Oh Christmas Tree QAL • Step 7 (Final)

July 19, 2016July 19, 2016 Elizabeth E.8 Comments

Today is Step 7 — the final step — of our Oh Christmas Tree Quilt-a-Long (#ohchristmastreeqal), following a pattern by Wendy of FlyingFishKits and which was published in Simply Moderne issue #3, by QuiltMania. As always, we have an assist from Wendy of Wendy’s Quilts and More (blog) and wendyquiltsandmore (IG). Our hashtag on Instagram is #ohchristmastreeqal so look there for more ideas.

I’ve been keeping a log of the steps in the tab above, Oh Christmas Tree Quilt-A-Long, so consult that page when you need to find a post.

Yes, today we are wishing upon a star, the final part of this quilt. We started this journey 7 months ago in January 2016, right after the magazine came out, and today we’ll finish it up.

Your tree should have the red triangle borders on. See earlier post for how to get them on.

Wendy has laid out several fabrics for her stars, above. I thought I wanted to go with traditional Christmas colors of red and green, but realized quickly that I should go with colors that coordinated with the flowers and birds. In other words, be bold in your star colors.

With your fabrics chosen, now it’s time to make the stars, but before you start, one issue with wonky stars is getting the star points too close to the edge.As Wendy writes: “Yellow star is what NOT to do. Points are at the edge and will be cut off during trimming, or lost in seam allowance. Star points need to finish further down the sides.” I’ve circled them in red, so you’ll recognize this when it happens. It happened to Wendy (that’s her block), it happened to me. Consider that your Training Wheels Block. Now one way to be aware of this is to cut all your blocks a bit larger than they ask for, and to slice the diagonal a bit differently as well.

First up, here’s my chart of how big I cut things. It’s a downloadable PDF document: Oh Christmas Tree wonkystarchart

And here’s your roadmap/key to the letters. I put the “f” in lowercase and italicized it, as everything was getting a bit overwhelming with that alphabet floating around.

You’ll notice on the chart I mention to cut the f-triangles “skewed.” Cut them like the above shows, so there is a chunky bit on one end. If you haven’t made wonky stars before, you can try it first by cutting it on a strict diagonal, and after some construction, see which one you like. I like this way because I feel like it gives me a good angle and I’m less inclined to get the star points too close to the edge.

Find the narrower center piece, “E” and lay them out. Layer four f-triangles on top, with the chunky top down from the top edge, as shown. Try to have the lower pointy edge near the middle of the lower bottom edge of the E piece. I often finger-crease a little mark in that bottom edge of the E-rectangle so I know what I’m aiming for. See the next photo.On this piece, I’ve got a pretty good start. What counts is the seam line. So at the top right, it’s down about 1″ to 1-1/2″ and the seamline is about midline, or just a bit to the side of it. As long as you are in the ballpark of the red X at the bottom, you’re fine.

Fold it back to check. Press. Trim off that wedge underneath the star point fabric, as shown below (I’m doing a stack here.)

Now line up the next set. Yes, they are all upside down, as that’s how I’m going to sew them. Again, the chunky tip is near the top edge, and the pointy edge overlaps the first wonky start point.

Stitch, press and turn. If you are worried, check it before you stitch it by folding it back to make sure your star point fabric covers the background E piece all the way on those two lower corners.

Now trim it up to 2 -1/2″ by 4.” In the photo above, I laid my ruler on the outline of the E piece for placement.

Now trim off that underneath piece.

Done with one! Repeat three more times for one star block. Don’t try to get all the points the same–let them be different lengths and placement, as your block will be more interesting. DO make sure you are not too close to the outer edge–you’ll need that extra space for trimming.

Now line them up as shown, with the H-piece in the center and the four corner G-pieces in their place.

Now you are going to make a “web” of thread, as you sew the pieces into rows. Keep reading.

Unit #1: I stitched G-1 to E-2. Without cutting the thread, I slipped the next pair under the needle and kept stitching:
Unit #2: I stitched E-4 to H-5. Without cutting the thread, I slipped the next pair under the needle and kept stitching:
Unit #3: I stitched G-7 to E-8.

