January Snowmen and Snowflakes

The January Pieceful Patchwork banner kit from Shabby Fabrics featured two jaunty snowmen who sport top hats with coal eyes and a carrot nose along with two snowflakes that are simpler to assembly than their intricate demeanor would imply. For some inexplicable reason, I have a soft spot for fabrics with words, so I am pleased with the snowmen background. When I cut out the fabric from this kit, I paid little attention to fabric print details. When I pieced the snowmen, I did make sure the writing faced the same direction, but I did not fussy cut anything in particular. 

I used my Melamine Trays, Alphabitties and Clover Wonder Clips to organize the cut pieces for the snowmen and snowflakes.

Adding the carrot and coal facial features was very easy. They were pre-cut by a laser and had a pre-fused backing. They punched out easily from the sheet they were on. After using a light box to help establish the positioning, I ironed on the features seamlessly. Per the advice on the instructional video, I waited to add appliqué stitching on the carrot nose and on the coal eyes and mouth until after the surrounding background pieces had been added. Waiting avoided the chance that the appliqué could distort the face piece. I was careful to use a narrow satin stitch width and a not too-too small stitch length and both faces remained smooth and did not pucker.

After assembling the snowflakes I did note that the nordic stripe print happened to fall centered in some spokes and not centered in others. Had I noticed this earlier I would have fussy cut that print. The kits from Shabby Fabrics are generous in their fabrics, allowing for occasional mistakes, so there was sufficient fabric to have fussy cut. I just did not notice until the snowflakes were assembled. Here the two snowflakes are side by side. The one on the left has centered stars on the horizontal spokes and on the lower vertical spoke, but the upper vertical spoke has non-centered stars. The reverse is true of the snowflake on the right, centered on only one spoke and non-centered on the other three spokes. It occurred to me I could switch the two top halves and have each snowflake be self-consistent.

I unstitched the two top halves and interchanged them; here are the two revised snowflakes. Each is axisymmetric unto itself but they are different from each other. Anyway, isn't it theorized that no two snowflakes are exactly alike?

Here is the January banner assembled and sandwiched with sashing and borders. Next up is the FMQ. I had inspiration for the snowflakes but I am still contemplating FMQ on the snowmen.