by Great Joy Studio | Aug 27, 2020 | Quilting & Fabric
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Week 5, The Finish, Part 1.
Since there is a lot of info to cover this last week will be in two parts.
Assuming that everyone has all of their blocks completed and trimmed or will have, it is time to assemble!
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To start assembling the quilt portion, I cut five one and a half inch strips of Riley White fabric for the short sashing pieces. Check your pattern for accurate amounts if you want to cut all at once. I inched my way into this process, no pun intended.
From my five I cut eight and a half inch lengths, enough to attach my first couple of horizontal rows of blocks together. Refer to your pattern cover for block placement.
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Beginning with block one (top left) lay one of your Riley White strips (1.5″ x 8.5″) on the right side of Block 1, right fabric sides together. Split the difference of the extra half inch between top and bottom of your block to be trimmed later.
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Sew together using a quarter inch seam.
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Press the seam toward your block.
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Repeat the steps to connect block one and two together with this same sashing strip. This time lay block two on top of sashing strip lining up at right (see photo), again right fabric sides together, being careful to also line up both blocks top to bottom. You may want to pin in place before sewing.
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Continue working this way until you have all of the top row of blocks connected. Then move on to row two!
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And so on, until you have all of the blocks that connect using the short sashing pieces as shown on the pattern cover art. Seeing it all come together is the most fun for me, agreed?
I will post Part B on Saturday so stay tuned.
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Embellish Options.
This festive project is loaded with possibilities to stitch on some fun extras! We plan to add buttons for our snowmen eyes and gingerbread man but remember to do this after your quilt top has been quilted.
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Snow Sweet fabrics are from our partner at Riley Blake Designs are available in shops now.
To see more:
Pinterest, Instagram & Facebook,
and please post your progress with #snowalong and/or #snowsweetfabric.
We would enjoy seeing!
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by Great Joy Studio | Aug 20, 2020 | Quilting & Fabric
Wow, week four already!
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So, this is the part of the Snow-A-Long where it gets tricky for me,
PIECED BLOCKS.
I not an expert when it comes to constructing pieced blocks. On the contrary, I am a novice. I began learning two years ago and have limited experience. I cannot offer tips on how to get these blocks perfect or precise. The best way I can instruct you in this segment is to show how we did it in a picture is worth a thousand words quilt block how to gallery, from a watercolor artist perspective rather than a quilter’s. It worked fairly well for us so no matter what your level of piecing skills is, I am confident that you can do this too.
First, using your two Pieced Blocks Guide sheets included in your pattern and the cover art for color, cut all of your fabrics according to the specified sizes in each of the 7.5″ (finish size) blocks. Our approach was block by block although, some of you experienced quilters may want to cut multiple blocks of the black and white fabrics, all at one time. The blocks are all two color classics so we found the majority were fairly simple to construct.
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Once all of our fabric was cut we laid out each block’s pieces on pre-stretched artist canvases that we had on hand to use as our mini design boards. I hope to make some proper ones in the near future but these were just the right size and served our purpose.
We also labeled each board by row and block number with post-its. This helped us to keep everything organized until we were ready to sew. It will also help you to spot any mistakes that may have occurred during cutting too, as was the case in our first attempt! Can you spot them?
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For our post photography we used these cool vintage price labels to show the quilt rows (top #) and blocks (bottom #).
I began with the blocks that were easiest for me to see how they could be assembled in horizontal rows but you can start with any of the blocks that you like. The design boards allow you to arrange the various pieces in advance to see how you think they look best. I tried wherever possible to have my text facing up and the pieces that were sideways, to be facing in the same direction.
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Row 2, Block 6
We attached all of the half square triangles, B and C cuts together with a 1/4″ seam, shown in the first photo. Working from left to right we attached the top left two units together forming a horizontal, half square triangle double. Then we attached the two below those in the same way. After that, all four half square triangles were sewn together forming the top left corner unit of four half square triangles. Follow the same for the remaining three corners.
Attach the two top corner units to each side of your D cuts, and then bottom the same way. Attach the horizontal D cuts with center cut C. You will have three rows. Pin to match seams and working top to bottom attach all three rows together to complete the block.
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Row 3, Block 1.
I started in the upper left corner making the small half square triangle by attaching E to B with a 1/4″ seam. Then added both of the dark triangles E to two sides of that unit forming a larger, 4 piece triangle. Again and throughout the quilt construction, we tried to maintain 1/4″ seams. To complete the corner unit I then sewed to the large white cut triangle A in the same way you made your first small, half square triangle. I repeated the steps for the remaining three corner units.
Then working from left to right attach top two corner units to D and repeat for the bottom corners. You will then have three horizontal rows. Last we pinned in place to attach all three rows together.
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More of our picture is worth a thousand words quilt block gallery:
You can see that we followed a similar sequence for each of the remaining blocks. I attached all of the small half square triangles first as I moved from block to block.