Sew onto a leader/ender piece (mine are just scrap, even though I always think I should be piecing another quilt or something.)

Now to Unit #1 above, stitch on G-3. Without cutting the thread, I kept stitching:
Stitch Unit #2 to E-6. Without cutting the thread, I kept stitching:
Stitch Unit #3 to G-9.

If you can get the hang of this, you can keep all your star points together and really crank through them.

Here, I’ve circled the bit of connecting “web” threads. Press as shown: the center row has the seams pressed to the center, and the top/bottom rows have the seams pressed towards the G-piece (outer corner block).

I’ve sewn them, pressed them, and now I can stack them, ready to sew the rows together. Because of the thread-web, I won’t get a piece turned around, or upside down.

There’s no magic, just press them how you like them, but I do always believe a seam will generally indicate which is the easiest way for it to fall. In this case, it was away from the center.

Arrange your stars around the tree how you think you’ll like them. Take a photo, re-arrange if you want. In my case, I ended up making some brighter, bolder stars, and shuffling several times. It also helps if you go get some lunch, or fold a batch of laundry, or maybe snack on some chocolate. Anything to take a break so you can bring some fresh eyes to the process. Do this until you are happy with how they look.Now for some measuring fun. You know that each corner of this quilt will have a star. And generally, the finished measurement is 8″, or trimmed to 8-1/2.” Both Wendy and I caution that you need to make VERY SURE that your H-block is centered in your trimming. Pay attention to the diagonal line and make sure it’s running through the center of the H-piece.

Trim FOUR blocks only, and set aside. What you see above is me making sure that the middle row of my stars would line up when they were placed next to each other. I took my time trimming. If you don’t have the middle of the star lined up, you can fudge it a bit, but not by much.

confusing diagram — *Diagram of how to get the Wonky Star borders attached*

Now comes the hard part.

Take a measurement across the top of Border #1 (triangle-border). Mine was just over 39.” I called it close enough to 40″ as that would fit five star blocks nicely (8″ blocks x 5= 40″); I can also sew a seam or two with a bit bigger seam allowance to get it closer to my measurement (yes, there are all sorts of ways to make our Zen Quilt behave). In my case, I trimmed them to 8 1/2″ so they finish at 8″ when they are sewn in.

Once you get that figured it, trim up TEN blocks. Use the trimming trick above to make sure the star blocks will line up.

See how that trimmed edge is away from those star points? (And yes, I’ve re-done a couple of blocks in my lifetime of wonky star blocks when I trimmed them off.) Sew the FIVE top star blocks together in a row. DO NOT SEW THE CORNER BLOCKS ON YET.

Press the seams to one side, and stitch that row of Border #2 (wonky star) on to your Border #1 (red triangles). Repeat with the bottom row of star blocks. Press seam toward the red triangles border. Your quilt should now look like this.

Before you start on the sides, get more chocolate.

Here comes the part where Wendy says it is kind of like childbirth: you’ll forget about it once it’s over with. I measured the side border, counted up how many blocks were shown in the pattern, and divided that into the border measurement. That was a scary number, so I subtracted one block, and did the dividing again. I ended up needing SIX blocks of just about 7 3/4.” This is the same as the pattern.

Because the measurements were kind of weird, I decided to cheat.

I kept my blocks at 8-inches finished “north-to-south” but cut them to be 7-3/4 inches finished “east-to-west.” Which means I was trimming them to 8-1/2″ and 8-1/4″ as shown above by the blue tape. The “West Side” tape is at 8 1/4″ whereas the “South Side” tape is at 8 1/2.”

I just wanted to make sure that I had at least 3/8″ to 1/2″ away from the pointy edges (blue ovals). Most of the time I succeeded.

Go Zen Quilter Trim up your blocks. Now rotate them so the 7-3/4″ finished dimension is running north-south, and the 8″ finished dimension is running East-West. (This is an update from the original post.) Then sew them together. Press and hold them up against the border. Chances are they won’t fit–they’ll be too big. So. . . cheat again.

Take a bit bigger seams between all the blocks: from 1/4″ inch to 5/16ths of an inch. Check your sewn row again. If they are still too large (and can’t be eased in), choose the two stars that have the most room between the tips of their star points and the seam, and make another teeny bit bigger seam. Now you should be fine.

