Snow Much Fun in Wool, April's Block

  

I have been enjoying working with wool for my second version of this year's BOM. I've been having Snow Much Fun! This month's block is an adorable snowman with his camper. Since it's a winter quilt I had to decorate the camper with a Christmas wreath and Christmas lights. I have been machine stitching my wool applique with Lana wool from Aurifil. I have loved the combo of the wool with the Primo Plaids from Marcus Fabrics. It's going to be such a cozy quilt. It'll be a fun quilt to put out next winter.

I have also altered how I am doing the 'snowball' blocks on this version of the quilt.

Instead of piecing the block as shown, I am starting out with a 14 1/2" cream block and then adding 5 1/4" green blocks to the corners, right sides together, then sewing corner to corner to form the triangles on each corner of the block. I then trim the excess.

Trace all of the applique shapes onto freezer paper and iron it onto your wool pieces. Then cut all the pieces out.

Use a button hole stitch to machine stitch the wool pieces onto the background block. I am using 12wt Lana Wool thread from Aurifil. (color - 8087 brown) I'm using a regular 50wt in my bobbin thread. I'm using a 75/11 needle... 

Camping Snowman

April's Block

For this version of the quilt, I am using Primo Plaid flannels from Marcus Fabrics and for the applique pieces, I really like the combo of the wool with the Primo Plaids.   To finish these cute designs, I embellished my squares with some special buttons from Just Another Button Company. I do have these buttons available in my Etsy Shop. Pattern can be found on the Quilt Doodle Designs Website. April's block is a Free download this month only.  I will not be sewing my buttons onto my quilt top until after I have it all done and quilted. This BOM will be offered the first of every month. Like always, it's FREE for the month that the block is out, then there's a small fee if you have to play catch up to get the block. To make sure that you don't miss any of it,  join my mailing list. Not only will you get all of the BOM 2018 postings and updates, but you will also hear about all sorts of other fun quilty goodness too!

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Happy Quilting!

Cindy and Belvedere

Minnesota Winter Wonderland - April

I am so thrilled that April is here! I am so tired of snow and cold weather. At least we are getting glimpses that spring is right around the corner. The days are getting longer and it's no longer dark when I let Belvedere out in the morning. I am usually greeted with a beautiful sunrise as I drink my morning cup of coffee, spring is almost here. I just have to look a little harder to find it. Onto this section of the quilt... it's a strip or row of stars. It's quick and easy to do. I did not do mine scrappy but you certainly can make yours scrappy if you want to. The fun thing about this quilt is you can choose to do it scrappy or not scrappy, I'm doing a little of both. This month block is called 'Sparkling Stars'. A cozy cabin needs sparkling stars to light the winter sky.  One thing to keep in mind is to do the background the same or similar fabrics as you did for your Cozy Cabin block. This will also be true with the blocks for May and September. You want this section of the quilt to be somewhat consistent with the background colors. When these sections are pieced together it makes one big row.

My pieces are cut and and ready to sew...

My triangle squares are all ready to be ironed. Remember I am pairing together
2 1/2" squares and sewing corner to corner to make my triangle squares. I know
there's a little bit of waste, but I find this a quick and easy method since this quilt
is based on 2 1/2" squares and strips.

My blocks pieces are all lined up by my machine, it's time to
sew my stars together!

Next I will sew my stars together to form a row, placing 2 1/2" strips in between each block.

April's  Row
'Sparkling Stars'

Layout so far...

 If you blog about it, please email me a link so that I can attach it to the Pinterest Board I have going for the Minnesota Winter Wonderland QAL. I hope you have fun with this section of the  quilt. It can easily be done in an afternoon. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's stars! You can post pictures on Instagram and tag me @quiltdoodledesigns use the hashtag quiltdoodledesignsqal If you still want to join in on the fun, the pattern can be purchased HERE.  You only have a little catching up to do. We work on the next section on May 12th. So mark your calendars!

