Snowball Night: Week 5

I'm checking in with my week five Snowball Quilt update.


I haven't been very good at checking in weekly. This is supposed to be a no-pressure, low key, finish a few blocks a week and then post about it quilt-along. I announced I was joining and then didn't post again for almost three weeks {although I thought it was three weeks on the nose; my original post was a Thursday only I thought it was a Tuesday and so I decided that Tuesday would be update day}. I pulled some fabrics, but didn't post the first week or the second week because I wanted to show more progress than a stack of stash fabrics. I finally got it together for week three and showed most of my fabrics cut and laid out in a pretty rainbow. As a matter of fact, I was so excited about the whole thing, I'd cut enough for two quilts. After that, I got to work so that I'd have something to show the next week, but when week four came, I only had three of the four corners sewn onto half of the blocks and I didn't want to show that. That would be like going out in public without make-up on.

I think I'm thinking too big for this project and kind of missing the point. I think I want to have a lot to show with every post. Part of that has to do with my process. I only like to do things once. I like to chain-stitch myself into a coma and then have all the corners be done when I'm finished. But I'm going to have to start thinking smaller so I don't make myself crazy with the snowballs. Karen wanted it to be a fun, once-a-week-project, to do a little at a time and then have a great finish at the end. I kinda blew the doors off that because I have one top completely finished. Don't hate me too much. It is a gift for my sister's wedding at the end of July. I have to make six little vests for the grandkids [Editor's Note: my mom's grandkids] to wear at the wedding too, so I've got a lot to do and I'm working on not procrastinating things to the last minute.

I'm not sure how I feel about it. I go back and forth between kind of liking it and thinking it is the ugliest quilt in the history of ever. I was going for my own version of this quilt and I think I arrived somewhere in the neighborhood. So I'm not sure what is off about it. Too many greens? Not enough pink? Too much yellow? Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I laid out all my fabrics like a rainbow and then assembled them together into the quilt in a random order (see photo below for blocks laid out in rainbow order).

Here's my top with the back fabric ready to go and all those little bitty left-over corner pieces sewn together to make baby snowballs to go across the seam on the back. They are 2" finished size. And yes, to answer the obvious question, I am out of my ever lovin' mind saving and using all those corners. 192 of them. The pressing took forever. And a week.

I'm not sure if I'm going to work on quilting this next or if I'm going to set it aside and let it 'rest' for a bit while I work on vests so that when I come back to it the whatever-it-is-I-don't-like-about-this-quilt will have had time to magnify itself so far past reality inside my head and that when I see the real thing again I'll like it.

In any case, I have a second chance to play along with the snowball night the right way; no-pressure, low key, finish a few blocks a week and then post about it. Here's my second quilt, cut and waiting to be worked on.

Knowing the way I work, I'll probably have to post about whatever I've done for the week, even if it is just two corners sewn on the blocks and no trimming or pressing done yet.