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I do not know the technical terms for block assembly so please excuse me quilters and please, interject your vast knowledge from experience in the comments! We would all love to learn more!
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Once again, this Snow-A-Long features fabric from Riley Blake Designs, Snow Sweet, Riley White and Painters Palette.
I have not included every block in this post but will add the remaining four in a follow up post.
I imagine that most of you following are able to quilt circles around me but I read somewhere once, “finished is better than perfect.” Jenny Doan I believe said that and I found it encouraging.
So, keep going!
And post photos with #snowalong and #snowsweetfabric in your social media so we can find/see your progress.
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by Great Joy Studio | Jul 30, 2020 | Quilting & Fabric
Hello Everyone.
It’s time!
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To start the
SNOW-A-LONG,
featuring SNOW SWEET and PAINTERS PALETTE fabrics
from Riley Blake Designs.
I would like to remind all of you that this is only my second SAL so I welcome your comments, questions and constructive critiques.
Now, let’s have some fun in the snow!!
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Some of you may not have received your patterns yet due to a last minute edit however, you will be able to catch up quickly in this first week. When you get them, be sure to read through the entire instructions section before you begin.
This week we will be making your appliqué pieces and cutting your block background fabrics.
Begin by taping together the six Star Snowman pages. A light box or taping to a convenient window works very well for this. Match up the registration marks located on each page. You may choose to trim the edges of your six page snowman template first to eliminate gaps in the line art. As you can see in the pictures below, we did not.
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Take your assembled Star Snowman and all of the other appliqué template sheets and begin tracing onto your fusible web, paper side up. Start with the largest pieces first such as Star Snowman, his scarf and snow base. We like to tape down the pieces so they do not move during this process.
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Every shape that you see on the templates will be an individual ‘glue’ piece so we numbered them as well by block for easier organization and quick identification when fusing. The appliqué designs are already in mirror image. Once all are traced, rough cut them apart. You will have something that looks like these:
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Next: For all white and light colored appliqué fabrics you will want to add a second layer of fusible interfacing to mask the block background fabric you are fusing to. We did this with the Snowman and his base, snowflakes and bell.
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Rough cut a piece of interfacing a little larger than your fusible pieces. Once again start with the largest items first. As you can see in the next photo group, you will simply ‘sandwich’ your white or light colored fabric on bottom wrong side up on your pressing surface, interfacing piece glue side down and then fusible web piece on top, glue side down. Once in place press according to the manufacturers recommended instructions. Darker fabrics will not require this step. So, for all other appliqué pieces using the pattern cover art as your fabric/color guide, simply fuse cut web pieces, glue side to wrong side of fabrics.
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Here are the products we used. Pellon 805 Wonder-Under as our fusible web, Pellon 911FF Fusible Featherweight interfacing, and fine tip sharpies.
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Once each glue piece is fused to its corresponding fabric you can move on to cutting out each appliqué. The more accurate you trim, the better the result. Use sharp scissors but not your “fabric only” pair as you will be cutting through the fusible web product. Here are the loose pieces organized and laid out that you will have before the final fuse to each block. Do not fuse together until week 2 for a helpful tip.
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Next you will be cutting your block background fabrics, again starting with the Star Snowman. The sizes for each block are listed on your instruction sheets. Refer to the cover art for all of your fabric colors.
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Note: There is one red fabric inconsistency listed from the original RBD storyboard as compared to our pattern. No worries! Either red fabric will work.
An optional but important step for week 2 will be creating “doors” for accurate piece placement. This will require any standard tracing paper you can get at your local art or craft store. This was not included on our original supply list. It comes in a variety of sizes. We used Strathmore Tracing Paper Pad, 300 Series, 9″ x 12″, 50 sheets. This will be plenty for this project.
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We would love to see your progress photos on Facebook, Instagram and/or Pinterest so please let us know where in the comments.
Please tag us and follow on Instagram @jweckerfrisch and #snowalong whenever posting.
You can follow us on Facebook at Joy Studio News
And we’ve created a Sweet Snow A Long board on Pinterest.
Welcome everybody! See you next week!
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by Great Joy Studio | Jul 2, 2020 | Quilting & Fabric
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Announcing,
SWEET SNOW-A-LONG
July 23rd
made with
SNOW SWEET
fabrics from Riley Blake Designs!
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Follow us here at JOY STUDIO for each step over five weeks to make this delightful and delicious quilt top.
Patterns and fabric are shipping now so check with your favorite shop for arrival times. MANY shops have ordered this so patterns, kits and fabric should be widely available.
If your local is still closed check the on line shops. Search Snow Sweet fabric and Sweet Snow-A-Long.
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J. Wecker Frisch
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Anyone can make this. We know because WE DID!! Lol And as you know, we are still new at this. I hope you can join us to make this really fun snowy quilt and cool off your summer!!!
