Another "Snowball" for and from Donna A. in MT!

On Tuesday, I found this wonderful treat in my mailbox!

Donna A. sent this beauty to me from Montana. It is just adorable!

The snowflakes are fabulous.

Just look at the cute little bead used to dress up the word, "Snow".

As you may have noticed, I love trees; so, I love the tree fabric and sequins along the bottom.

The snowman fabric is absolutely darling!  I love the way Donna added a Christmas tree charm and an ornament to the snowman on the right.  They look perfect in his grasp!

Donna, Thank you SO much!  I just love this snowball.

This is my second snowball swap with Donna.  In June of 2013, Donna sent me this fabulous snowball.

Donna was also in the Crazy Quilting International Winter/Christmas DYB Round Robin with me.  She embellished my "Joy" block - as seen here.

I feel quite lucky to have 3 of Donna's works in my possession.

This is the snowball I made for Donna during our first swap in 2013. She had requested a pond theme. (The post I shared in 2013 is here.)

Swan pattern from DMC Collection: Mini Motif Designs by Mary Bartley Stockett

This year, I tried something new with the snowball I made for Donna.  In addition to pond scenes, Donna also requested blocks with a winter/snowman theme. 

I had just stumbled across this gorgeous dragonfly created by Chris Richards on the blog Ella's Craft Creations.  (The blog is no longer active, but the photo was still viewable at the time of this post.)  Until reading this post, I had no idea watercolor pencils could be used on fabric.  Let me just say I LOVE the Internet.  I chose the "Fun With Fabric Painting: Supplies and Techniques" article from Craftsy.com from the list a Google search provided on the topic.  The article provided a link to this fabric tinting tutorial at Petit Design Co.  So, I decided to try this technique on Donna's snowball.

Using a set of watercolor pencils I bought years ago to make homemade cards, a bit of textile medium, freezer paper, a sharpie and some white denim fabric, I created the scene pictured above. (The design was sketched onto freezer paper and traced with a sharpie so it would show through the fabric.  The freezer paper had already been discarded at the time the photo above was taken.) This was actually my second attempt.  I tried outlining the snowman with a black pencil the first time.  Bad idea.  When the fabric was moist, the colors bled.  With the blue outlining that worked out perfectly for shading, as you can see on the right-side of the snowman.

The bare pieced block is pictured above.

Yesterday, I completed my work on the snowman.  I was really nervous about stitching a carrot.  A padded satin stitch worked out really well. The linked chain stitched scarf and little tassels turned out better than I had hoped.  I contemplated adding snowflakes to fill in the space and complete the snowball, but felt he needed something more - like a tree.

I used the fern stitch to create an evergreen. (My needle was threaded with a strand of metallic green and a strand of metallic white floss to give the tree a snowy look.)

Last night, I showed the completed snowball to my boys.  They both liked it.  However, my youngest admitted he preferred the projects where I "put stuff everywhere."  It was a fun way to learn he prefers encrusted crazy quilting.

Donna, I do hope you like your snowball!  It will be heading your way in Friday's mail!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Renee