Snowflake Whimsy is underway! I am having so much fun putting this together and want to share what I have accomplished so far. 
The first step was washing all of the fabric. Why wash them? There are two very good reasons. The first reason is that fabrics have a little bit of sizing in them from the manufacturing process. This sizing will prevent the fusible adhesive from sticking as well as it should. The second is that I am using batiks, which are overdyed fabrics. They have extra dye that will run if you wash it later. I really don’t want BLUE snowflakes….If you ever doubted the dyes will run, here is a picture of the color catchers from wash 1, wash 2, and then wash 3. Yes, I washed the fabric 3 times with multiple color catchers each time and only dried it after the last wash. Of course, after it was washed, it all had to be ironed… not my favorite part, but a good time to catch up on a movie!
The next step was strip piecing for the wheel. This made assembly much simpler. A trick for cutting wedges is to flip the the template (ruler) with each cut. This optimizes the fabric use. After the wedges are cut, sew the wedges together to make the wheel. If you trim the wheel in quarters, you can minimize warpage.
Once the wheel was complete, I centered it on the block, pinned it judiciously, and sewed it to the block with a blanket stitch. After the wheel was on the block, it was time to tackle the center. I appliqued a snowflake to the center circle. Then, the center circle was appliqued to the wheel. Why this order? Stitching the snowflake to the circle first, minimized puckering.
This progress energized me for the next step – adding more snowflakes to the block. I added forty more snowflakes! First they were set in place. This was a measured activity, which I posted on Facebook. Once I was happy with the placement, the snowflakes were fused. Now, I am working on sewing them to the block…. It takes quite a while, but I hope to have them affixed by the end of the weekend. Then, I will add the borders. This will be so much fun to embellish and quilt! I will share the progress next week.
As soon as the top is done, I will have the pattern written up so you can enjoy Snowflake Whimsy too.
Happy Quilting!
Laureen