The Snowball Block

Hey Everyone, welcome back to Stash Blasting Wednesday.

This week I thought I would bring a bit of a cool breeze into your week with the Snowball Block. This is a very simple block that uses only 2 fabrics but one could mix it up a bit and make the block with several fabrics. Maybe I will make one with a few fabrics in it and see how it looks.

The Snowball block is very simple in that it is made with a square piece of fabric to the size of block you want. I am going to make mine a 12 inch square – use up the stash a little bit faster. On each corner of the square a triangle of another colour is added. Easy peasy.

A 12 inch block needs

• ONE (1) 12 ½″  piece of fabric for the main part of the block in a medium or dark value or busy print, etc
• FOUR (4) 3 ½″ squares of a light value fabric or contrasting fabric

Large square for background and 4 squares for the corners

Making the block

Draw a line on the back of each 3 ½″ square from one corner to the opposite. If you prefer you could use the tool I highlighted on Cool Tool Thursday last week called The Angler 2 which eliminates the need to draw a line on the back of the square.

Draw a line from corner to corner on the back

Align a 3 ½″ square in a corner of the 12 ½″ square as shown in the picture below.

Align small square in corner of large square

Sew down the pencil line – I like to sew just to the right of the line so that when the triangle is pressed over it fits perfectly into the corner of the larger square.

Sew just to the right of the pencil line

You may wish to trim off the excess fabric under the triangle or leave it there – both is acceptable. It just gives the corner a bit more stability which is really nice on small pieces.

Excess fabric in corne trimmed off

Repeat the above steps with the other three corners.

Sew the small squares into the other corners

The Snowball Block

12 ½″ unfinished

Here is one using a tetradic square colour scheme with black as the accent. A completely different look using more than one fabric for the centre.

An 8 ½″ unfinished snowball block in 4 different colours

Cutting instructions for other sizes

• Ten inch square cut one large square 10 ½″ and four small squares of 3″ 
• Eight inch square cut one large square 8 ½″ and four small squares of 2 ½″
• Six inch square cut one large square 6 ½″ and four small squares of 2″
• Four inch square cut one large square 4 ½″ and four small squares of 1 ½″

A great fast and easy block that can show case some great fabric with large motifs. Or a great way to use a plain fabric and add an appliqué to the centre of the block. Mix up a few different sizes and see what you get.

Happy Quilting!