Snowballs!

Posted on January 24, 2020 by prairiemoonquilts in Inspiration, Quilts

A perfect day to talk about snowballs, since this is the view out my studio window this morning.

Ranger doesn’t know it yet, but that hay he’s looking at longingly is just about to get moved across the fence for him and Wyatt! They will love it.

But the snowballs I really want to talk about are much warmer . . .

A couple years ago, my friend, Rose Marie, and I, went to a quilt show together, and fell in love with a scrappy snowball quilt we saw there. Why we neither one took a photo of it, I don’t know, but it’s still a clear picture in my mind. We decided, standing there in front of it, that we should do a Friends Project to use up scraps, and WE should make snowball quilts! So that’s what we’re doing.

Rose Marie has hers well along, and is using mellow, warm colors:

She has a specific layout to hers that I will show you in a better picture later when she gets it even further along.

Me, I only just recently got started. Since I pulled all my dark 3 1/2″ squares out earlier last year for a different project, I mostly had bright ones left in my box, so I decided to go brighter with mine, to use those up. It’s gonna have a lot of everything in it, and be really, really scrappy.

Rose Marie is making all four corners on each of her blocks the same color, but I’m mixing mine up,  mainly because I have a box of pre-cut 1 1/2″ squares I’d like to use up, and don’t generally have 4 of any one print. Mine is going to be way more of a mess than hers. Hmmm . . .

Here’s the details on how we’re making them, if you, too, want to make a snowball quilt along with us!

Each little block is one 3 1/2″ square for the middle, and four 1 1/2″ squares for the corners.

Place a small square on the corner, and sew diagonally across it (draw a line for reference if you need to, but I’m just eyeballing it cos they’re tiny — and I was too lazy to draw that many lines on the backs of tiny squares), then trim 1/4″ outside the sewn line.

Do this for all four corners of the bigger square, then press the triangles out flat, and you have one snowball block!

I’m sewing mine together all randomly, while Rose Marie has a more set plan, but I’ll keep you posted on how we’re doing with some more pictures once we both get further along.

Rose Marie’s is going to end up 84″ square, while I plan to make mine rectangular, but probably queen-sized, just so I can use up even more scraps. It’s gonna take a LOT of snowballs.

Do you have some small scraps you’d like to use up? How about a Snowball quilt?

13 responses to “Snowballs!”

  1. Ginny says:

    On my list to do. There are so many ways to use snow ball blocks with others and organized. Oh well, this to will happen

  2. Some of the prettiest quilts I have made were snowball blocks. I like how scrappy yours will be and you should see a small dent in your scraps once you finish a queen size rectangular quilt! Since you are going scrappy, you can chain quilt and just let your mind wander. Some days are made for that type of sewing, I think.

  3. What a great scrappy quilt! Rise Marie’s will be awesome with the same background on each block, but your will use up those leftover squares. Hmmm decisions, decisions? Should I start one, too? 🥴. Do I have time for another one? Wait! A new leader ender project! 😂

  4. Marcia in TX says:

    I like the way you are alternating the snowballs, light on one and dark on the next. The x it makes is so neat.

  5. Marcia in TX says:

    Forgot to say thanks for the picture of the snow and animals. Made my day. Hugs

  6. Patricia says:

    I have am going to do this, scraps beware and be gone this year! Thank you!

  7. Judy S. says:

    One of the favorite quilts of my own is a Christmas snowball with a wide border and some appliqué. Can’t start another project right now, but will enjoy watching your progress.

  8. Sharon Gratz says:

    I had started making snowballs as leader/enders a couple years ago. I should get them out and make some more. I did light snowball, dark corners, dark snowball, light corners……was on Temecula blog, 2017. Thanks for the reminder. Time to cut more scraps. Yippee! Can count it on my ‘habit’ list. 🙂

  9. Christopher Thomas says:

    i have always like the look of a snowball quilt. I just need to make one and this looks like a good way to use up the scraps thanks for sharring

  10. Angie in SoCal says:

    Another super “wish I had time” project. Looking forward to seeing yours.

  11. These are both going to be great! I started making snowball blocks years ago and think I have nearly enough to start combing them. I had a pack of 6-1/2″ strips in Civil War fabrics and also had lots of scraps. Maybe I’ll sew along on this one.

  12. Melanie says:

    This makes a great 4-H Sewing project, in a baby quilt size. I’ll show this to some students! Awesome share. Thank you

  13. Hmmm. That’s a good idea. I’m cutting into scraps this month to get them organized, and I could easily cut 3.5″ squares of some of them. I have one quilt from my mother, and it’s a tied snowball, with lots of yellow in it.

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