doesn't catch the pages to hold them open very well without adjusting the planner. I'm disappointed with this part.

I also made a couple of ribbon markers from paper clips. Aren't they cute? I think I'll make a couple more of these. They work better than the ribbon marker the pattern called for. I need to move it into the center so it doesn't pull when I open the planner to different pages. Right idea, wrong position to work.

Now that I have such a pretty cover, I have no excuse for not using my planner.

It also has a zip pocket on the front. Nice for holding extra pencils and miscellaneous items.

I'm thrilled to have this done and excited to put it to good use. I can honestly say that having a written plan for this week helped me stay on task. Yeah!!!

How about you . . . do you like to sew non-quilty things? Do you use a planner? I'd love a tip or two on how you make it work. I can use all the help I can get to stick with my planner goal.   : )

Linking up with WIP Wednesday,  Let's Bee Social,  Needle and Thread Thursday,  Really Random Thursday and Finish it up Friday.

Follow

The Evolution of a Quilt

Do you ever have an idea for a quilt and then just never get it started? I'm talking years here. Maybe it's a rough sketch. Maybe it's just in your head. Or maybe you actually start the project and it evolves into something completely different? That's how I feel about my current project. It sat around forever and then evolved. For the better.

The initial idea sat around for years in the form of these leafy fabrics in my stash and this sketch. I don't buy traditional fabrics like this anymore but I still love their leafy goodness. After all, I love all things leafy.   : )

My intention was to make a wall quilt to use in the family room during the winter months when my decor goes mostly white with a touch of green. See my white post for more on that. I planned to use my leafy print collection including these great large scale leaf prints that I've saved just for this project. I love them!

I've also had another idea tucked away that was inspired by a lovely blue and white checkerboard quilt in a home decorating magazine I saw years ago. One of those images that's makes an impression and stays with you. It was so simple. So clean and crisp. I thought one day I'd make a checkerboard quilt with white and one additional color.

Then along came the scrappy trip quilts everyone was making not all that long ago. I learned Bonnie Hunter's clever technique for making these blocks. Love the technique. Love the look. Here are a few blocks made for a baby quilt.

After seeing numerous lovely Scrappy Trip quilts online, I had an aha moment. Why not use this technique to make the checkerboard blocks. Instead of a random placement of leafy prints they would appear somewhat clustered and create movement within the checkerboard look. I liked how it looked.

I started making blocks for the wall hanging and the idea evolved into a quilt for our master bedroom instead. True confessions . . . I call myself a quilter but I don't actually have a quilt on any of the beds in my house. Go figure. I think it's finally about time I make a quilt for a bed. Since leaves play a role in my bedroom decor, this idea was the perfect fit. Here are some of the blocks laid out on the bed. Checkerboard look I feel in love with. Leafy prints I love. Perfect.

I've been making these blocks on and off now for months, mostly at various guild sew days. I need about 68 give or take. Truth be told, I'm really tired of taking the same thing to sew day over and over, month after month.

This past weekend was the last time I'll be doing these at a sew day. Yeah! I spent the day cutting the final batch of strip sets into segments and then unsewing as the tutorial calls for. Here's a batch of them all ready for the next step.

See this post for my tips on how to keep the segments organized so you unsew the correct seams. Believe me . . . it's quite easy to make a mistake.

As I worked on the blocks for my bed quilt I had another aha moment. I should just bust out the wall quilt too. I only needed 9 more blocks plus some strips for the checkered edge. Why not make both? It seems like a no brainer and yet I hadn't seriously considered it once my thinking shifted to making a quilt for the bed.

Now I'm well on my way to having the wall quilt almost done and the bed quilt is getting closer and closer to completion too. All the blocks should be done by the end of the week. Then I just need to sew them into rows. WaHoo!!! It feels like two quilts in one.

Next month I hope to have two finished quilts to share. Two projects that have been on my to do list for way way too long. That's a really good way to start the year.

Do you have projects that you've wanted to make for a long time?
Why not move forward on just one of them this year?

Linking up with a few parties this week. Another of my 2016 goals.
Let's Bee Social, WIP Wednesday and Needle and Thread Thursday.

Follow

Catching Up

I haven't been sewing much this summer. Plenty of ideas, not to mention things I need to be sewing. But it's summer  . . . what more can I say.    : )

Since it's the end of the month already, it's high time I to got my act together and made my August bee block for the MidCenturyModern Bee. Mary of Molly Flanders asked for a basket block. I loved making basket blocks back in May for Carla so it was fun to do them again. Why did I wait?

