We Can Build a Snowman: Block 9

Love is in the air this month and our snowpeople are singing a love song while walking in a winter wonderland.  My husband and I got to do a bit of that yesterday afternoon. 
The snow was falling up in the woods and it was beautiful.  
This block goes together pretty easily.  I want to walk you through the only tricky part, which is the quick-corner method I use to make the hearts.  I start by drawing a line on the back of the small squares.  I find that a piece of very fine sandpaper keeps the fabric from shifting while I draw my line.  I keep mine on a clipboard.

I always sew with my needle in the down position. 
Whenever I begin a new piece I lay it right up next to my needle.  For these quick corners I want my needle to land just to the outside of my line so have placed the piece accordingly.

For this to work well you just need the needle to land right along the side of the line.

Once I have sewn the piece, I flip it over to make sure that it completely covers the fabric underneath.

Often when you sew on the line or to the inside you will find that the flipped corner does not completely cover those fabrics.  There is a little trick you can use to solve the problem this creates...

Instead of trimming of both of the underneath fabrics, only trim the top one, leaving the rectangle underneath intact.

Now when you flip the corner you still have the correct size of the unit to work with.  The flipped corner will be caught in the seam when you sew this piece into the rest of the block, solving the problem of it being a bit too short.

Repeat this process with another corner square,
​again being sure to sew to the outside of the line.

Once everything is pressed check to make sure the finished size is still the same size as the original rectangle.  I often find I need to do a little squaring up of the piece before using it to make my block.  You can see here how the flipped corner is extending a wee bit beyond where it needs to be.  So this will be trimmed off and all is good.

I am going to use this pink fabric to make another heart block.  I have an idea that I started playing with last night about a stand alone little quilt. I will keep you posted on it's progress.
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​Before I go, I want to share the blocks my pattern testers made for this one.

Angie Doughty Brown

Michele Hellman

I always enjoy seeing their take on my blocks as well as the others that get shared either via email or my facebook groups.  Such fun to see how we each make the same pattern but it becomes uniquely our own!

Get your copy of this month's block here.
Previous month's patterns can be purchased in my shop.

​Happy Quilting!