Feature / I Wish You a Merry QAL

I Wish You a Merry QAL Block 5!

by poweredbyquilting · September 11, 2017

I am so proud to share the Snowman block I designed! I used Moda Grunge Evergreen, White Paper, Onyx, and Red for the piecing portion of the block. Mr. Snowman's nose is a Moda Grunge Orange scrap.

When we first started planning this QAL, I jumped at the chance to make a Snowman block! Snowmen are my favorite thing about winter and the holidays, especially cute snowmen. As you can see, I made a lot of not-so-cute and not-so-proportional snowmen through the different iterations of the design I tried.

I am extremely happy with how this guy turned out. However, be warned there are lots of little pieces as well as 1/4" sizes for some of the pieces. Measure twice, cut once! Also, if you have issues sewing a 1/4" seam, make sure you check your seam allowances! If you need instructions on testing seams, check out this post. Click the button below to download the pattern. The pattern is $5 and now has instructions for a 12", 18", and 24" block!

Download Block 5 Pattern

The pattern has the cutting instructions for the block as well as the other requirements to make the exact block as I created. The snowman is pieced in sections starting with the top hat, the face, the scarf, and then the body. Cut out each of the different pieces. I suggest laying out the pieces on a design board to keep everything straight. For beginner quilters, follow the pattern on how to piece the snowman together as well as the direction to press your seams. For more advanced quilters that like to chain piece, I chain pieced everything I could at one time, trimmed/ironed, and repeated until I finished the block.

The one key watch out I'd like to share is for the direction of diagonals on the scarf. You will have parallel sewing lines, so be careful not to make them intersect like a flying geese unit.

Once I have all the corner squares and the first pass of chain piecing sewn, I lay out the block again.

I trim all the excess and iron before I start my next round of chain piecing. When trimming the corning pieces, make sure to trim 1/4" away from the seam line.

Sew all the pieces together in each of the sections before stitching the snowman together. Sew the sides of the block to the snowman last.

Trace the nose of the snowman to fusible and applique onto the block. The next steps are what I'd like to call "Decorate your own snowman!" The pattern calls from some simple backstitching embroidery for the arms and eyes. I created a tutorial in case you need instructions on how to backstitch. I use a lightbox to trace the outline of the arms and eyes to my block with my Frixion pen. I used black floss for the eyes and brown floss for the arms.

Here are some other embellishment options, this list is just a start:

You can use buttons for the eyes and/or the buttons on the snowman. If you send your quilts to a longarmer, please make sure to ask if the buttons need to be added after their quilting.
You can applique the arms rather than embroidery. I personally don't like super thin applique, so I wrote the pattern to include embroidery (plus who doesn't love to backstitch?).
You can add sunglasses or a mouth or whatever you want! The possibilities are endless!

This block is super flexible to decorate the face and body of the snowman! I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Don't forget to submit your completed block on my linky party at the end of this post, the Facebook Group Page, and/or on Instagram with #iwishyouamerryqal to be entered into this block's prizes! One lucky person will win a copy of the Simple Redwork Embroidery book signed by author Helen Stubbings and one PDF pattern of their choice from Vanda Chittenden of Quilt In Piece!

This block also comes with a special prize! Until September 30, my newest pattern, Circular Illusion, is on sale for $5.99 (no code needed) and all QAL participants will receive a 25% discount on my other patterns using coupon code MERRYQAL25! The coupon code is valid in my Etsy and Payhip shops only. (To my knowledge, I can't personally run coupon codes on Craftsy.)

The prize entry window goes from 12AM Eastern on September 12, 2017 until 11:59PM Eastern on September 25, 2017.

If you are just now joining us in the QAL, I have a quick links page for you to catch up on the blocks in this QAL and links to all associated hosts' blog posts. You can also get to that page at any time by clicking the I Wish You a Merry QAL button on the right sidebar.

The sponsors for the grand prize have also been announced. In order to be eligible for the grand prize, you must make a quilt top using all twelve of the QAL blocks by January 16th, 2018. Please note that all patterns are only free until the end of the QAL.