In Full Bloom

I'm calling In Full Bloom my first finish of 2018. It was started way back in 2016.
Can't even begin to tell you how happy I am that it's finally finished because I love it!!!

When our daughter moved out, I claimed her old room as the guest room. My plans were for some furniture make-overs and a quilt for the bed. I envisioned a bright space full of color but it took me awhile to decide what type of quilt to make. My first thought was low volume with spots of color so I got stuck on that idea but it just wasn't inspiring me. I have always wanted to make a Kaffe snowball quilt and this felt right. Lots of color. Lots of flowers both modern and traditional. It was a great way to use up some of my older floral prints too.

I had hoped to have it done before our daughter's wedding last summer. The wedding rightfully took priority however and while the quilt was pieced and quilted I just didn't have time for the binding. I put it on the bed anyway, sans binding, and both my sweet sisters-in-law loved it. They didn't care one bit that it wasn't really finished.

I worked on the blocks during many BoulderMQG open sews and once all 225 blocks were done the next challenge was how to arrange them. My original plan was to randomly scatter the colors throughout, but during the initial cutting the cooler greens and blues ended up on the outside edges by chance. I liked the look and decided to take it a step further by clustering colors with the the brighter flowers in the center gradating outward to the lighter colors and finally edging it in the greens and blues. I wasn't especially fond of the blues so decided to place them along the top edge where they wouldn't really show once pillows were on the bed.

I used this great text print by Whistler Studios for the backing. The same fabric was also used for the side chair seat. The pillow shams were made from the black version of the print. This has got to be one of my favorite backing fabrics.

This cozy little corner features a cabinet with more quilts, a small reading chair, and a dresser I repainted after getting it for $3 at a garage sale.

I think this room will become my mini quilt gallery. The small quilt on the chair below is from my Interweave pattern and the quilt over the dresser is my Facets quilt pattern. Both are available on Craftsy and my Etsy shop.

All the color and florals make me happy. Hopefully it will have the same effect on our guests. If you come to stay, this sight will great you as you enter the room . . . It came out just as I imagined. My quilted garden in full bloom.

You can read about the process of making In Full Bloom by jumping over to these posts. How I fussy cut the blooms is covered in this post. How to draft the snowball block is discussed here. And this post shows the concept coming to life on my wall.

Hope you've enjoyed your virtual visit of my garden room as much as I'm enjoying seeing it everyday. In case you're interested, the flower pillows on the bed came from a website called Society6.

Thanks for visiting.

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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.

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Snowball Quilt; the Diamonds

My design wall is bursting into full bloom.

I'm well on my way to making a snowball quilt. My wall is covered with squares of Kaffe, Amy Butler and several older traditional prints from my stash. Lots and lots of cutting from lots and lots of different fabrics. Putting them up on the wall is like watching a fabric garden bloom. Love it!

Before I cut any fabric, I cut white paper squares to represent the diamonds. Then I fussy cut the blooms. See this blog post for my fussy cutting method. As more and more fabric blooms went up on the wall, I ran out of paper squares and decided not to bother with any more.

It's interesting to see the difference in the layout with and without the white diamonds. My first reaction was that the section without the white diamonds looked flat. The floral squares alone seemed incomplete. However as more and more squares went up I liked the look better and better.

Here's a section with the diamonds.

And here's a section without. Which do you prefer?

I don't really think one is better than the other. It's more a matter of what you're after in a design. I actually think a really large quilt of simple squares would be quite stunning. Especially one that included several of those big blooms with the dark background. They add depth and a focal point that helps to break up the overall surface. At this point in the process I have not played with fabric placement. Only cutting squares and throwing them up on the wall. Distribution of color and fabrics will come later.

My original plan was to use white for the diamonds but before committing I tried another fabric from my stash. A small black and white dot. This quilt will be used in my guest room where I've used a lot of black and white decor. At first I didn't like the dot. The white paper stood out so much that the dot looked flat. But the more dotted squares I added, the more I liked it. It's more subtle than the white which allows the blooms to really stand out. Plus, the little tiny touch of black is just right for the room.

Even though I grew to like the idea of all squares, perhaps that's another quilt for another time. Right now I'm making a snowball quilt.  A snowball quilt with black and white dot diamonds. This process reminded me of how important it is to continue to fine tune and work through design issues as you go along. If I hadn't bothered with the paper diamonds I wouldn't have had a good idea what the final quilt would look like. It's good to see all the parts come together. It's also good to be flexible if those parts aren't working the way you envisioned. Be open to making changes along the way. You just might discover a whole new concept that's even better. Or at least different and equally worthy of being made into another lovely quilt.

I'll be back soon with a post on how I decided on the size of the corner squares plus how I sew them.

Love gardening with fabric. Just wish my design wall was bigger so it could hold even more
beautiful flowers.   : )

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