A Tutorial for "Charlie's Snowman".........

In my last post, I shared a small wall quilt called "Charlie's Snowman". In this post, I'm going to share the steps to make your own snowman quilt. You can give your snowman a name other than Charlie. This one below is "Sam". I wanted to try a bit of a different look and added a hat for the snowman and also a tree.............

The eyes, nose, mouth and hat on Sam are made of woofelt. In the quilt in my last post, the snowman's features are made from clay. I'll be sharing how to do both and you can decide when we get to that step. :-)  The tutorial for this little quilt will be posted in three parts. Today is Part 1 and you will make the pieced background. In my next post (Friday, Jan.27), we'll do the snowman/Part 2 and then the following post, Part 3, will be on making the features from clay or felt.

I went straight to my stash for the fabrics I needed for this project. I'm not buying any fabric this year so I must use what I have on hand. I had a lot of snow themed prints. I live in Minnesota and we usually get a lot of snow. Not this year, but we do finally have a few inches on the ground.

Let's get started on Part 1....................

Step 1. Cut one piece from a darker blue cotton - 12 1/2" x 16 1/2"  and one piece from a lighter blue cotton - 6" x 12  1/2".

Step 2. Take the lighter blue piece and position a strip (about an inch wide) of fusible product (I use Heat 'n Bond Lite) along one edge of the reverse side of fabric. Then press per product directions. Remove paper.

Step 3. Along this fused edge, cut a wavy line as shown in the photo below.........

Step 4. Position the lighter blue piece on your dark piece and press along fused edge so that the two pieces become one as shown in photo below.........

Step 5. Cut eight 2 1/2" corner squares. You can see that I "fussy-cut" the fabric that I chose for my corners. It's not necessary but if you have fabric that works for this, it makes the quilt that much sweeter. Set aside four of the squares for the second row. After you cut the corner squares, cut the following 2 1/2" wide strips (I like a red row here).......two that are 12 1/2" long and two that are 16 1/2" long. See lay-out in photo below............

Step 6. Sew the 16 1/2" strips to each side of the center panel. Then sew one square to each end of the 12 1/2" strips. Press.

Step 7.  Sew the top and bottom strips in place and press. You are ready for the final row.

Step 8. Cut the following 2 1/2" strips (I chose a medium blue for this one) ......... two that are 16 1/2" and two that are 20 1/2" long.

Step 9. Sew the 20 1/2" strips to each side of the center panel. Then sew one square to each end of the 16 1/2" strips. Press.

 Step 10. Sew the top and bottom strips in place and press.

Your pieced quilt base is ready for your snowman.  You'll need wool or woolfelt for the snowman. It works best as cotton is too lightweight for me. This is your snowman, though, so you can use cotton if you prefer. You have a couple days to make the base so I'll see you on Friday and we'll build a snowman!! Oh, and the little giveaway.......it will be posted when I share Part 3.  :-)
Have a good day!
Sandi