Finished: winter snowballs table mat

For those of you who survived the crowds of the start of this crazy holiday shopping weekend, you can be grateful that people like me know ourselves well enough to know that we don’t belong in public on days like this.

Seriously, it would not be good for anyone.

Instead, I am thrilled to show you a quick finish, a winter table mat that I made a few days ago for the secret Santa gift exchange my guild is having for this month’s meeting.

We each brought three fat quarters with a list of ideas of things we might like our Santa to make, as well as whatever we definitely wouldn’t want to have. My recipient didn’t want anything Christmas related, and her FQs were snowy and wintry.

She asked for either a table mat or two mug rugs, and I chose to make the table mat.

No surprise, I got my inspiration from a number of snowball quilts I’ve seen on blogs and on Pinterest. My Santa partner collects snowmen, and knowing my applique skills aren’t up to the task, a snowball quilt seemed to be the next best thing.

I went with the reverse snowball look and some straight-line quilting (my go-to these days) to make it look a little more modern.

Here’s a look at the back:

Don’t you just love the snowmen in the vintage truck? The top fabric has snowmen on it, too, I just couldn’t get a photo that would do it justice. Scrappy binding from leftover strips completed the look.

Want to make one of these for yourself? It’s easy, and you can customize it to any size mat you’d like. Here’s how:

For each snowball block, cut a 6 1/2-inch square of solid white (I used Kona solid white), then cut four squares of contrast fabric at 2 1/2 inches each. One at a time, line a small square on the corner of the white and stitch diagonally from one corner to the opposite corner on the short side. You can use the photo above for reference.

Repeat on the remaining three sides, then trim each corner 1/4-inch away from the stitching line on the outside edge of the block. Set your stitches and press the fabric away from the center.

The remaining blocks are just a basic nine-patch composed of 2 1/2-inch squares in random order. I stitched some strips together and then sub-cut to save time, but you can make it more random than that if you like.

Sew your blocks together into rows, alternating a snowball block with the background block. If you’re making a larger mat or lap quilt, you could stack three snowball blocks together to make snowmen.

After you’ve sewn the blocks into rows, sew your rows together, then baste, quilt and bind! It’s a great way to use leftover scraps and you can make one easily in a weekend.

XOXO,
Sandra