Snoopy Building Block Quilt

A few days ago I began pulling out fabrics to make the Snoopy quilts for our new grandson who is due to arrive in a few months.  After much auditioning I settled on two stacks of fabric to make a building block quilt, with the flannel and chenille and some cute cotton snoopy fabrics in yellows and blues for a pinwheel quilt. Up first will be the building block quilt using the flannels and chenille fabrics.

Before I began the block quilt I bound a Snoopy cheater quilt which I acquired in 2003, I had it stored away with all the other cute Snoopy fabrics.  My son adored his Snoopy while growing up and requested I collect Snoopy fabric and put it aside for his children someday, which I did every time I saw anything with that pattern, now I get to use it.

Spent one afternoon cutting out all the necessary squares, the fabric is just darling and looks warm and comfy all together.

Started pinning the first of the squares, I don’t usually need to use pins but the chenille stretches and moves around, not to mention it sheds like crazy, it was a whole lot more work then I anticipated.

Once I stitched up the first square I realized I was short on white thread so I decided to use the chain stitching method, basically you feed one square after another through the machine without cutting the threads in between, this went really fast and I did not run out of thread.  All I had to do was clip the threads between the squares and press the seams towards the heavier fabric which was the blue chenille.  At this point I am letting my quilt sit for a bit, I will return to it very soon.

In addition to the block quilt I have a number of other projects I am working on, there are a dozen darling retro cloth dolls in various stages of completion, more gifts for the new baby, some patio cushion covers and my biggest project, designs for my new line of sewing patterns which I plan to release at the beginning of 2013.  Pattern design is a very long tedious process, it requires lots of thought, writing and testing in order to get everything just right.  Once all the pattern pieces and instructions are completed along with finished product samples, I will call on my circle of sewing friends to test the patterns for me before releasing them for sale.  That’s always a fun process since we all get together in my home and have a full day of sewing; everyone gets a different pattern or sets of patterns to test, along with tasty treats to eat while we work.

Thanks for letting me share the journey I have been on over the past couple of months; it is a very creative and busy time in my studio with all the changes and growth coming almost all at once. Whew!!!  I plan to keep writing my blog as I move through all of it, maybe not every other day but as often as I can. Keep checking in to see what I am working on next.

See you soon.

Laurette