Mary has a real vintage style about her work and I don't have a lot of fabric that fits that bill but I thought this sweet floral had a vintage vibe. My only problem was not refreshing my memory on what Mary asked for until I'd already made this one. She asked for neutral backgrounds. Not sure this blue print really counts as a neutral so I'm going to make another today. Hopefully she'll find a use for both.

These baskets are really easy blocks to make. I followed Elizabeth's tutorial so as not to reinvent the wheel. Seriously. Why struggle through when someone has figured it out for you?

I also managed to get this top sewn together over the weekend. I pulled out a box of finished blocks that hadn't been sewn together and took it to guild sew day. Remember when Emerald was the Pantone color of the year? Yep. That's how old these blocks are. So nice to make a little progress. Who knows when it will be quilted though.

Somewhere along the line I changed directions for the design and made this quilt instead. That's why the Emerald blocks languished till now.

I still really like the Emerald blocks so it was a good project to grab and go. Having a project or two sitting in the wings ready to take makes it easy when sew day is suddenly upon me and I haven't had time to gather something else. These nifty 12" x 12" scrapbook boxes made by Iris work really well for this. My Drunkard's Path is stored in one of them.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.
Also linking up with NTT at My Quilt Infatuation.
What have you been up to this summer?

Be sure to check out Mary's shop, Sunny Day Fabric. She and her sister have some wonderful selections including notions that you usually don't find at your average shop plus lots of sweet fabrics.

Follow

First Quarter, Second Finish

I'm really excited to share my second finish of the quarter for the 2015 Finish Along. It's another version of the quilt I shared here last week. That one was hot and happy, this one is cool and calm.

My Mid Century Modern bee mates pitched in to make several of the blocks. I then filled in the rest, balancing out the colors. It's always so fun to see the fabric choices everyone makes. Rarely are there repeat fabrics and rarely are there fabrics that I have in my own stash. All this adds tremendously to the variety of blocks. I asked for dark grays, lime to chartreuse greens, and light neutrals like these.

Look at all the variety of fabrics. Isn't it fun?

It was quilted by Karen of the Quilted Moose with the same boxy design used for the first quilt. I just love the texture this overall pattern adds. I chose a slightly darker gray thread because I really wanted the quilting to show rather than blend too much.

While I love the look of a pieced quilt back, I don't often take the time to make one. For this quilt it was well worth the effort. Our bee does signature blocks when we make blocks so I wanted to include them on the back as a record of all those who contributed to my quilt. I love my Mid Century Modern Bee!!! Thanks ladies for all the wonderful blocks. You're the best.  : )

Once a quilt is finished, I really enjoy trying to take styled photos. It's not always a success, but it's fun to find great outdoor locations or pull out interesting accessories around the house. I was hoping for some nice spring greens but it's just not quite that green here yet. I'll be trying for more shots once the leaves come out a bit. Does anyone else besides me scout out locations when you're running errands around town? I find myself looking at fences, stone walls, silos, buildings . . . anything that has good texture, color and background for a quilt. Here's what I've taken so far.

I loved this crazy fence. A plain chain link with plastic strips woven through and then this fabulous vine growing all over it. Maybe not the best fit for this particular quilt but I couldn't resist. I may try again with a different quilt and maybe even once the vine has some leaves.

This is the third time I've made a quilt using this block. The other two are shown below. The bright one at the bottom of the photo was blogged about here last week. The top one is from a jelly roll called Highstreet by Moda. Amazing the difference in appearance between these three quilts even though they all use the exact same block. These differences are one reason I have so much fun designing and then exploring variations on a theme.

This design, including many of these explorations, will be part of a new pattern I plan to release in about a month or two so stay tuned.

As a parting note, I named this quilt Tumble Weed because I have been calling the block Tumble since I first designed it last year. At this point in time, the greens remind me of all the weeds sprouting amidst the rocks in our side yard. There's definitely a similarity in the color scheme. The actual pattern name may change at some point, but in the meantime the weeds just keep multiplying. I really should go pull a few but I'd much rather sew.    : )

I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday and the 2015 Finish Along.

First Quarter, First Finish

I've wrapped up my very first finish for the first quarter of the 2015 Finish Along. That's a mouthful.
This is also my first time participating in the FAL. Quite a few firsts. A couple of years ago I said I was going to do the Finish Along and then nothing. Zip, zero, nada got finished. This year I want to make a more concerted effort to finish at least one or two projects a quarter. I listed four things for this quarter. Yes, knowing myself, four was being optimistic. Two is what will be done. WaHoo!  Let's hear it for two! Any finish is a good thing for me.  : )

Here's my first finish. Right now it's called Tumble. Time may bring a new name. Any ideas?

