March's Block is Out, Let's Go Ice Fishing!

Happy March everyone! As many of you know I am a mom to two boys. They are all grown up and are typical Minnesotans. They love the outdoors and love to fish. It doesn't matter what time of year it is, they love the outdoors. This is especially true about my oldest son. When he's not working he's either on a lake fishing or building fishing rods and dreaming about catching that big ol' fish. In fact you can check out his custom built fishing rods at Finding Walter Custom Rods. These fishing rods are beautiful and hand built one by one. It's quite an art. These rods are hand tested by friends and family. I've have caught a few keepers with his custom built fishing rods while up at the lake. (I'm a fair weather fisherman, on a boat in warmer weather)

  The cold weather doesn't stop John from fishing. He enjoys ice fishing. Both my boys were recently up north ice fishing staying in an Ice Castle for a few days (glorified fish house) Sounds like they had a wonderful time but I am pretty sure it's not for me. I don't think my nerves could take the booming sounds of the ice cracking. I'm more of the summertime, reading on the boat type of girl. Now that March is here, Ice fishing is coming to an end. All fish houses and shelter must be off the ice (lake) by March 15th (in Northern Minnesota).  I'm sure my oldest is still thinking about that next big catch and designing a rod to make it a little easier.

For this month I came up with an ice fishing snowman.  The design is placed on one of the snowball quilt blocks. If you made all four blocks, all you will need to do is applique this adorable design onto one of the blocks. I have recapped on how to make the snowball blocks for those of you who may just be joining us this month. If you are still looking for fabric I do have some fabric kits available in my Etsy shop.  With just a few clicks in my Etsy Shop, I will ship you a fabric kit for this years quilt. The info and links can be found below. Buttons are also available in my Etsy Shop too. 

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, and April blocks.

All of the design elements are in place and ready to be ironed in place.

Here I am machine appliqueing around all the pieces.

I have marked the eyes and mouth with a pencil so I can embroider French knots.

I also use a pencil to draw the fishing line and snowman's arm. Using pearl cotton I embroider it using a backstitch.

~Ice Fishing 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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Happy Quilting!

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"