Cathedral Window Snowmen

I made six of these little cathedral window snowmen.

Make some for your tree with the Cathedral Window Ornament Tutorial.

Cathedral Window Ornament Tutorial

Here's what we'll be making today:

Materials:

• 2 squares of fabric for the Cathedral Window blocks (I started out with 6" squares, folded to 2.5")
  
• 2 squares of fabric to set in the "windows" (mine were 1.5")
  
• Ribbon, about 6", depending on how long you want the ornament to hang
  
• Stuffing
• Needle and thread
• Scissors
• Rotary cutting tools, or pen and ruler
• Cathedral Window tutorial

Cathedral Window Ornament

I'm on a Cathedral Window kick. I wanted to experiment with this as a potential Christmas ornament design. I love the color combination, though not for Christmas, and I want to do a larger project with these fabrics now.


Finished size: 2.5" square

Try making one yourself using this tutorial. For the holidays, check out the snowman version.

Cathedral Windows

It is finally finished! It doesn't really look any different from the photo I posted of it back in September when I just needed to finish the border; however, six of the windows are different now. I decided to sew down the border without any windows because I never found a fabric I was thrilled with. I am very pleased with the results and I am looking forward to more Cathedral window projects!

Finished size: 36"x54"

Cathedral Window Cube Tutorial

Here's what we'll be making today:


Materials:

• 6 squares of fabric for the Cathedral Window blocks, which will form the sides of the cube (I started out with 7.5" squares; folded to about 3.25")
• 12 squares of fabric to set in the "windows" (Mine ended up being 2" squares)
• Stuffing (I used scraps of quilt batting)
• Needle and thread
• Straight pins
• Scissors
• Rotary cutting supplies, or a pen and a ruler

Cathedral Window Cube

This project served two purposes. One, I'd seen similar cubes in a Cathedral Window Flickr group and I really wanted to figure out how to make one. Two, I'd also really wanted to do a red and white Cathedral Window project, and I wanted to create something useful. The cube is about 3.5" high, and will serve as a slightly large pin cushion.

Try making your own with this tutorial.

Replacing Windows

Last month I got some new fabrics, and I was kind of sad that I couldn't fit them into my Cathedral Window quilt. In my impatience I had included these six not-so-attractive blue fabrics, so I replaced them with the new fabrics, which are much more attractive.

Almost Finished

All 172 inside squares are complete! Only 40 squares for the border to go. It is not quite a charm quilt, but the squares are very unique nonetheless. For the ones where I cut multiple squares from the same fabric, I used fabrics with different designs.

For instance, these two are from the same fabric:




Finished size: 36"x54"

Closing Windows

This is what the Cathedral Window quilt looked like last weekend:


This is what it looks like this weekend:


Only 15 more squares for the main part of the quilt, and 40 for the border! I made so much more progress than I thought I'd be able to make at one time! I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do about the border yet though, so I'm going to set it aside while I collect the last squares and work on Christmas ornaments for awhile.

Cathedral Windows 8

The last set! I finished these the night before we left for vacation. Joann's was having a 4th of July sale that started that day, so I ran over right after work to get the sale price on fat quarters, threw them in with the last load of laundry, and had just enough enough time to stitch in the last two new fabrics!


The blue and the green blocks were already ready to be sewn.


I added the blue and green fabrics to this one to finish it.


Now I can start joining them. I just have to determine how "charming" I want it to be. There are already a few duplicates (two of my favorite fabrics and some of the pieced squares), so the fabrics won't all be different. I don't want to duplicate all the fabrics, but I know I'm not patient enough to wait for that many new fabrics!

Cathedral Windows 7

This weekend I finally decided to cut up some previously uncut fabric so I'd have some more pieces for the cathedral windows.

These are the fabrics I'm using for my bento box quilt:


This one features a second square of my favorite fabric, the only duplicate so far:


I'm tempted to pair this black and white print with the colorful stripes for a future project:


Only 3 more blocks to go, and I only need 3 more squares of fabric!

Cathedral Windows 6

I started this set and Zack goes, "Oh, that project again?" It has been a while, but I needed to collect some new fabrics before I could continue.

Finishing Tyco and Cleo's quilt provided nice matches for this one:


I used some of the butterfly block fabric to complete this one:


This one came together nicely thanks to a project for my aunt and some clearance fabric:

Cathedral Windows 5

I think this one would probably look better with something other than the icky pink one at the bottom.


I was pleased with how well I was able to coordinate colors with this striped fabric.


I really like the combination of these colors!

Cathedral Windows 4

This is my new favorite.


This one is a slightly odd combination of fabrics.


The airplane throws this one off a bit.

Cathedral Windows 3

I love this block! The green log cabin print is not my favorite fabric, but it blends in well with the others.


I like the way this block turned out too. The star fabric helps incorporate the yellow print, which is kind of a funky shade.


This is my least favorite block so far, I think because the fabrics are all so dark. Hopefully it will not stand out in the finished product.

Cathedral Windows 2

These are my monochromatic blocks. I hope I don't regret having like colors grouped together in the finished product, but they do look so nice!

Cathedral Windows 1

I've wanted to do a Cathedral Window quilt since approximately 2002 when I first saw the design. I played around with it a bit, even buying yards of muslin a couple years ago, but the instructions required sewing all the blocks and turning them inside out and it was just a lot of work! Then last year I found this tutorial that only requires ironing the blocks. So this year I finally mustered up the motivation to iron 6 yards of muslin, cut it into 96 squares, and then iron the squares into the folded blocks. Then they sat there for a couple months while I mustered up the motivation to sew them together.


In order to make sewing the colored squares in easier, I've started with smaller blocks that will be joined later. There will be 24 9.5" blocks to join, so the finished project won't be very large. Now I'm on a roll sewing in the colored squares, even if it does require a lot of pinning, since the technique is the same as my dragonfly quilt. So far I've been able to use all scraps, but in order to achieve a more varied selection of fabric, I'm going to have to start cutting into my stash.