I confess these photos were actually taken almost a year ago sans binding. Yup. A year ago this quilt was almost done . . . just needed the binding. Why did it take sooo long simply to sew on the binding? I have no idea. New fabric probably beckoned. What can I say?  I know for many of you this doesn't seem like a big finish, but for me it is. I have way too many tops and nearly done things, so to get something totally done is a big deal. I really need to feel this type of total finish satisfaction more often.

This was the first quilt made using a block I designed quite awhile back. I took a scrappy approach and used all kinds of dots from my stash in a very hot palette of pinks, yellows, oranges, and reds. It was quilted on a longarm by Karen of The Quilted Moose. I chose a boxy shape that had a lot of similarities to the block structure and was quite happy with the results. Here's a detail.

For the binding, I used Kona Cerise and inserted sections of striped fabric along each side. I love the extra touch this gives to the edge. Not overpowering, but a nice little spark of added interest.

I found the perfect fabric for the backing. A Michael Miller fabric that has all the colors from the front and is a very cheerful print. Couldn't have asked for a better fit to the quilt front.

Speaking of dots, it's not even funny how many dotted fabrics I have in my stash. (Note to self . . . don't buy any more dots for awhile). Seriously. Although in a QuiltCon lecture by Victoria Findlay Wolfe, she said if something isn't working just throw more polka dots at it. What a fun idea. I could throw a lot of polka dots at my quilts and still have some to spare. Stripes too.

If you ever have the chance to hear Victoria speak . . . go. Definitely go. She is a marvelous speaker. Well spoken, articulate and quite funny, not to mention very talented. It's obvious she loves what she does and it's so beautiful how her work ties in to her childhood with her grandmother. I don't share any history of quilting in my family and am envious of those who do. In my case, it's all starting with me and I need to pass on the love.

I'll be back soon with my second finish for this quarter. If you're playing along, how are you doing with your first quarter list?

If you're not playing and have loads of unfinished projects stashed away (come on admit it . . . I know you do) why not join in the finishing fun next quarter. Just click the link below and find out more.

Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday and the 2015 Finish Along.

Mid Century Modern Bee on a WIP Wednesday / NTT

What happened to January? Seriously. Where did it go?

I actually did get quite a bit done in January, but sadly my January bee block wasn't one of them. Most of my time was spent writing posts for the Drunkard's Path Quilt Along and unfortunately I let my bee obligation fall to the bottom of the list. Sorry Elizabeth.

She requested a block of our choosing to put together her own sampler style quilt similar to the one previously done in our Mid Century Modern Bee by Carla. You can see more of Elizabeth's plan here on OPQuilt. She also has an amazing series on English paper pieced circles. Do check them out. They are all so beautiful and well designed.

When given free reign to make whatever you want with guidelines for color and size being the only parameters, I can find it hard to settle on what to do. In this case, I took advantage of the freedom and made another Drunkard's Path block. I have been wanting to explore other color and fabric choices for the design so this was an excellent opportunity.

If you saw my fabric options post for the quilt along, the you saw this version using spring colors instead of the red/green Christmas colors. I love pinks, corals and oranges and would love to make this version myself.

For Elizabeth's block, I decided to go with spring colors and do an all flower/no leaves block. I pulled fabrics in the yellow/pinky coral range and, because I'm such a huge Kaffe fan, included a touch of Kaffe. I often look for ways to use a bit of his fabrics in my bee blocks as a way of putting more of me into the blocks. Here are all 16 little Drunkard's units sewn and ready to join into the block.

And here is the finished block. I love this color combo. So fresh and springy.

And below with the signature block and an extra small block thrown in for good measure since I'm so late. Hope you like them Elizabeth.

I love my Mid Century Modern Bee group. Sadly, a couple of members opted out going into our third year, but happily we will be getting to know three new quilters moving forward. Spreading the quilty love.  : )  And better yet, there are 8 of us who will be gathering to meet each other in person . . . many for the very first time . . . at QuiltCon.  I can't wait!!!!

This was the major WIP of the week that I'm quite happy to have finished up. Going in the mail tomorrow Elizabeth. Promise. There are plenty of other WIPs in process too, including binding for two quilts, plus some QuiltCon projects. Time is running out to get those done so I need to buckle down. Fourteen days until I leave.   : )

If you're interested in the Drunkard's Path Quilt Along it's never too late to join in. You can find all the posts here on my Quilt Along page.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation.