First Snow: Free Christmas Quilt Block Part 1
Are you one of those people who’ve been counting the days until December 25 for months already? Do you put your tree up while you’re still working on Thanksgiving leftovers? Have you been known to leave your Christmas lights up until a good spring thaw, no matter what the neighbors think? Well then, we have just the Christmas quilt block patterns for you, and best of all, they’re free!
First Snow Quilt
First Snow by Tina Curran is a fun and festive wall hanging that features 15 different house blocks interspersed with pine trees (there are nine different tree blocks), all foundation pieced. Because it’s a wall quilt, you can embellish the house blocks to your heart’s content with fussy-cut appliqués, beads, ribbon—anything you want to personalize your own little Christmas village.
When Quilters Newsletter debuted First Snow as a series quilt in the August/September 2014 issue, the block patterns were released online on a weekly basis for free download, but only for a limited time. It was one of our most popular Christmas quilts, and in the years since, we’ve loved seeing different versions that people have made and posted on social media. In the spirit of the season, we’re bringing back four of the house blocks and making them available as free pattern downloads—think of it as an early holiday gift to you from us!
Over the next four weeks, we’ll be sharing a different house block from First Snow, along with a new version made by a Quilting Company editor (just because we couldn’t resist getting in on the fun). Be sure to come back every week to download the full-size foundation pattern for each house!
Lori Baker, our acquisitions editor who was inspired to make her version by childhood memories, made the first block. She includes some tips for foundation piecing; if you’ve never tried foundation piecing before, these blocks are a great place to start learning this technique. (Need a lesson? Learn more foundation piecing basics.) Take a look at Lori’s work, download a copy of the block pattern for yourself, and you’ll be humming “Home for the Holidays” before you know it.
The Holidays at Lori’s
At my house, it’s that time of year to take inventory of the quilts and projects that I have ready for Christmas. For the last several years, my husband and I have done what we call The Pile of Quilts for our family Christmas; read all about our 2016 Pile of Quilts. I have a pretty good supply of the larger quilts, only a couple of smaller quilts and practically nothing in the way of really little things like mug rugs, coasters, and table toppers. So when I was reminded of First Snow, I thought it would be fun to make mug rugs or a table topper. I decided to do House Block #10, the first house in the fourth row, because it reminded me of the house I grew up in.
The First Snow houses are paper foundation pieced and I love foundation piecing. My tools are simple. All I need is a plastic card (credit card, gift card, whatever) and my Add-A-Quarter ruler.
I use the plastic card to help me fold the pattern exactly on the stitching line so I can place the Add-A-Quarter ruler right on the folded edge of the paper and then trim the fabric with the added 1/4” seam allowance.
The sewing part is not hard—place the fabrics on the back side of the paper, stitch from the front and shorten your stitch length to make removal of the paper easier. Next was a really fun part: the embellishment. I searched through my Fabric Inventory and found three fabrics that seemed like they would be great for fussy cutting.
I added fusible web, cut out my decorations, and fused them to the house. Then, I did simple stitch-in-the-ditch quilting for the house and then straight stitched the appliques in place. I bound it to make a charming 9” x 8” mini quilt.
As I compare my little quilt to the photo of my childhood home, I think I need to add a wreath of seed beads at the top. Would you like to make this cute Christmas house? Here it is! I hope you have as much fun making your little house as I did. Happy Quilting, Lori
Thank you so much for this wonderful house pattern.
I love your childhood home. It looks like a happy place to be a kid. I love the porch!
I hope I can remember to down load the patterns every month. I really would love to make this quilt
I love your family tradition with your quilts.
Thank you Lori