Merry Merry snow days block three

Every time I design a quilt block, I try to keep the small parts to a minimum.  Block three of Merry Merry Snow Days is no exception.

I thought of you when I was drawing this block.  My first idea was to have skates hanging from the garland.  Then I thought about how many runners you’d have to embroider, and stars took their place.  If you feel you can’t do stars, be sure and read my directions on page 3 of your pattern for the applique stitch.  Stars are easy if you know how to applique points. The skates are easy because all the tiny parts are embroidered!  We used two strands of floss for the skate runner satin stitch, but if you find this difficult, try using only one strand of floss.  With one strand of floss, your satin stitch may lay flatter.

As you work on this block, start with the snowman and llama.  Place the skate and pocket on the snowman and glue or pin in place.  Trace the embroidery details onto snowman before you place on the background.  (The snowman’s pocket holds the money from the skate rentals. When this snowman saw the llama coming, he thought about asking for another pocket!)

Center the snowman and llama on their backgrounds, leaving room for the llama’s skate blades.  I made the llama’s legs from a small piece of 1/4″ bias.  You don’t need much bias, but you may prefer, use a freezer paper template to make the legs.

The words on the sign are embroidered after applique.  A backstitch will give your words a nice look.

Once you have the snowman, llama, and sign in position, you can move to the star garland.  Trace the garland onto the background (note that it goes off into the seam allowance) and then place the stars in position, adjusting to fit as necessary.

Let’s talk about the llama’s “necklace.”  Think of it as a wreath circling her neck.  If you trace the outline for the wreath, then you can “freehand” the little stems coming off of it.  Just make some straight lines for the stems and don’t worry about marking the dots for the French Knots.  Just embroider a French Knot at the end of each stem.  Use a stem stitch for the wreath, and embroider the stems with several tiny stem stitches or a straight stitch.

Since you’ve already made the pieced start block, you are almost done!  Just applique the mittens, sew the top and the bottom of the blocks together and stand back to admire your work.

We’ll be onto block four on July 31st, and it will go fast!  See you then.

Anne