How to sew the blocks:

Twist blocks:	You MUST sew with an accurate 1/4" seam allowance in order for blocks to come out to the correct size of 6 1/2" unfinished. Use the "glob of tape" method or your favorite method to mark the seam allowance on your sewing machine. Although some teachers tell you to use your "personal seam allowance" when you make quilt blocks, it will not work on this quilt! If your blocks are not 6 1/2" then the seams on the snowball blocks will not line up.
............	For each block you will need two rectangles of each twist fabric and one 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" background square.
	Take a background square and one of the twist fabrics. (You will alternate the colors of the strips are you sew them around the block.)
	Put them right sides together with the rectangle on top, and line up the sides. Sew only 1/2 way down the square underneath.

Open the strips and press the seam toward the outside.

Turn your block ** clockwise **

Sew the next twist fabric onto the right edge of the block using a 1/4" seam allowance.

Open the rectangle and press the seam to the outside.

Turn the block ** clockwise **

Sew the next twist strip to the right edge.

Open the rectangle, press the seam to the outside.

Then turn the block **clockwise **

Now, you have your little unsewn strip there. Fold the unsewn strip back out of the way...

Sew on the last twist strip.

Turn ** clockwise **

Now you have that unsewn strip! It is easy.

Since you only sewed it halfway you where able to add that last strip and now you now have room to finish sewing the last seam.

Fold the unsewn strip and the top strip over to the block and find the end of the stitching from that first half sewn seam.

That is it, your block is done! You make all of these the same.

Remember to turn them **clockwise ** only. If you turn some the counterclockwise you will have backward strips that won't work.

Snowball blocks: ......	For each block you will need one 6 1/2" x 6 1/2" background square and four of each twist fabric triangles:
	Now for the snowball blocks. Take one of the 6 1/2" squares and put four of the 2 inch corner squares in each corner of the background square. Line up all the edges nice and neat. You may want to draw a pencil line from corner to corner on each of the corner squares to mark the seam stitching lines.... or you can press the squares over and crease a seam line in them. I have done both depending on my mood! Okay, now sew on each of the diagonal lines from corner to corner of each square.
	Leaving a 1/4" seam allowance, trim off the extra portion of the squares beyond the stitching.
	Press the triangles to the outside of the blocks. Do the same for the other twist color blocks.

Mary Ellen also does not cut off the background part of the triangle. She just cuts off the piece that is part of the square. She says this keeps the blocks "square". If your triangles do dip in a little on the outside you still have the original square corners of your background blocks to make the block accurate. You can try these tips, but if the background is very dark and your corners are light it might show through. You can both ways and see how you like it.
NOTE: Mary Ellen Hopkins method is to sew a little "outward dip" in her stitching when she does this method. She says that sometimes when you press over the corner triangle, it stretches inward. This inward stretch makes the corners of the triangle dip in. If you stitch with a "slight" pivot toward the outside corner it makes the blocks more accurate and you can always straighten it with a square-up ruler if it dips out too much but you can't add it on!