AUSTRALIANA SNOWBALL QUILT

Instructions

(WOF) Width of Fabric

All seams are 1/4" unless otherwise stated

100% cotton fabric is used throughout

Preparation And Cutting

From each of the 5 Aussie Christmas fabrics, cut 1, 5 1/2" strip, crosscut this strip into 6, 5 1/2" squares for the snowball blocks. This will give you a total of 30 squares.

From the white homespun -

• Cut 5, 1 1/2" strips, crosscut these into 120, 1 1/2" squares for the corners of the snowball block.
• Cut 7, 1 1/2" strips, crosscut into 49, 1 1/2" x 5 1/2" pieces, for the sashing.
• Cut 4, 1 1/2" strips, crosscut 2 strips into 1 1/2" x 35" for side borders and cut 2 strips into 1 1/2" x 31 1/2" for the top and bottom border.

From the red homespun -

• Cut 1, 1 1/2" strip, crosscut into 20, 1 1/2" squares for the cornerstones.
• Cut 4, 1 1/2" strips, crosscut 2 into 1 1/2" x 37" for side borders and cut 2 strips into 1 1/2" x 33 1/4" for top and bottom borders.
• Cut 4, 2 1/2" stripes for binding

From the remaining Koala Christmas print cut 3, 2 1/2" strips, crosscut 2 strips into 2 1/2" x 39" for the side borders and 1 strip into 2 1/2" x 37" for the top border.

• Cut 1, 3 1/2" strip and crosscut that into a piece 3 1/2" x 37" for the bottom border.

Putting It All Together

Make The Snowball Blocks:

For each block:

1. Place a 1 1/2" white square on each corner of a 5 1/2" print square.
2. Draw a diagonal line.
3. Stitch on the line.
4. Trim away the excess leaving a 1/4" seam allowance.
5. Press the corners outward.

Your block should measure 5 1/2" unfinished.

Make 30 blocks

Next lay your blocks into 6 rows of 5 blocks using the picture as a guide to placement.

Stitch the blocks together in rows, placing a 1 1/2" x 5 1/2" strip in between each block but not at either end.

Using the red 1 1/2" squares and the remaining 1 1/2" x 5 1/2" white strips, stitch them together in rows of 5 white strips and 4 red 1 1/2" squares. Make 5 of these sashing rows.

Stitch these sashing strips in between the feature snowball rows as per the picture.

Borders

Stitch the white 1 1/2" x 35" side borders to your quilt, then stitch on the 1 1/2" x 31 1/2" top and bottom borders.

Stitch the red 1 1/2" x 37" side borders to your quilt, followed by the 1 1/2" x 33 1/4" to the top and bottom of your quilt.

Next, take the 2 1/2" x 39" Koala strips and stitch to the sides of the quilt and then take the 2 1/2" x 37" strip and stitch to the top of the quilt and the 3 1/2" x 37" strip, stitch this to the bottom of the quilt.

Backing And Binding

When you are ready to quilt your Quilt, press the backing and the quilt top so they are nice and flat, then create a quilt sandwich, with the back, wadding and front, pinned all together using safety pins. Your quilt is then ready to machine quilt. Or alternatively, you could take it to your long-arm quilter to finish for you.

When your Quilt has been quilted, it is ready to put the binding on, so stitch all 4 of the binding lengths together to create one long length. Fold the strip in half, wrong size together, and press down the length of the binding. Stitch the binding to the front edge of the quilt using a 1/4" seam, mitring the corners as you go. Hand stitch the binding to the back of your Quilt. And lastly, don't forget to label and date your quilt.