Friday, January 17, 2014

And So It Begins . . .

While I've was home sick with the stomach bug . . . on the second day, after I got tired of laying in bed and sleeping and thought I might actually feel better if I moved around a little . . . I took some hot tea into the Sweat Shop and started picking out fabrics for a few of the projects I've decided to work on this year.

From there, the next step was to start doing a little cutting, and I thought the January row of the Quilt Doodle BOM was probably the easiest place to start.  I should tell you, though, that being the quilting rebel that I am, I decided to make the blocks MY way--which means instead of making half square triangles and piecing a snowman head like you would a nine-patch block, I cut out the head as one piece and sewed corners on--the kind where you sew on the diagonal and flip the fabric back.  I think you probably know what I mean.  And then on each of those corners, I sewed a second seam, and when I trimmed the excess, I ended up with small half square triangles.  I'll show you what I'm doing with those later.  For now, though, I'll show you my snowman row:


At this point, my snowmen are eye-less, because I'll use black buttons for eyes, and I will probably wait until the quilt is quilted before I add those--or maybe just before, but for now I'll wait.  I also deviated from the pattern by hand appliqueing the carrot noses, because hand applique is just what I like to do.  And it gave me something fairly restful to do while I felt icky and sat back on the couch and watched some TV.

This has been a fun section to work on and if the rest of the quilt is as cute as this first month, I know I'll really enjoy participating and I'll end up with a great quilt.  How about you?  Are you working on this project too?

10 comments:

Nancie Anne Quilts said...

I am so toally with you on your construction deviation...all those little squares just look like trouble in the making and I was questioning them too! I think I'm going to use little black snaps for eyes!

Janet said...

I have one more quilt along for you. It is called Star light, Star Bright by Happy Quilting. Look under quilt alongs.
http://happyquiltingmelissa.blogspot.ca

Great idea for the snowman!

Janet

MoeWest said...

Making this snowman row is my plan for Sunday. I think I'll follow in your rebellious footsteps!

Rabid Quilter from California said...

I thought the same thing when I saw your first post about the snowmen. Why would you put all those seams in the snowman's face when you could make the blocks as you are making them? It's a no-brainer. I LOVE it!

Teatime Creations said...

Good idea for stitching the snowman blocks.

The Queen Bee said...

I am also going to make this BOM. I am waiting for yardage to arrive, though. I was thinking about doing the snowmen heads in the same way so I didn't end up with all those seems running thru them. Yours looks great. It should be a fun project.

Pam

Judy in Michigan said...

Great minds!! Love those flippy corners. Can't wait until the next row. Hope you are feeling better soon.

Sandie @ crazy'boutquilts said...

Yep, when I saw the pattern I thought I'd do snowball blocks too. LOL Lots of great minds following you! Have a happy weekend!

Janet said...

Dear Kim

I'm hooked on trying this too, and although I've been sewing for YEARS...this is the first "large" quilt I have ever tried. I don't have a blog, so cannot post , but I'll try with photos. I love you're idea of construction for the first row...but I'M TERRIBLE at math, and certainly quilt math. Do you think you would be able to post your measurements for the snowmen? I want to try to do the row your way ...A SUPER Fan
Janet from Canada

Siouxzq64@gmail.com said...

I have been resisting joining any QAL or swaps for the year because I have sew many projects I need to finish. Then I saw this one and I just had to at least download the pattern to play with it. Thanks for sharing.