Tuesday, September 16, 2014

More snowflakes

Last month I blogged about a paper pieced snowflake.  Since then I have become a wee bit snowflake obsessed.  When I wasn’t quilting Seeing Stars I was tweaking snowflake designs, and breaking them into sections in different ways to find the best way to sew them together, and how to add and shape seam allowances on my templates before printing so the sections would line up just so…. Well, I’ll just say I’m rather sheepish about how much time I spent planning the sewing versus how much time I actually sewed.

Here’s what I accomplished in the snowflake sewing department:

IMG_8688IMG_8689
You’ll notice that unlike the snowflake on the left, the snowflake on the right does not have a bunch of seams meeting in the middle.  Definitely worth all the extra planning time!

Here’s part of what I accomplished in the planning part:


Snowflake 1 variations

All four of these can be made using the same paper piecing pattern!  Just choose different color combinations for all the pieces and ta da!  Once I noticed that, the designs multiplied.  And as I played with colour placement I noticed a spot here or there where a subtle change in one part of the section might give a whole new design.  Then that new design had a few color combinations…

I did say I was obsessed.  I have 7 different snowflake templates (that’s not counting the ones I discarded), each with at least 3 color combos, for a total of 26 distinct snowflake designs. Some are similar, but subtly different.

In case you’re wondering, I’m not planning to sew them all.  They would look cool all together (I did mock it up in EQ to see!) but I’m not that much of a paper piecing fan!  I’m thinking about a pillow.  Or 5 flakes for a table runner.  Or 7 large flakes for a bed runner. Or…

Does anyone want to sew along to help me stay focused?  If you’d like a snow-along quilt along, leave me a comment and I’ll think about the best way to share the patterns.  Maybe I’ll even go learn how to host a linky…and make a quilt-along button to share…and remember to sew a few blocks sometime too!
 Linking up with Linky Tuesday and Let's Bee Social

15 comments:

  1. Wow, that would make an interesting quilt combining all the snowflake designs in one piece.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Snow doesn't sound so bad when I see pretty snowflakes like those! Love it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your patterns look great. I've been wanting to make something for christmas, but not christmas-y, decorations stay up for 2 weeks at the most in my house, so it seems silly to make something special for such a short time. I'd like to make a snowflake table runner, that way it could be in use for a few months at a time rather than weeks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Jen. I was thinking of a Christmas/winter runner as well.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'M AMAZED!!! Honestly, your creativity never ceases to amaze me!
    Those designs are beautiful! I wish I could join in a sew-along, but I really won't have time before Christmas, but I'll enjoy watching you and the rest of the gang! ---"Love"

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love your snowflake patterns. Where did you get the paper pieced patterns?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Count me in! I love snowmen and since snowflakes make them up I love them too! Would make a great January table runner.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love the contrast between your flakes and the background. Whatever you decide to make will be beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I can see lots of little girls with Frozen themed quilts using this snowflake pattern!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Your snowflakes are gorgeous! I haven't tried paper piecing yet, maybe someday. If I didn't have so much other quilting to do, I would volunteer to see if an inexperienced paper piecer could manage, but I better not. I would love to give it a try someday though!

    ReplyDelete
  11. You are just too clever!!! I wish I had the time to make some of those snowflakes, but I just can't right now. It's amazing how you can use the same pattern and just change the colors around to make different ones.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Love your snowflakes! I've been searching for snowflake patterns for some time now, and yours are the best I've seen. I'd be interested in a snowflake sew along.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I would be interested in joining a sew along (I've never done one). I'm currently swamped with projects, but ping me when you'd be doing this, and I'll try to participate.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I love paper piecing and your snowflakes are lovely. I would love to sew along.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting. I truly appreciate your comments and will try to reply to comments by email if your commenting staus is not set to "no-reply".

If you have a question, emailing me directly at joanne@canuckquilter.com will ensure I have your address to respond. I promise I will not share your email address and I will not use it for any purpose other than replying to your message.