Everyone reading this likely knows my Grandma, Grace Johnson, was an avid crafter and prolific quilter after her retirement in 1994 (fact check needed). My paternal grandma, Pat Beers, was also and avid crafter and also loved sewing. The last Birthday gift I received from my Grandma Pat before she died was a sewing machine. I loved sewing on it here and there, but it largely sat untouched for 10-15 years. I always carried it with me though. Many moves from Las Vegas to Oregon, and back.

Since I had my sewing machine, I also picked up any remnants, notions, or tools my Grandma Grace would give up. Over the years, I was able to procure a fair amount of fat quarters, a big bag of buttons, threads galore, my first pair of sewing scissors, a few quilting books, and my current holy grail- a project box stuffed so full of quilt squares that never made it into a quilt, it won’t close.

Before I started the Hello Kitty Quilt, I was organizing some craft supplies when I came across the book “Snowball Quilt Simplified” by Patricia Knoechel, which I had scored from my Grandma Grace many years before. It was from this book that my quilting journey truly began. As I flipped through the book, I was shocked at how simple the instructions seemed. I thought I could probably do it!

Instead of using fabric from my stash, I purchased all the fabrics from Joanns (minus the red, I already had that from Wal-Mart). I did not put much choice into the fabrics, just stuff I thought would go well together. I utilized the Joanns app and website to preorder my fabrics and got a pretty good deal.

The quilt came together easy enough. It was my first experience (and only experience as of writing this in May 2023 ((oops!)) with strip piecing. I found it fairly challenging to get my nine patches to line up properly, and I look forward to trying this technique again soon.

Though I started this quilt well before Christmas, I did not finish it until mid- January; making it my official 2nd quilt. I found myself packing up my Christmas goods, and decided that I must finish it to pack it away. How, silly.

But it is exciting to know there is a treasure waiting for me this Christmas.

Fabric: Joanns
Patter: Joanns
Thread: Wal- Mart
Pattern: Star Snowball Quilt from the book Snowball Quilt Simplified by Patricia Knoechel