An art quilt pattern for a snow globe built entirely from fused fabric collage, finished at 36 x 37 inches. On the cover sample, a holiday village fills the globe: houses in reds, teals, and golds, a nutcracker, a Santa, deer among the pines, a red car carrying home a tree, and a road winding back to a snowy church, while polar bear faces peek out of the dark floral prints surrounding the glass and a Let It Snow label rests on the globe's brown base. Those fabrics were one set of choices. The pattern provides the scene's shapes and the process; every fabric decision belongs to the maker, so each finished Let It Snow is distinctive and one of a kind.

What the Pattern Includes

This listing is for the instructions and printed paper pattern. Fabric, fusible web, and notions are not included.

The package contains the full sized pattern, so there is no enlarging at the copy shop, plus complete step by step instructions in color.

Here's How it Works

Trace the design from the full sized pattern onto a sheer foundation, then build the scene right on top of your tracing. Back your motif fabrics with Steam a Seam 2, which stays repositionable until it is pressed, so you can place each piece, step back, and move it until it sits right. Fill each shape first with low contrast underlay pieces so no gaps show through, then layer your cut motifs over them until the surface reads as one continuous design. The globe builds in layers from the sky down: background fabrics first, then the village, trees, and winding road, with the small cuttable details, the deer, snowflakes, presents, and nutcracker, layered last. A pressing sheet keeps the sticky web off your iron. When you're happy with the whole scene, one final press fuses everything permanently. Attach the finished collage to your background fabric, layer it with batting and backing, and quilt closely to secure all the raw edges for good.

New to collage? Laura's Little Book of Collage covers the technique in more depth, from fabric selection through quilting, and makes a good companion to any of her patterns.

What You'll Need

The back cover calls for scraps or 6 x 11 inch cuts in a dozen house colors (yellows, teals, reds and pinks, an orange, a stripe), nine different greens for the trees, four browns for the base, seven light blue to grey blue fabrics for the snow globe sky, and about a dozen cream to white prints, some with metallic, for the snow and globe backgrounds. A 12 inch by width of fabric cuttable focus print and about 14 medium to dark grey fabrics build the background around the globe, and cuttable scraps supply the fox, cars, snowflakes, presents, cardinal, nutcracker, snowmen, Santa, deer, wreaths, ornaments, and the let it snow words. The list also calls for 1 yard of Pattern Ease foundation, 8 yards of 24 inch wide Steam a Seam 2, 1 1/4 yards of backing fabric, 8 inches by width of fabric for binding, Karen K Buckley Medium Perfect Scissors, an applique pressing sheet or 17 x 24 fusing mat, a number 2 pencil, and a rotary cutter, mat, and ruler.

Six packages of Steam a Seam 2 Double Stick Fusible Web 12in x 3yds cover the 8 yard by 24 inch call-out; the narrower width simply butts edge to edge on the back of larger pieces. The Laura Heine Collage Mat set covers the pressing sheet or 17 x 24 fusing mat on the supply list (it includes both the silicone mat and a teflon pressing sheet, and gives the layering a portable, iron safe surface), and Sew Tites Magnetic Flowers are an optional extra that holds the pattern and mat in place while you work.

Perfect For

• Christmas decorating that stores flat the other eleven months
• Putting holiday novelty prints to work: houses, deer, snowmen, tiny presents
• A seasonal centerpiece for a mantel wall or entry
• Collage makers who enjoy a detailed scene with many small pieces

Why You'll Love This Pattern

Collage is forgiving in ways patchwork cannot be. Nothing has to line up, no points need to match, and small imperfections disappear into the density of the design. There is no needle turn and no blanket stitch. The work is closer to arranging a bouquet than to sewing a seam.

The glass edge of the globe contains the village, so every house, tree, and deer has a clear home, and the scene holds a whole town's worth of detail without becoming confusing to build. At 36 x 37 inches it hangs comfortably above a mantel or entry table.

Product Details

• Brand: Fiberworks
• Item #: LHFWLETSNOW
• Designer: Laura Heine
• Category: Quilting Pattern
• Skill Level: All levels (no collage experience assumed)
• Technique: Fused Fabric Collage (raw edge fusible applique)
• Finished Size: 36" x 37" wall hanging
• Format: Printed Paper Pattern
• Made in the United States