Snow Happens Finish, SAHRR & Mom's Mat

Bonjour and welcome 😎. It may be a tad cold but the sun is shining brightly! I'm happy for those who do winter sports. Downtown the Rideau Canal is open and busy with skaters. I'm happy to be cosy in my studio. There is just enough space for me to write this blog or sit at my sewing machine! If you guessed that the cleanup is not going well, you would be correct. At this point, it's easier to ignore the piles, until I need something in them. 😁 

"Snow Happens" wall hanging

I'm so happy to tell you that my son and his fiancé came over for supper and then left with their new wall hanging. I've made few quilted projects that include embroidery and I'm very happy with it.

"Snow Happens" wall hanging - finished and in the snow!

The last time you saw this project was at the end of January. I had quilted some of it with my walking foot. Shortly after, I finished the straight quilting and then FMQ the rest. I forgot to take more pictures, but here is a closeup of some of the quilting. There are snowflakes on both sides of the blue diamonds and then loops in the white space that links them together. 

FMQ snowflakes on the border.

For the embroidery, I just went around each part of it. I was thinking of going back to add more FMQ once I had done the binding, but it doesn't need it. I took these photos on the snow last night, just as the sun was setting. I'm glad that I did because the photo taken inside has a very yellow tone.

Photo taken inside the house - the white has yellow tones.

I was very lucky to have enough of the blue fabric to finish the binding. It would have been a shame to have to make it a scrappy binding. It helps that the binding didn't need to be doubled. 😊

"Snow Happens".... in the snow!

Star blocks for the cowboy panel

Last week I only had time to make two blocks for the cowboy panel. I was hoping to join the linking party for week 3 but if it's ok, I'll be joining a couple of posts for week 4.

Nine patch star

I have some red plaid fabric from a shirt that I pulled apart as well as some lighter jean fabric. I cut two squares of 6½" of each fabric and made 8 HST at a time. I then trimmed them to 2½". That made 18 HSTs! 😁 Then I had to figure out how to put these together to make two star blocks. In the book, Quilter's Mix and Match Blocks, I found a nine patch star. The pattern was made up of three different fabric colours but I decided to make my own version with only the two. 

Nine patch star in two colours

Second nine patch star....sort of 😕

I just noticed as I'm writing this post that my second block is different! Does anyone else have problems getting their HST in the correct position? I undid many of the HST even though I thought that they were OK...and I still misplaced one! The image is quite dark but you might notice that the denim on each block is different - the first one has the back facing out. I noticed only after slicing through all of the HSTs. I was not going to start over!

I still have to make a star block for the Christmas panel - but I think that I'll stick with flying geese blocks.

Mom's Kawandi style mat completed

I also completed my fourth Kawandi style mat. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the backing is on one of my mother's quilted placemats. It's a bit different from the traditional Kawandi style pieces since the placemat's binding underneath it is showing, and I machine stitched all of the top scrappy fabric. I just loved stitching it, mostly while chatting with my daughter. 😊 

Kawandi style mat, made on top of my mother's placemat

Here's my mother's placemat, cut to size.

I love its wonkiness 😃 - it's very much my style! If you're wondering about the small windmill on the back, you'll have to check out my previous post.

What I learned

• I learned a lot working on all of these projects, such as:
• There is such a thing a keeping the FMQ to a minimum and it turned out great in the embroidered part of my wall hanging.
• I have a note on my bulletin board that says that I should try 1¾" wide binding when it doesn't need to be folder. I have now changed that to 1½". 
• HST are easy to make 8 at a time but can be difficult to place correctly in a block!
• When I concentrate, my blocks are sewn pretty well but you just can't trust HSTs to be facing the correct way!
• I still prefer wonkiness over precise!
• I love that I was able to repurpose my mother's placemat. She was very much with me when I worked on the mat!

Related links

• Lots of Updates and Free Motion Mavericks, January 30, 2025
• Quilter's Mix and Match Blocks 
• Bird Brain Designs - "Snow Happens"

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to these fun linking parties, including Free Motion Mavericks and the latest SAHRR linking party. Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Beauties Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching, Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell,

I've linked up this post for my February Favourite Finish with Quilting JetGirl. I'm not sure which is my favourite - "Snow Happens" with all that work, or Mom's mat - with it's beautiful wonkiness! 😍

Project details

"Snow Happens" wall hanging

Designed by Bird Brain Designs

Size: 17" by 29"

Materials: embroidery floss, commercial fabric, batting

Techniques: hand-embroidery, piecing, quilted with walking foot and FMQ