These pink and white Snow Crystal blocks are going together amazingly quickly. I finished this one off last night.

Every time I press one of these blocks, I’m thrilled with how the little seam intersections all work out and the block lies so flat. This is a very good reminder to myself to do the blocks as I go rather than save them up and do a bunch at once. That becomes tedious. Doing a block at a time is quick and, when all the blocks are done, I’ll be ready to stitch the rows together rather than having to press endlessly.

I think, if I add 2 or 3 more sets of large hexagons surrounded by stars to this candle mat/table runner/ whatever it is that I had started, this would be a nice size and perhaps a good Christmas gift. Binding this may be an adventure but I love the look of it and think some pretty quilting could be done in the centre of the large plain hexagons.

The gardener has been out on the roof garden taking the flowers out of the flower beds and from around the trees. It is now really starting to look like the grey days of fall have arrived. Looking out and not seeing those brilliant colours means, I guess, that winter really is coming. I hope every year that somehow it might give us a miss but …

Lester is definitely getting his winter coat. Some serious combing/brushing will be going on around here now.

… day on which we saw snowflakes!?? How can this be? It’s only October! It has been very windy and quite cool all day and around 4:00 this afternoon I looked out and oh, no!!! Little white flakes were flying by the window. I am NOT ready to deal with the idea of snow. No way. Not yet. It’s much too early. Sheesh, I haven’t even taken my winter coat in for cleaning. Guess I’d better do that sooner rather than later.

The only good thing about having the flu is that I had prepped all these pieces beforehand so I can curl up on the couch and stitch. This Snow Crystal block is now finished and the next one is about to be started. Definite silver lining to not feeling great.

I’ve found a trick that makes pressing the back a whole lot faster. As I join each round, as I do these in rounds, so to speak (which I’ll explain in a minute), I finger press the seam intersections in that round. That way, when I get the whole block finished and head for the iron it’s really a matter of quickly pressing each little seam intersection.

I was asked in an e-mail by Cheryl about the method I use to make these blocks. Sorry, Cheryl — I did try to respond by e-mail but AOL seems to be bouncing e-mails from our ISP. So here goes. I’m hand piecing these, using the templates in the free Inklingo downloadable collection which has all the shapes for this block. The block finishes at 9″.

I had no pattern but had seen a picture of a quilt made of these blocks and as soon as the Inklingo collection with these shapes was available, I knew I had to make my pink and white quilt with this block.

The shapes are printed on to the back of your fabric and you end up with perfect precise shapes every time. If you’re curious about it, there’s a video you can watch here and the free downloadable collection can be found here. Downloading the collection is dead easy, especially if one takes the time to read through the download instructions found in the drop-down support menu — one could even print them before starting the download.

My method for constructing the block is simple. I make the 8-point centre star and the four corner 6-point partial stars. Then add the 8 squares around the centre star, then add the four 6-point partial corner stars and finally add the remaining 12 squares and 8 triangles to finish the block off. Each block is composed of 32 diamonds, 20 squares and 8 triangles. Printing the pieces I need for each block takes seconds. Because the lines are so precise, cutting the shapes apart takes very little time and I’m stitching almost immediately. No basting, no whip stitching, no papers to remove.

I love this picture of Smudge — he’s so alert and wide-eyed in it!

If today is any indication, I don’t think Lester will be sitting on the windowsill too much for a few months. It’s getting too chilly by the window!!

Those silly little white flakes are still drifting by. This is not good — not good at all. I am really having trouble accepting that there is snow, however short-lived, so early. Yuck!