March of the Snowmen...

Well...I'm back. Sorry for the little vacation from blogland. This past week I had to work on our neighborhood's newsletter. It was my month. You don't think it would take so long to write/edit, but it took me about 4 days solid to come up with it. I use Publisher and it is wonderful, but still takes me forever.
Since I was so busy this past week, I haven't really done anything crafty. I am going to show you a WIP (work in progress) that I love working on. It is a free applique quilt pattern from Bunny Hill Designs http://www.bunnyhilldesigns.com/ . It was free last year on her website, but it has since been take off (it is on the website for sale-very reasonable price). She offers one free applique quilt pattern a year and last month it was snowmen. The year before, I believe that it was baskets. /This year it is Henrietta the Squirrel in each block (it is under the free patterns tab). So cute and you can work at your own pace. There is one pattern a month and by the end of the year you have 12 (depending on her design) squares finished. I think that I am on #9 with three more to go. I had never, never done real applique before. Sure, I have done machine applique where you iron on fusible web, cut out the design, then iron it onto the background fabric and then go over it with the machine button hole stitch. It looks very pretty, but I wanted more of a challange and this was it! There are several methods of applique: needle turn, freezer paper, hand turn (you turn edges down with your fingers) and dryer sheet (must do more research on this one). I found the freezer paper to be the best fit for me. I throughly enjoyed this. I thought that it would be real difficult, but it wasn't at all.
Here's some picutures of my not so finished blocks:

Above: This was the first block that I attempted. I am not very happy with the wheels. They did not come out as round as I had wanted. Still have fnishing touches to put on him.

Above: I just love the little bird. He is holding a rope that I will be attaching buttons to.

Above: all embroidery stitches are back stitched.

Above: french knot eyes and satin stitch nose. If you look closely you can see the tiny applique stitches.  I tried to make each stitch only 2-3 fabric threads long. Super tiny, but easy to do.

Above Sweet little snowman. Almost all of the fabric I am using are from the French General line. The white is a Moda print.

Above: A snowman on a cupcake, can't get any better than that!

Above: The thread looks orange, but it is red.

Above: The silver thread used on the heart wand was difficult to use.

Above: His ear muffs are pieces of wool felt.

Above: Always wondered if snowmen skied.

Above: Even though these snowmen are just adorable, they kind of remind me of the mutant snowmen from Calvin and Hobbes.

I just love the quilt and can't wait until it is finished. I also love being able to work on it little by little. Maybe I will start on the Henrietta Squirrel soon. She would be so cute made out of wool and the rest of the square made from cotton fabric.

Must say goodnight and be sure to keep those little fingers busy and keep those creative juices flowing,

Holly