Frosty the Snowman. . .
I always think of the animated cartoon film of Frosty and the two children when I hear this song. So when I designed my row based on this Christmas song, I wanted Frosty and lots of snow, but opted to leave the cartoon kids out.
I hope you have been enjoying this incredible Christmas Carol Row A Long for the past several weeks. Each day you have been able to download a FREE row pattern and enter some fabulous give-a-ways.
Here is my original design for my Frosty row.
You can download the free pattern
HERE for one week. The PDF file is large so give it a minute to download before freaking out. Save it to your computer first, then open and print the file.
I made a few changes as I built my row, mostly some fabric choices trying to draw from my stash as much as possible. My finished row is 10 x 30" (10.5" x 30.5"). Here is how I put it together.
I auditioned a variety of fabrics from my stash and decided on the background fabric first, and then chose the applique fabrics which would contrast well with the background.
I traced all of my applique templates onto the back of my fusible web. I use Steam-A-Seam Lite 2. I prefer it because it is very light weight, and has a slight sticky surface which adheres to the fabric while you are positioning pieces.
When drawing large applique shapes I cut the fusible web out of most of the middle of the shape before fusing it to the fabric. This is called "windowing" and keeps your applique from getting stiff when you are working with overlapping layers.
For the snowman body and head you can see how I cut out most of the inside of the fusible web leaving about 1/4" around the inside of the traced line. On smaller pieces, like the arm in the bottom of the picture, i don't bother cutting out the middle.
You can see how I cut out the fusible web from the middle of the tree shape in this picture.
Once I have traced all my templates I cut them apart and separate them by color and fabric. Then I press each fabric and fuse the templates onto the BACK side of the fabric. Since there is paper on both sides of the fusible web, be sure you are tracing on the side with the web attached.
Then remove the loose paper before fusing but leave the paper on the web intact. This paper will be removed after the template is fused and trimmed and ready to position on your row.
My tree was the first element to put on my background. I sectioned off my background into equal segments and marked the segments on my block drawing. That allowed me to position pieces on the background more easily.
Since I cut my background slightly larger than my finished size (11" x 31") I positioned my tree just a bit in from the edge of the background. When all the applique is applied and stitched down I will trim the finished row to 10-1/2" x 30-1/2".
I only needed half a star for the top of the tree so I assembled the pieces on an applique pressing sheet (parchment paper also works) on top of my fabric so I could see the tree through the pressing sheet. I pinned the pressing sheet to the fabric so I could position the star parts right on the edge of the row.
I like to use bent nose tweezers to position the applique on the pressing sheet. Then I iron it to the pressing sheet using a hot steam iron. Allow the motif to cool before peeling it off the pressing sheet.
After it is removed I place the pressing sheet UNDER the background fabric. That way when I fuse the star to the top of the tree and the background fabric, the parts that hang over the edge won't get fused to my ironing board!
After the star is fused I want to trim off the excess. I move to the cutting table to trim this with a ruler and my rotary cutter.
You can see that I have left enough to get caught in the seam allowance when I join rows or add sashing.
Next I assemble the snowman on the applique pressing sheet.
Can you see him? He sort of blends in to the applique pressing sheet! But I wanted all his parts to fit together before I positioned him on the background fabric.
Once Frosty was altogether I placed him on the background fabric and started to add his hat, hatband, and flower. I fused all of this in place at this point because all the rest of the details sat on top of Frosty.
Here I added his face.
I kept my template reference and picture nearby so I could check my placement. The last step in assembling Frosty was the greenery I used to decorate his bottom. You could leave this off if you prefer him sitting in the snow.
I had "help" from my Siamese cat "Buster" who was determined to assist with the placement of the buttons on Frosty's front. He insisted on overseeing most of the assembly, although I strongly urged him to oversee from the floor instead of from my ironing board!!
Next were the snowflake stars. I love the way they turned out, but I have to admit they were a booger to cut out. That being the case I opted for three snowflake stars instead of the four I had originally designs. Small sharp embroidery scissors really made the cutting out much easier. I fused the white diamonds to the blue center first, then tucked the ends of the 8 branches under the edge.
