#50: Snowmen Tucked In

#50 Snowmen Tucked In
Finished: 12/15/12
Techniques: Tucks, Scalloped Binding, Fussy Cutting, 3-D
Size: 11 x 16 1/2"

Description: I got this idea from a quilt hanging up in Nana's Quilt Cottage in Old Colorado City. They had a quilt with little tucks revealing a scene and I wanted to try my hand at that. I still had some of the snowman scene that one of my quilt buddies had given me. (Those fabrics were handed to me in a pile so I'm not sure which friend gave this particular fabric to me, but thanks so much!)

I fussy cut the scene into 2 3/4" strips including seam allowances. Because of the seam allowances I couldn't cut the strips side by side, but I had several repeats I could work with so that the scene would display as a whole. I wanted to use the snowy sky part for the tucks but didn't have enough of it, so I chose a dark blue print from my stash that blended well. It's difficult to see in the picture, but there are tucks on the upper part as well, except for the column containing the house which I wanted to keep whole.

Sewing was easy once the fabric was cut; I alternated the snowman scene with the tucks. I then folded and pressed at the seams and sewed up the middle of the strips creating the tucks. I strategically bar-tacked the tucks.

Then there was an unexpected problem. Because I chose to do wide tucks, the edges of the tucks did not lay flat with the edge of the mini-quilt. I could have solved that by trimming off the edges straight, which would have worked OK with the bottom of the piece, but would have cut off the top of the house. To avoid that, I found that I could cut scallops for the columns and be able to catch all the edges.  So when I cut the binding, I cut it on the bias and bound those scalloped edges. I did the top first, which  is not as pretty. By the time I got to the bottom scallops, I'd had a little practice so they look better. I still need some practice with binding scalloped edges, but at least I added another technique for this project which is soon coming to an end.

The backing was another fabric gift from one in my quilting group. Sweet little angels.