January 2014 BOM block.

I'm so excited to be having our first block of the month. I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's celebration! I thought we'd start the year off with something pretty simple. It is basic snowball blocks. It has some applique, embroidery, and buttons. Make your snowmen the way you want. Make this your own!

I had started out with doing a 12.5" and 6.5" unfinished blocks, but my quilt math was off on my 6.5" block, so I'm changing it to only being a 12.5" block.

*All seams will be 1/4 inch.

Grab your scraps and lets get to cutting.

You'll need a background fabric (I used blue), white for the snowman, and scarf fabric (I used red).

  Cutting instructions for the 12.5" unfinished block.

Background fabric:

(2) 3.5" x 5"

(2) 4.5" x 4.5"

(2) 4" x 5.5"

(12) 1.75" x 1.75"

Snowman:

*One each.

3.5" x 3.5"

4.5" x 4.5"

5.5" x 5.5"

Scarf:

1" x 5"

Construction:

1. Draw diagonal lines on the wrong side of the 1.75" x 1.75" background fabric squares.

2. Sew the 1.75" squares onto the corners of the Snowman blocks right sides facing. Follow the line that you drew on.

 Note: On the smaller white block, you might want to offset or trim the background square down to 1.25" or 1.5" so that it has a "rounder" head.

3. Trim your corners 1/4 inch from the line/seam.

4. Press your seams. You can do this however you prefer. I pressed mine to the blue background so that they wouldn't show through the white.

5. Sew the background squares to the snowman squares.

* Sew in the following order.

~ 3.5" x 5" background to opposite sides of the 3.5" square snowman block.

~ 4.5" x 4.5" background to opposite sides of the 4.5" square snowman block.

~ 4" x 5.5" background to opposite sides of the 5.5" square snowman blocks.

6. Make and sew on the scarf.

* To make the scarf, lay it on your ironing board. Fold the long sides together to meet in the middle and press. It will make a 1/2" x 5" rectangle. Fold and press one short end in 1/8" to 1/4" to make a finished end.

(I forgot to take a picture of that pressing part, so this is what it should look like.)

* Lay your scarf on your snowman with the finished end at the snowman's neck. Pin the end in place. Bring your scarf to the other side of the snowman's neck and decided if you want your snowman to be standing or doing a headstand. For standing, bend the scarf towards the bottom of the snowman. For doing a headstand (in picture), bend the scarf towards the top of it's head.

* I made two bends. One at the neck and one at the straight side of it's head. Pin at the bends and then at the end of the scarf.

* Start sewing at the fringe end, leaving 1/2" to 3/4" at then end. Edge stitch around the scarf. When you get back to where you started, sew back and forth a few times to secure it and keep it from unraveling.

* Trim the end of the scarf to make fringe.

7. Embroider the arms on and add buttons/embellishments. 

*I need to sew the buttons on and embroider the arms.

My 6.5" snowman block ended up being 5.75". I added a border and will end up using it as a small mug rug or a coaster.