Once the whole snowflake star was positioned on the background fabric I fused it in place. I started with the largest snowflake star and then did the two smaller ones.
Here is my final finished row.
The last thing I will do to complete my project is to layer my batting and backing, and edge stitch all of the applique pieces in place through all the layers. This will quilt and applique in one step. When all the quilting and edge stitching is done I will bind the row to make a door hanging for my front door this winter!
Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and have fun making this row!
Here is the whole list of bloggers and free rows:
Christmas Carol Row Along Participants!
Now the Giveaway
Hoffman 15 Fat Quarters Bundle From The 1895 Bali Watercolors line
Shipping Is Anywhere / Shipping Cost must be paid by winner.
Value $45.00
Starts September 26, 2017 / Ends October 03, 2017
Sponsor URL: http://www.hoffmanfabrics.com/
To enter the giveaway click on this link:
Rules and Guidelines For Giveaways
Please take the time to read it.
Giveaways offered by sponsors are assigned to the various bloggers for their featured day.
There are no prior announcements on who is doing which sponsor except to the sponsor themselves.
You'll have to visit the blog or the featured blog to enter the giveaways.
Not all giveaways can be entered at Seams To Be Sew.
I will start announcing winners on September 12, 2017, and finish announcing winners on October 12, 2017.
In most cases, the blog where you won at also will announce their winners.
You must give a valid email address when you enter the giveaways, any email returned to me, loses the ability to win automatically.
With the exception of Show and Tell Day, all giveaways run for approximately one week.
You are given 3 days to answer the email, if you do not answer within 3 days a new winner will be drawn. Check those spam/junk mail folders, you may miss that winning email if you don't do so because there are no exceptions to this rule.
If you are notified that you are a winner, in most cases, you will need to provide your name, address, city, state, zip code, country, telephone number, and email address.
In some cases, you will be asked to comment on the blog to enter the giveaway... do the right thing and thank them for the time it took to create the pattern, thank them for the pattern and...
Thank the sponsor by buying their products for the giveaways. This helps them continue to offer great prizes for these types of events. You can also comment on their social media pages. Even if you don't win, letting them know you love their products is a huge incentive and they really do love hearing from you.
No purchase whatsoever is necessary.
You must be 18+ in order to win a gift.
You are responsible for claiming and paying any tax owed on the value of any gift that you win. Prizes valued at $500.00 should be claimed.
All winners are chosen at random.
All winners will be announced on the blogs via the Rafflecopter entry form and/or post by the blogger at the site where they won and here at Seams To Be Sew. All winners must allow for their first name and first initial of their last name to be announced on this blog.
Odds of Winning a prize are based on a total number of rafflecopter entries during each week and in total for all giveaways.
This giveaway is void where prohibited by law.
Participating bloggers may enter any of the giveaways.
The word giveaways in the rules and guidelines are also known as sweepstakes.
Most of the giveaways are international shipping this year
in some cases, you will be asked to pay for shipping your giveaways.
I am not rich and I do not ask sponsors for money, they provide prizes only.
If they shipped the prize to me, you will be asked to pay for shipping.
All giveaways will be shipped that are in my home within 48 hours of my having heard from you.
An invoice will be sent to you via Paypal, and shipping will take place via Paypal, so your Paypal email will be needed to send the invoice. You will receive a tracking number except for overseas shipments. All shipping will either be first class which averages out at 2.77 to 4.00 up to 13 ounces. Paypal fees are added to that amount to cover that fee. All fabric bundles from Michael Miller, Hoffman, and Moda will be shipped via Priority Mail to protect the fabric itself.
Please note, every effort is made to protect the prizes. They go into a plastic bin when I receive them, and it is covered by an air tight cover. I have a dog in my home and I have a smoker in my home, so I do everything possible to protect the prizes.
Most companies are very good about getting prizes off to customers quickly also, but some companies are overseas, so please allow all sponsors a 2-week time period before you report to me that you still haven't received your prize. When the company is overseas, it can take 6 weeks to 90 days for an item to also arrive.
Whether or not you read the above, the rules for giveaways are in place to protect everyone. I do not want to hear you didn't read them, they will be posted on my blog daily during each featured day. There is no excuse for not reading them.