Breathe Deeply. Go Zen.

NOW sew the star corner blocks to each side border strip–two to each side strip of stars–one on the top and one on the bottom. Press all seams on the strip towards one side. Stitch these borders to the existing quilt.

I then pressed all seams toward that red triangle seam, even if it didn’t want to go there. Now, in looking at it, can you tell that the side blocks are sized a tiny bit differently than the top/bottom blocks? Didn’t think so, and no one else will be able to tell either. I think the solution to the challenging measurements was a success.

As Gwen Marston said, “Nobody ever said, ‘I need a little more stress in my life–think I’ll make a quilt.’ ” Quilting should be fun, even if it’s challenging (and this was definitely a challenging quilt).

Here’s Wendy’s…

…and Betty’s.

Now let’s see yours. Shoot me an email when you get yours done, with a photo of your quilt, and if (I mean, when–I’m thinking positively) I get a few, I’ll put up a post showing off your hard work.

Try not to dance, but you are done! It’s over! You made your quilt!!
(Click *here* for a fun dance scene from On the Town, a favorite movie of mine.)

Thanks for joining us on this journey, from January to July, of making the Oh Christmas Tree quilt. I’ve appreciated all your enthusiasm, your comments, and seeing photos on Instagram.

Here’s one of Wendy’s new patterns, My Place or Yours, if you want to feast your eyes on something new. Pattern can be purchased *here.*

Another one of hers is Pieces O My Heart, which just won a blue ribbon at the Sydney Quilt Show. Visit her Instagram feed for more inspiration.

Lastly, if you are not a follower of my blog and you’ve enjoyed this quilt-a-long, I’d like to invite you to become an email follower. Just enter your email in the box above. I generally post about twice a week, with occasional longer gaps. I try to post worthy and interesting content with an occasional “friends and me doing quilty stuff.” I think by building communities and sharing discussions about issues and happenings in our world, we shorten the distance between us, forming strong links of like-minded quilters.

Happy Quilting!

Oh Christmas Tree QAL–STEP 5

June 2, 2016June 5, 2016 Elizabeth E.21 Comments

Today is Step 5 of our Oh Christmas Tree Quilt-a-Long (#ohchristmastreeqal), following a pattern by Wendy of FlyingFishKits and which was published in Simply Moderne issue #3, by QuiltMania. As always, we have an assist from Wendy of Wendy’s Quilts and More (blog) and wendyquiltsandmore (IG), as she is slightly ahead of us in her creating.

And because of the nice people at National Non-Wovens, we also have a giveaway of 100% wool felt, and their new colors of their rayon/wool felt. ~~Read through all the way to the end to find the giveaway.~~ Giveaway is now closed.

This month we’ll look at possible under-the-tree scenes; there are four:

(1) the reindeer cavorting, as shown in the original pattern,

(2) Wendy’s packages,

(3) nothing, or

(4) a nativity scene.

First, Wendy’s packages.

She has included photos, with a tape measure so you can see the overall length. Remember, also, that she added a few extra flowers and leaves on her tree, as described in our last post.

When I asked her about the packages, she wrote:

“You’ll see the boxes range from 2” to 3” and were really just cut from scraps of felt. So whatever is left over. I used threads to make them look like presents (including my Wonderfil Dazzle – which has bult in sparkle). And added a few novelty buttons from my button box. I’m even going to add bows from ribbons once it’s quilted.”

“So total length of presents = about 14”. I just fiddled around until I was happy with the layout. Sort the layout before stitching, because then you don’t need to stitch on the bits that will be covered up by another present. I went for a range of colours and stitched a variety of patterns on them, just like real presents would appear under a tree. I didn’t attempt balls or bikes, just kept it very simple. You can imagine what might be in them.”

I also asked her if she had embroidered them before, or after, she’d attached them to the backing:

“I had to check if I embroidered before or after I attached them. The back view shows it was after. I tend to take things cautiously and add more if I think it needs more. Feel free to include that back view photo – sometimes it’s easier to remember if you’ve seen a photo.”

Thanks, Wendy–this is a great alternative!

