Snowman Applique 2

Okay, so today is a light day for me as far as other commitments go, and I have time to post twice! This post will cover the process I went through to get that Snowman Applique Quilt ready to be hand quilted....

So this process was fairly simple for me, just cut the black sashing into 1" strips and then sew according to the diagram with a quarter inch seam.... Nothing can go wrong with that right???

 The picture above shows that the blocks were laid out according to the pattern and a sashing was added between the sets of 2 blocks to create 3 rows.... Not too difficult for me, just had to finagle that pesky quarter inch seam.... (This quilt led me to buy that 1/4" presser foot and I am so excited to sew the next project together and see if it is any easier to get the seams right!)

Next, you add the longer strips to frame the rows in a sense as seen below. This was a little harder for me to do, the seam was longer and harder to keep straight. As you can see it is a little wonky, but it works right?!? (Makes it look HOMEMADE - at least that is my mantra) I learned quickly after these first 2 longer seams that I would need PINS and LOTS of them :)

Then, you add in the other two columns. I will say that I did pin these, but you may not need to pin them, since there are no points to line up, which was a life saver for me (this being my first quilt to get to this stage of production). I also heavily recommend to press in between sewing the seams with an iron, not your fingers. I finger pressed them, because I was SO EXCITED to see the quilt top done, that I feel when I did get around to ironing it out, I had a little trouble making the seams go where I wanted them. 

I added the top and the bottom sashing next, not too difficult with the help of pins :) Oh, and when I finally remembered to stitch a few stitches and check to make sure that the thread was actually still in the needle, that made the process go a little faster.... I think I sewed 1 seam 3 times because 2 of them, the needle came unthreaded halfway through the row....

Anyway, a picture of  completed top and bottom is shown below:

Next, I added the last of the sashing and then gave it a good iron. Making sure to press from the back to make sure the seams were set and going the direction I wanted them to go. I did not follow the book for which direction to press the seams.... 

Last stage!!! The outer border which I believe I cut as 3" strips. The outer border was the only Christmas fabric I used and bought especially for the quilt. This same fabric is being used to back and bind the quilt :) Close up of that to come later.... When I cut the border strips, I went ahead and cut the binding strips as well... they were also 3" wide strips.

Well there it is folks! My first finished quilt top - wonky seams and all! But I am proud of what I accomplished :) And i do believe that from a distance you can barely notice the slight bending of those pesky thin sashing strips...

SIDE NOTE - The above pictures are not technically the finished quilt top, the finished quilt top does have faces on those snowmen :)

TIDING UP -

• I have found a link for an excellent buttonhole tutorial on youtube! 
• I am still looking for the name and author the book that I got the pattern from!

Next Blog will show (hopefully) part 3 of this process - the quilt sandwich and beginnings of hand quilting :)