Snowball Night Update...Add A Nine Patch

First, I would like to thank everyone who is joining in on the Snowball Night. It's going to be so much fun looking at all the different blocks throughout the week. I am compiling a list of all the ladies who are joining in. If you would rather not have your name on the list just let me know. I also wanted to mention to Jenn who asked "do you need a blog to join in"...you sure don't!! We would love to have you join us. I couldn't answer you in an email, because it was a no reply. If you want to share your pictures, you could email them to me and I'll post them for you!

Secondly, I have a great big Thank You to my new blogging friend Elizabeth from Such A Sew and Sew. Do you know she made me a code for my snowball button out of the goodness of her heart. Can you see it...top right of my side bar. I was just blown away by her thoughtfulness. She took the time out of her day to make my button a little easier to grab. You are a peach Elizabeth and I can't thank you enough. Go for a visit to her blog and give her some blogging love. She has great quilts, tutorials and yummy recipes.

As you're busy sewing your snowball blocks, maybe you could consider adding a nine patch to your design.

The only issue with using a nine patch with your snowball block is that the math would be a whole lot easier if the snowball you are making was a size divisible by 3...like a 6", 9" or a 12" snowball.

Here is a quick look at a snowball nine patch with a 6 1/2" (unfinished) block.

You will need 2 1/2" squares for the corners of the snowball and for all the squares in the nine patch.

Make your snowball with the tutorial from the first post.

Now make your nine patch. I used alternating white patches for this design. I will have another post with a nine patch with all colored squares for a different look.

When you are done with all the blocks, take 5 snowballs and 4 nine patches and now you will build a bigger nine patch.

Sew the 3 blocks across in all 3 rows...



Then sew the first row to the second....

then the third row to the second row. Now you have a big snowball nine patch block that measures 18 1/2" x 18 1/2". Keep making these along the way and all you do is sew these big blocks together for a larger quilt. This is much more manageable than sewing all the smaller blocks together row after row.

Here are some old pictures of quilt tops I made years ago. In the picture below, the snowballs are made with adorable sheep fabric with black and white polka dots for the 4 corners. The nine patch is made with 5 squares of the black polka dots and 4 squares of blue back ground fabric.

The way the fabric is positioned, the black fabric looks great around the snowballs!

Here's another old one. I made the nine patches with half square triangles in the 4 corners. Great look from far away.

Here's a close up.

Look for more posts to come, but in the mean time you can always google snowball nine patch quilt and click on google images. There are thousands of inspirational pictures.

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Hope you're having fun sewing!

~Karen~