flowering snowball quilt a long

Remember this blast from the past?

This is a flowering snowball pattern

one that I first spied over at my pal Marys blog

 Well now Mary is having a little flowering snowball quilt a long

and has asked me to share my epp technique.

 I'm rubbish on the machine 

which is why I prefer to hand sew.

And its because of that reason why I like big templates.

Less fuss and quicker to sew!

However if you want to learn how to sew curves with your machine

hop on over to MollyFlanders

she'll see you right!

BIG!

 I used printouts from Marys blog.

To begin with

I scaled up each of the templates to the size I wanted.

For the main template I drew round the printout four times

and stuck them together to make the shape below.

For the other I did the same but just used it twice.

I've drawn lines on my cardboard templates so you understand?

 Tacking down the first piece to its paper template.

When you begin sewing the curves,

I found it helpful to pin the two templates together

at the end and in the middle so you end up with equal amounts of fabric

when you finish.

If you dont do this you could end up over shooting 

which wouldnt work at all!!

 One block.

A few more.

 Finished piecing minus the background and filler squares.

I left the edge papers in place so I could applique
to the back piece.
I cut the excess backing fabric away after
so I could remove the papers.

 Appliquing the top to a polka dot background.

 Finally deciding what colour to fill those holes in.

My first fmq attempt. 

And we're done!

For my tutorial on the basics of english paper piecing click here.

For more pictures of my finished flowering snowball click here.

For Marys flowering snowball quilt a long click here.
I chose to make my quilt in subtle colours
which made a change from the riot of combinations
I had previously used.
*The main fabrics are from sweetwater.