Happy Quilting,

Cindy and Belvedere

April's Block Snow Much Fun!

Happy April! Happy Easter! and Happy April Fool's day! So much going on today! I hope that where ever you are from, I hope it's a beautiful spring day! Here in Minnesota it's your typical Easter day, a bit on the cold side, snow on the ground that hasn't melted yet and mud here and there... I'm already looking forward to May.  It's hard to talk about winter and snuggly warm quilts with the appearance of Easter baskets and chocolate bunnies. But, I will try and do my best... This month's block is a camping snowman. My son, John, would say it's an Ice Castle for ice fishing. But I'm sure snowmen also enjoy going camping in the snow covered woods. I imagine that they have fun going snowshoeing on the snow covered trails. Or maybe they like building snow forts like my sisters used to do out in the backyard when they were small.

This month's design is placed on the last of the snowball quilt blocks. If you made all four blocks, all you will need to do is applique this adorable design onto the center of the last block. I have recapped on how to make the snowball blocks for those of you who may just be joining us this month.

The snowball blocks will be used for the January thru April applique designs. So let's get started.... First go to my website and download this month's free directions. Remember it's only FREE this month, then there will be a small 2.99 fee after that. So download and print it up NOW even if you don't expect to get to it yet.

Then following the Snowball Block directions, cut out your pieces out of dark green border fabric and your cream background fabric.

Here I am cutting my 5 1/2" blocks in half diagonally.

Pair together 1 cream triangle and 1 green triangle and sew a scant ¼” seam along the diagonal edge. Iron. Make a total of 4 triangle square blocks.

Following the Snowball block diagram sew the triangle blocks onto the 5 ¼” cream blocks to make a triangle block, 5 ¼” block, triangle block strip. (Make two)  Then sew the triangle block strips to the 5 ¼” x 14 ½” cream rectangle following the Snowball block diagram.

Make a total of 4 snowball blocks. You will only use one block this month and save the other blocks for the January, February, March and April blocks.

Trace all the design shapes onto heat n bond, or fusible webbing of your choice, iron onto fabric and then cut all the pieces out.

Then iron the pieces in place on the block.

After all of the pieces are appliqued in place using a buttonhole stitch and dark brown thread, it's time to add some of the details. I used a pencil to mark the snowman's eyes, buttons and twig arm. I will be using dark brown variegated Valdini pearl cotton to embroider using French knots and a backstitch.

French knots are perfect for the snowman's buttons, eyes and mouth.

Camping Snowman

To finish this cute design, I embellished my square with some special buttons from Just Another Button Company. I do have these buttons available in my Etsy Shop. Pattern can be found on the Quilt Doodle Designs Website. It's a Free download this month only.  I will not be sewing my buttons onto my quilt top until after I have it all done and quilted. I will also be offering some extra postings for you wool workers out there too! This BOM will be offered the first of every month. Like always, it's FREE for the month that the block is out, then there's a small fee if you have to play catch up to get the block. To make sure that you don't miss any of it,  join my mailing list. Not only will you get all of the BOM 2018 postings and updates, but you will also hear about all sorts of other fun quilty goodness too!

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Cindy

If you would like to post this image on your website or blog to spread the word. Please grab the image above and link it to my blog.

Button kits are available in my Etsy Shop too!

Fabric kits are available in my Etsy shop for the 2018 Snow Much Fun BOM! The kit includes your border and block fabrics. This year's quilt is a flannel quilt that will be super warm and cozy when it's finished. I am also working with Just Another Button Company for some adorable buttons to embellish your quilt with. These buttons are available in my Etsy shop.

These are the colors that are in the fabric kit available in the Quilt Doodle Etsy shop.

