Brrrr! Quilt Kit

I picked up the Brrrr! Quilt kit which I purchased from the Fat Quarter Shop a few months ago. This Friday night my friend Kate came over, and we had a sew and go sleep over.  We began sewing at 8:30 pm and sewed into the next morning.  3:30 is when we finally went to bed, and we began sewing again around 8:30 the following morning.  This little quilt was started during our sew and go sleep over session.  I spent the remainder of my break working to finish it up because I go back to work tomorrow. 

I loved using the Crazy Eight fabric designed by Sandy Gervais and manufactured by Moda.  The colors of this fabric are bright, fun and cheery.  Those of you who really know me (I mean really know me) understand that I don't follow patterns or recipes very well.  I can't explain it something happens; I call it off-roading.  In Texas they do a lot of off-roading in their big pick-up trucks to get out of traffic jams.  May be I like to sew myself out of a jam?  Therefore, I did a little off-roading and made a few changes to the quilt pattern such as:  free-style embroidery for the cheeks and carrot nose, adding yo-yos and buttons to the stocking cap and body of the snowman, used navy blue fabric to surround the entire snowman, not using binding, and I added one additional row on each side of the vertical length.

Reasons for not following the pattern are simple.  The Fat Quarter Shop quilt kit came with navy blue binding, so I decided to use this around the snowman. With the exception of the all solid navy background, I finished doing exactly what the directions said to do. The instructions for the pattern called for cutting the remaining charm squares in half once the focal point, snowman, was made. I had leftover charms cut in half. I hate wasting such beautiful fabric, so I kept sewing two additional rows in total. May be that is why I had leftover cut in half charm squares? Lastly, I don't have super-duper, fancy-smancy sewing machine.  (Sigh....  I am hoping to fix this dilemma.)  The patterned called for applique, and I didn't want to do this by hand, and the additional yo-yos were much easier to make.  Remember my crafting journey includes the use of yo-yos, so this quilt was a great opportunity for including fabric yo-yos.   I am super pleased with the results of the quilt.  Hope you enjoyed my crafting journey? 

Here is the finished quilt.

Close up of decorative yo-yo detail. 

Stay warm and always count your blessings.