Wishing you a Merry ...wait, it's early!

Tuesdays are typically spent, at least a few hours, with local friends piecing quilty things in the classroom space that the school district makes available to the community. We try to donate goods or time to the school or local organizations to thank the school district for this accommodation.

Due to the heat and smokey skies right now, we start at 7am (at least try) and stay until we just can't stand the heat any more --this is an OLD building and does not have air conditioning in this room.

Today I did the first block in the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-a-long. This is a free pattern if you're interested at that link for a limited time, from Vanda Chittenden, Quilt in Piece, from South Africa where it is actually HOT at Christmas time. It is hot here where I am, so I guess we'll both experience these blocks in the heat! Every two weeks the group is issuing another 12" finished block, there will be 12 in all, so you should be able to get it done before Christmas!

I chose to use a piece of #islandbatik Frost for the background and some 'sprinkles' (or something very similar) for the snowflake.

I have this 'Frost' fabric because of my newly released Winter Bright pattern. Have you seen it at Hancock's of Paducah?

I drew the crystals on Steam a Seam 2 very efficiently --right up next to each other.

I also used my #olfa circle cutter set 1/4" apart and cut both sides of a white ring for the center. Since I was cutting through the steam-a-seam paper as well it was difficult to keep the fabric from moving. I wonder if I tried cutting it fabric side up, would it help?

My go to choice -- #aurifil thread to do the top stitching, with this stitch setting on my brother machine. So glad I took a photo a few weeks ago when working on another applique project. I didn't even have to test it, just referred back to my photo and selected my settings.

And here it is!