Kathy's Kwilts and More: September 2016

Earlier this year I had a great opportunity to participate in a new bloggers blog hop. Through this, I learned more about blogging. We had some great hosts Yvonne @ quiltingjetgirl.com, Stephanie @ latenightquilter.com and Cheryl @ meadowmistdesigns.blogspot.com. Now they are hosting another great blog hop for us. This one is a challenge, to design a new quilt block.

cloud9fabrics.com, generously donated a bundle of fat quarters to 70 designers for the #2016cloud9newblock blog hop. They gave us all the same colors of fabrics from the cirrus collection. These are organic fabrics and they are fun to work with.

We had to use at least 3 of the 5 colors in our blocks. The blocks will be sent to one of the hosts and they will be put into some charity quilts. It is hard to come up with new blocks. We were given some resources to help us.

I ended up using two of my favorite blocks and my quilt block is called "Pinwheel in a snowball". I had fun creating this block, and am going to design a quilt pattern based on it.

Click here for a free PDF download of this block from craftsy.

PINWHEEL IN A SNOWBALL

Cutting instructions: these are based on using fat quarters.

4 – 4” squares of two colors. (You will need 2 light and 2 dark colors) my colors are Amazon (dark) and sky (light).

From a contrasting color, (mine was Shadow) cut 3 - 3 ½” strips, then sub cut the following:

2 – 3 ½” x 6 ½”

2 – 3 ½” x 12 ½”
4 - 3 1/2 inch squares from a 4th color (mine was Iris)

Take your lightest squares and draw a line corner to corner on the wrong side of the fabric.

Put 1 light and 1 dark square rights sides together. Sew ¼” on both sides of the line. Then cut along the marked line. Press the seams to the dark side.

Take the 2 HST's (Half Square Triangles) you just made, and put them next to each other so you have a dark and light next to each other, like this:

Put right sides together and sew with a ¼” seam allowance. Yours seams will meet at the bottom. Repeat with the other 2 HST's.

Put your 2 sections together, matching the center seams and stitch at ¼” seam allowance.

Open up the finished pinwheel. Press the seam open, so it will lay flat.

Finished pinwheel should measure 6 ½” square.

From your 3 ½” strips of the contrasting fabric. Sew the 6 ½” strips on right and left sides of the pinwheel, using a ¼” seam allowance. Press the seams away from the center block.

6 1/2" strips being sewn on 1 side of square. Do this same procedure on the other side.

From the 3 ½” strips of the contrasting fabric. Sew the 12 ½” strips to the top and bottom of the pinwheel. Press seams away from the center block.

12 1/2" strips being sewn to the top. You will also do this on the bottom.

We are almost done, but we need to make our block into a snowball. Using the 4 – 3 ½” squares. Draw a line down the center of the block, and lay each in a corner of your block. Sew about 1/8” from the line, on the right side of the line, then when it is pressed, it will line up with your block.

Trim all four corners ¼” from the seam. And press. You now have a pinwheel in the snowball. I used Aurifil thread 2024 for the piecing on this block.


This block was made by my tester Krystal.

This block was made by tester Cindy.

These are 2 of my favorite blocks. Keep and eye on my blog, because I will be doing a pattern with this block and it will be for sale soon.

I would love to see the blocks you create from this tutorial. If you are on instagram, follow me @kathyskwiltsandmore and share there under #pinwheelinasnowball or send me your pictures in am email at kathyskwiltsandmore@gmail.com or let me know your blog address and post a blog about it.

A great big thank you to my testers Krystal and Cindy. They did a great job and gave lots of feedback.

To get more free patterns go to these sites:

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