Simply obsessed with Simply Snow

Finishing up the swan pillows seems to have started my creative juices flowing again.  Since I last posted, I have split my time between weeding the flower beds (I may have too many, but that's another post), fighting a summer cold, and sewing obsessively to finally bring the snowflake quilt into existence.  I think I am going to name it Simply Snow.

Simply Snow quilt by Joanne Kerton and Canuck Quilter Designs.
Photo and longarm quilting by Chris Hobbs of Urban Loon Studios. 
Panto: Carnival 2 by Urban Elementz.

I designed these foundation paper pieced snowflakes over 4 1/2 years ago for my Snowalong Sewalong.  I made a bag, a couple of runners and a pillow.  I always thought a quilt with all 26 designs together would be fabulous, but it took a long time for me to settle on a setting.  I narrowed it down a little, then let it sit, then refined it a bit more, then worked on something else.  I didn't start sewing the blocks until this past February.

Snowflake progress sometime in March.

Halfway into the snow making I was interrupted, and I didn't get back to it until about 3 weeks ago, but at that point I sewed obsessively because I wanted to finally see my vision in actual fabric.

I spent some quality time with my seam ripper to get to this stage.  I have better lighting in my sewing room now than I did when I sewed all the nine patches in February, and it revealed that I sewed one strip of white into a strip set wrong side up.  That wrong-side up white was sprinkled among many nine patches and while I tried to tell myself it didn't matter, it really did and they had to come out.  I didn't have enough blue to just start over with fresh fabric and a new strip set, hence the seam ripper.

I could have stopped with the layout above, as I originally intended, but...just a little extra border would make it into a queen size for my bed. Enter a few more nine-patches.

Simply Snow quilt by Joanne Kerton and Canuck Quilter Designs. 
Photo and longarm quilting by Chris Hobbs of Urban Loon Studios.  
Panto: Carnival 2 by Urban Elementz.

Chris Hobbs at Urban Loon Studios quilted it up for me today using the Carnival 2 panto by Urban Elementz, in baby blue thread that disappears on the blue and treads lightly over the white.  I am just thrilled with how it turned out.

Simply Snow quilt by Joanne Kerton and Canuck Quilter Designs. 
Photo and longarm quilting by Chris Hobbs of Urban Loon Studios.  
Panto: Carnival 2 by Urban Elementz.

I will bind the quilt this week and send it off to the Iowa State Fair.  Then I'll sit down and attempt to finalize the pattern.  Look for it sometime this fall.