Please note that substitutions may be made when some fabrics 'run out' but the substitutions will be equally as cute! Fabric kit does not include backing or binding

Finished quilt measures 60" x 72"

Snow Much Fun in Wool

  I have been enjoying working with wool for my second version of this year's BOM. I've been having Snow Much Fun! I ran a little behind last month with my postings... so this month I will be showing you last month's block and this month's block done in the wool. Both turned out so darn cute.  I have been machine stitching my wool applique with Lana wool from Aurifil. I googled it to locate a source since I didn't want to drive all over the Twin Cities to locate some. (It's winter, I'm cold and lazy... there's still snow on the ground... ) I'm hoping to find some at a local quilt shop when I'm out and about again. Remember, Belvedere and I are hibernating until the thermometer is above my age. I'd like to buy a couple more colors.

I have also altered how I am doing the 'snowball' blocks on this version of the quilt.

Instead of piecing the block as shown, I am starting out with a 14 1/2" cream block and then adding 5 1/4" green blocks to the corners, right sides together, then sewing corner to corner to form the triangles on each corner of the block. I then trim the excess.

Trace all of the applique shapes onto freezer paper and iron it onto your wool pieces.

Then cut all the pieces out...

Use a button hole stitch to machine stitch the wool pieces onto the background block. I am using 12wt Lana Wool thread from Aurifil. (color - 8087 brown) I'm using a regular 50wt in my bobbin thread. I'm using a 75/11 needle... 

I'm using pearl cotton from Valdini in a variegated brown color for my embroidery. (French knots and back stitch)

March's Block

Ice Fishing Snowman

February's Block

Let's Go Skating!

For this version of the quilt, I am using Primo Plaid flannels from Marcus Fabrics and for the applique pieces, I really like the combo of the wool with the Primo Plaids. I have rummaging thru my wool stash which I have been collecting over the last couple of years.  To finish these cute designs, I embellished my squares with some special buttons from Just Another Button Company. I do have these buttons available in my Etsy Shop. Pattern can be found on the Quilt Doodle Designs Website. March's block is a Free download this month only.  I will not be sewing my buttons onto my quilt top until after I have it all done and quilted.This BOM will be offered the first of every month. Like always, it's FREE for the month that the block is out, then there's a small fee if you have to play catch up to get the block. To make sure that you don't miss any of it,  join my mailing list. Not only will you get all of the BOM 2018 postings and updates, but you will also hear about all sorts of other fun quilty goodness too!

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Happy Quilting!

Cindy and Belvedere

Dragonfly Dream Table Runner

I just know spring is right around the corner even though we have a ton of snow on the ground here in Minnesota. How do I know? The days are longer, the sun is brighter and most importantly, the birds are singing! Yes! There was actual singing this morning when I let the dogs out to do their thing. I actually braved the 31 degrees in a sweatshirt and listened to the birds chatter and sing this morning. It was glorious. It would have been perfect if I would have remembered my cup full of coffee. I have spring fever so badly... I'm dying for color.  I've notice lately that I an gravitating towards bright colors when I work in the studio. My fabric purchases this last week or two have been laden with flowers and bright at that!

One of my favorite patterns is my Dragonfly Dream Table Runner. I designed this pattern when I was a total newbie at pattern writing. It's written so that you can make two runners with the materials listed. My thought with this runner was to inspire the creativity in everyone. I have no concrete directions for placement of your coneflowers or dragonflies. You can play with the placement of the design elements and have some fun. I finished two of these runners this last weekend. Both have different design placement.

I used a dark brown thread to do a button hole stitch around the designs.

The brown thread adds an edge to the design.

On this table runner I didn't add the extra stitching. I am relying on the heat n bond to hold the design in place. I machine quilted an all over stippling design using a thread that blends in with the colors of the batik fabric. This will also hold the design in place.

Finished size is 12 1/2" x 36 1/2"

Here you can see how I placed the design onto each table runner.

My dining table is sorta big so I placed both table runners side by side for my centerpiece. This table runner makes a great hostess gift if you are visiting family Easter weekend. The pattern is available as an instant PDF download for $8.00 click on the link below to purchase your copy. It's a fun pattern to make and perfect to chase away those wintertime blues and celebrate spring!

Happy quilting,

Cindy and Belvedere