Christmas Tree Free Pattern – OccasionalPiece

This year’s main quilting events: Shoulder surgery in January, which pretty much sidelined me for a long time. That’s at the top of the list, because whatever I did after that was like icing on the cake. My achievements — or lack of, depending on your view — can be found under the tab “200 Quilts,” a handy way to navigate the morass of blogland.

But here’s some eye-candy, quilt-style.

and a few more…

So, in spite of a lame start, I did manage to get a few things made. That’s why I do these posts–they are more for me, to say…hey, you didn’t do so bad. So often we only notice what we don’t do, what we can’t make or achieve, as you’ll notice by my language in the intro, where I denigrate my accomplishments.

I did some some traveling, which expanded my horizons a bit, to the European Patchwork Meeting…

…as well as Seoul and Tokyo (accompanying my husband to his meetings). Next travel is to Ontario, California for Road to California, and to Pasadena for QuiltCon 2018. Luckily both are within an hour of my home.

I’m joining up with Cheryl’s Linky Party, because I’ve found it so fun to browse what everyone else has been doing this year. My top five posts for 2017 are:

Mini Sew-Together Bag. I recently moved the pattern up to Craftsy and am happy that it has helped find a wider audience of bag enthusiasts. The rest of my patterns are on PayHip (link to the right).

2. Christmas Tree Skirt. Although there is a brief pattern, there is enough information on this post so you can make your own. It’s a fun skirt and works up quickly.

3. Shine–the Circle Quilt Post is a busy place, as I make available many EPP patterns for free, so you can make a circle block either for a quilt, or pillows or wall-hangings. And this year, the quilt will hang in Road to California.

4. Two posts are virtually tied for the same place: the post on how to convert a Chuck Nohara block illustration to a pattern, and the posts showing the tutorial on my Piggies quilt.

5. Christmas Tree Block Swap tutorial.

I hope you do your own tallying up, and sail into 2018 with the wind at your back.
Happy New Year!

I’m decorating for Christmas and wanted to change out my Tiny Quilt from Autumn to Christmas, but then got wondering how a teeny-weeny quilt would look, so got busy. These little quilts fit onto plastic picture frames:

I have two free patterns for you here, but please remember the drill: Don’t print off umpteen for your next class, or guild meeting swap or your mother. Please send them here to get their own pattern.

The teeny tree (4×6″) pattern is in this downloadable PDF file: Teeny Christmas Tree quilt

Updated, one-page version (2021): Teeny Christmas Tree quilt

The tiny tree (8×10″) pattern is in this downloadable PDF file:Tiny Christmas tree quilt

As you can see from the samples I made up, I play fast and loose with some of the placement of pieces, really using them more as a guideline for cutting, than anything else (although I did cut out the tree exactly).

Cut out all the pieces for the pattern you’ve chosen. As I noted above, sometimes I used the pattern (shown here before I added the labels) as sort of a general guidelines. You need an accurate tree, and a nice straight edge where you’ll sew it to the tree (the diagonal line in the photo, above).

I sewed the “sky” pieces to the sides of the trunks then trimmed the edge that would attach to the tree. More detailed tutorial is also on my OTHER Christmas Tree block tutorial, which is sized somewhere in between these two tree sizes. (I should open up a Christmas Tree lot with all these patterns.)

Sew the “right” side onto the tree. Make sure you keep the marked top triangle point pointing upwards.

Trim any stray areas (above), then add the other side.

Straighten out the bottom of the tree assembly. Center, then sew on the tree-trunk unit, pressing seam towards tree (so it looks like the trunk is under the tree).

Now to add the snowdrifts on the little tree. On the left, I sort of place that wedge-shaped piece, determine the angle but flipping it up and down (on the right). When I have the angle I like, flip it back up so right sides are together, and stitch along the upper edge. Trim.

Repeat for lower snowdrift. Trim excess.

For the bigger tree, I added on 2″ strips to frame the tree. It needed something to jazz it up, so I got rid of the bottom strip on the pattern and just used strips all around.

Layer with batting and backing and quilt. I did a meander in the sky area around the trees, then some straight lines in the snowdrift on the teeny tree, and some straight lines in the frame around the bigger tree:

I also quilted some swirls in the center of the tree.

Time to trim. The teeny trees trim to 4-3/4″ by 6-1/2″ and the larger tree is trimmed to 8-3/4″ by 10-1/2.”

Make a sleeve for the back by cutting a piece the same size as the quilt top, but then hem the lower edge, turning it up twice and top-stitching. I know it’s hard to see in this print, but again, feel free to check out the other tutorials of tiny quilts.