Snowball Block and a Bonus

In the process of making Snow Shoo, I discovered that with each of the Snowball blocks I would have four identical cut-away corners that could be saved and used in some future blue and white beauty. Maybe you'd like to see my process.

For one snowball block, I begin with a 6.5" neutral square and four 2.5" navy squares. I place the navy squares on the corners of the neutral square, right sides together. Normally, one would then stitch and flip. To save some time later, I am making the extra effort now to go ahead and stitch those cut-away parts into an HST. See the picture below.

Since the corners are lined up and already under the presser foot, I figure I can take the extra few seconds to sew that extra line. I work hard to be consistent in my stitching so that all cut-away HSTs will be the same size.

I cut between the two stitched lines, and put the small triangles aside for future use. I press the Snowball corners out. The small HSTs come out to just a tad under 2" - a very usable size.

The Snow Shoo quilt I am making will require over 100 Snowball blocks, so I should have 400 little HSTs when I am finished. And, yes, I do  have a plan taking shape for them. I will play around with them a bit and let you know all about it soon.

I am joining Linky Tuesday over at Free Motion by the River.

Happy Quilting, Friends!