Baby snowballs for June

I do not know when I got my heart set on a "snowball in June" themed swap, but once these things take hold it is best to just let them have their way.  So our third swap block for 2010, due Saturday June 26th is a snowball block.

A snowball block in general is a square conceptually divided into 9 squares with the corners in an alternate fabric.  The quickest way to make them is to cut the snowball square from one fabric, in the unfinished dimension & then four smaller squares in the background fabric. The smaller squares will be 1/3 the FINISHED snowball + 1/2" for the seam.  

You can choose among THREE snowball blocks.  That is you can make five of any one of these (but please do not mix & match, unless you want to make five of one & five of another).  One reason for the variations is to give people who would rather do less piecing & more appliqueing (or foundation piecing or broderie perse or redwork or something else a bit more snazzy) a space to do that.

You can make either 5 four patch snowballs OR 5 nine patch snowballs, all that changes is the dimension of your fabric units.  The techniques is the same .  You could also make 5 big single snowballs with something special in the center of the block, something special being something appliqued or embroidered, something extra.  The block will be 9" finished/9.5" unfinished.  Pastel or bright or primary colors are perfectly fine, as are novelty prints-especially kids prints.  The overall idea is "baby quilt". So let's begin Baby Snowballs:

To make either the 2x2 (or 3x3) snowball cut four (nine) squares of 5" (3.5") of the snowball fabrics & then four background squares for each snowball.  If you want, you can alternate fabrics so that the snowball fabric for one unit is the corner-background fabric for another but you certainly do not have to do that.  This would be a good time to use up any baby scraps you have lying around (& if you do the 3x3 grid AKA the 9-patch snowball you can use up some very small pieces indeed).  The corner-background squares for the 4-patch would be 2" & for the 9-patch would be 1.5"

If you are going to make the just-one-snowball-per-block block you need one 9.5" piece for the snowball itself & four 3.5" squares for the background HOWEVER do not make this version of the block unless you are doing something extra, such as appliqueing in the center of the snowball.  This is so important I am going to repeat it:  please do not make the single snowball blocks & not do something else by-way of extra (applique or embroidery or what-have-you).


As always, you can send as many sets as you like, so long as they are in sets of FIVE.  All of your sets do not need to be the same, but they can be (this does, however, increase the likelihood of getting one of your own blocks back).  Within each set, the blocks should be more or less the same; please do not mix&match the three kinds of snowball blocks within a single set.  & of course, extra 6th blocks for the community project are always welcome. 

//If you not currently part of the swap group, but you are interested in joining our swap group, you are very very welcome BUT it would make my life A LOT easier if you joined through Facebook.   Log into Facebook, search "quilt block swap" & find the Group.  There will be a picture of the current block as the profile photo.  Ask to join & you should be approved within a day or two.  If you are not on Facebook, but still interested, leave a comment after this post with your e-mail address HOWEVER be warned:  I really cannot do trouble-shooting, take future block suggestions, handle requests to receive 6th blocks, etc. via individual e-mail messages.  The advantage of doing it all through Facebook is all the information is in one place you can check at your leisure.