Snowmen everywhere

 Last January I started Merry Merry Snowmen by Ann Sutton of Bunny Hill which was a 9 block pattern.  I did it with a friend and we met weekly  to sew together and share fabrics most French General. All the snowmen were appliqued in wool by hand.  And all the other details were appliqued in cotton by machine in a blanket stitch. 

I finished the top and the back in October and sent it off to be longarmed. And I collected it in January. 

There have been countless hours attaching the binding and the rod pocket.  And then all the eyes needed buttons and other small details.  

Lastly I have been quilting the large applique designs. 

AND for the big finish:  Hooray for me!!!!!!!  

Completed size 62 by 66   (Photo a little yellowy )

Merry Merry Me!

I am so excited I have finished the quilt top for Merry Merry Snowman by Bunny Hill Designs!  YEAH!

This has been a labor of love and a shared goal with a friend. We each combined our fabrics and worked weekly on it starting in January. ( You can see many of my 9  blocks done individually in previous posts. ) 

Each snowman is appliqued in wool and hand stitched including their noses, arms, wordings, etc. While the rest of the details are appliqued with a machine blanket stitch. 

After it is quilted I will add bead eyes and many buttons. 

Today's goal is to piece the back.

Merry Merry July

 So now that the kids are gone, I have returned to quilting.  It is nice to be creative and start to finish up some things. 

Besides working on many 9 patches, I pulled out my Merry, Merry Snowman by Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill. I started this in January with a friend.  She would do the block first and then I would do it the next week. She was able to put her top together, but I got stuck with all the things going on. 

I had taken it on retreat in May and had things bundled up according to blocks.  The pieced backgrounds were completed, but I didn't have all the fabrics/wool I needed for the applique. And that is the state I found them in. 

So one at a time, I selected the missing pieces, chose fabrics and attached them.  The snowmen are all made of wool and then blanket stitched around the edges by hand.  There are many embroidery details for each block as well such as lettering, arms, carrot noses and such.  But I do use the machine to attach the fused fabrics. Button eyes will be attached after quilting. 

And here are the blocks  6, 7, 8, and 9.  

Hooray for me!

Snowmen without touching snow

 Snowmen making.   I am enjoying the process of making Merry Merry Snowmen with my friend.

Each week we get together, share our fabrics and chat while we assemble a block.  We enjoy each other's company while spurring each other on.  It makes us each accountable and we are making good progress.

It is amazing how long it takes to make the decisions for which fabric goes where.  It seems the decisions take half the time in the process. Then to assemble the pieced background and make the applique follows.  We have chosen to make wool snowmen  and quilting fabric for the rest of the applique. 

Lastly, we each have to do the wool applique as well as noses, and outlines that make it all so sweet.  Nothing like having something to do while watching tv.

Block three: I need to switch a couple of fabrics and do the nose.

Block Four needing the hand stitching

Block Five  Also needing the hand stitching

Stitching and stitching

 I am enjoying the methodical stitching on the machine each day.  And while I seem to slowly accumulate blocks, I don't get to the computer to talk about it. 

Something I am really like creating are my Sewcialites 2 blocks.  I have really liked using Christmas colors and made several blocks this week.  I am almost caught up with the block a week release by Fat Quarter Shop. And I keep looking for larger pieces of fabrics for the setting.  Although I won't be putting it together until this summer. 

And I am churning out my Ocean Waves blocks.  I am down to the last 2 weeks of my schedule to finish the blocks which will total 64.  My goal to finish it for our quilt show at the end of March.  I already have a reservation to have it quilted by my friend. She took some pictures of my blocks I had taken to guild for planning her exquisite work.

I bought some more off white wool for my snowmen and am getting a little done per week   Total 9 sections and the first is completed.  The 2nd one is heat set with hand work and machine applique to do.  The first half of the 3rd is planned. So I am getting there.

I have been marinating my ideas for my Stay at Home Round Robin all week. The idea started by Quilting Gail and then first row by the Home Sewn by Us was to frame your block with the them of spools.  I truly enjoy a challenge of selecting the block and making it fit the center block I started last week. I did need to change the width of the border to make it work.

While it is not all sewn together, I will complete it this weekend. This evening we are celebrating my daughter's birthday, cutting my sewing time down. 

The block was designed by Nancy Zieman found on Pinterest and my finished size is 3 and 1/2 inches. 

And lastly it is fun just to sit and piece scrappy 9 patches. No matter how many I piece and use scraps up, it doesn't make much of a dent in the fabric stash. 

 

And my January goal is COMPLETE.  All the machine quilting, binding and details are added.  And I hung the new wall hanging on the door!  The snowman top  was probably started 15 or more years ago and I was stuck adding the words below.  I just decided to finish it up as is, forget the words, and SEW I did.  Posted on Elm Street Quilts  One Monthly Goal. 

Busy sewing week

 New year!  New goals!   

1) Progress on Merry Merry Snowmen! 

I have not only pieced the blocks for area 1 and 2, I have appliqued the features and took 2 evenings to add the hand details:  Block is 14 by 22 inches

2) Working on my Ocean Waves

Several more blocks pieced.  They require meticulous seam allowances to meet at the corners. And that requires removing stitches to fix them.  Ahhh! the joys of unstitching. 

2)  Sewcialites 2  

New block completed. The video by Kimberly Jolly of Fat Quarter Shop is helpful and I like how she showed techniques for square in a square ( with a paper piece) as well as alternative colorings for variations of the block.