Welcome to Missouri Star Quilt Company’s beginning block series. Today we have a special
visitor with us. This is Annie, my granddaughter. In spite of being a fabulous quilter I’m
also a fabulous grandma. And she’s going to show you today how to make a snowball block,
which is another one of the easy blocks in our series.
First, you start off with a regular block. Annie has chosen – what is the name of this,
Annie? –
“Sweet”
The name of this is “Sweet” by Moda and it’s a ten-inch block which comes in a cake
layer. And Annie’s chosen this cake layer to make her quilt. So she’s going to cut
3½ inch squares of any fabric she likes; and she’s chosen muslin because as you put
it together it’ll all go together. And what she’s going to do next is..
…is iron it halfway as a triangle.
Do you think all kids can learn ironing or do you think you should draw the line? Why
don’t you show them both ways?
OK. So when you want to fold it so you can put them on there, you fold them in half like
a triangle and then you iron it flat like that. Make sure it’s straight so you can
sew straight. If you’re not too confident with ironing you can line it up with a ruler
and draw a line. Just like that. I want to make sure to stay on the line!
This will get pinned to the corner of the layer cake, and you can see the fold right
there. And Annie’s going to sew that right now. Just line up your presser foot so it
goes right on the fold. Go nice and so. I love this Janomi sewing machine because it
has an adjustable speed. Annie can go as fast or as slow as she likes, so when kids are
learning to sew it’s really a good tool to have.
Line it up with the line so you can fold this back to make this, so there’s another square
there; and you just cut that part off when it’s ready.
Now we’re sewing and you can see that Annie is concentrating on that line so it makes
a nice, straight sew. And you’re going to clip your threads.
And you see how we have all those squares? Well you want to cut part of that off (the
outside edge). And then you see it folds back like that and it makes part of a snowball.
Why don’t you go ahead and cut them all so everybody can see what a cute pattern this
is? And then as soon as you are done with the cutting you can go iron it so everybody
can see it. This is a darling pattern; really a good one for beginning sewers.
I saw it and I fell in love with it. Somebody told me it was easy, so…
Now don’t press and rub too hard. Remember, you’re just pressing, not ironing.
Don’t press too hard! See? And that’s one of the snowballs.
If you want to put these together a quilt, you line the triangles up and you do it so
that it makes a little square or diamond shape in the middle of them, and you just go from
there. Keep adding them until you have the size you want.
Now keep a close watch on our site because this finished quilt is going to appear on
there with Annie and it’s going to be a really special day.
Yep.
And how many blocks do you have made?
I have about 26 now.
And how many do you want?
I need 35.
Oh, so you’re pretty close – just within 10.
I’m Jenny.
And I’m Annie.
And we’re from the Missouri Star Quilt Company, and we hope you enjoyed making this block
today with us. Happy quilting!