Secondly, if you are going to do the reindeer, just follow the directions on the pattern, embroidering them before you put them on, then attaching them as we did the flowers and birds.

Third, do nothing. I’ve heard from some of you, and there seems to be an ambivalence about whether or not to put anything. You may want to hold off until you get your borders on, then decide.

Fourth, the nativity scene. I looked and looked for something that might work, finally adapting a folk-style couple with Baby Jesus between them, found on an Eastern-European art site. I had thought about a silhouette of Mary and Joseph, but it just didn’t look right with our folk art flowers and birds. I tried making them larger, as I realize it looks now as if the birds could put Baby Jesus into their nests, but I would have had to adjust the background placement about 3 months ago, and there was no way I was going unpick everything and re-do that. So I decided that they would just look like one of those Nativity Scenes we put up around our house: smaller, a replica of the Holy Family. In the end, I am happy with how they turned out, but I always try to give you an idea of what I was thinking. If you are doing options 1, 2, or 3, we’ll see you next month when we’ll do the sawtooth border (border #1). But keep reading for the Nativity Scene how-tos.

First up, the pattern, free of charge, no cost, no frills, and yes, you’ll have to improvise the manger and Joseph’s beard. But the price is right. Click this link in blue to download a PDF file of the pattern: Holy Family_OPQuilt (Don’t click on the illustration.) Print this out at 100% or larger (I used 100%).

JOSEPH

Here is Joseph’s pattern, all cut out.

Basic steps:
1. Cut paper pattern pieces out; I cut a slit up Joseph’s robe pattern to get at the face and the under-robe. I left the headscarf section on top in place for now.
2. Cut out the robe out of felt (don’t cut a slit up the center of the felt), then snip a slash in the middle to cut out triangle-shaped center, following the cut out of the paper pattern. After doing that, cut pattern, freeing up the head scarf piece. (I show it above all together, but really the paper pattern is in three parts.)
3. Cut face out of interfacing, and bond to face fabric–don’t make the face fabric too pink. Joseph lived in the Mediterranean.
4. Cut under-robe, by tracing around the triangle-shape with a marking pencil, then cutting 1/4″ away from that tracing. I tried to use stripes for both Mary and Joseph’s under-robes.
5. Cut out head scarf, by the same tracing method described above.
6. Cut out deep background out of black felt. SEE BELOW.

I realized, after doing Mary, that the under-robe needed much more support than just cloth. So I laid the pieces as shown above onto some black felt, and cut 1/4″ around everything. That larger black felt piece (deep background) will be largely invisible, but is needed so the center section doesn’t become too floppy.

7. Trim the face to 1/4″ around the interfacing.

8. Pinch around the lower edge to establish a fold line for appliqué. No need to do the top as it will be hidden by the head scarf.

9. Find the center, fold up the “chin” and pin in place.

9 (cont’d.) Appliqué down the face lower edge (see above photo for details) to the black (deep background). Fold under the top edge of the under-robe and appliqué that just under the face. They need to touch. Place head scarf onto felt robe piece. Fold under lower edge and attach to face opening in the felt with tiny stitches. Then fold to the back and tack down everywhere.

This is how things looked from the back.

10. Center the under-robe/face piece behind the robe/head-scarf piece; pin.

Lifting up the edge, trim away the excess.

Tack into place from behind. It will really be anchored by the embroidery stitches you do, but you don’t want it slipping around while you handle it. All of the above steps took about 30 minutes; it looks longer because I’m describing them to you, but since this is smaller, the stitching goes quickly.

MARY

Repeat basic steps with Mary, but there is no separate step for the head scarf. Make a (deep background) piece out of black felt for Mary as you did for Joseph. (I didn’t, and I wish I had, so ignore that tiny deep background piece above (and below) and create one as large as Joseph’s.)

In addition, DON’T trim the upper edge of Mary’s face piece until nearly the last step, as you need all that extra. DO trim the “chin” area to 1/4″ seam allowance, then pinch along the fold line, as you did for Joseph’s

Pretend this is all on a (deep background) black felt piece, as is Joseph’s. It should be. Construct in the same fashion, turning up lower edge of face and appliqué onto black felt piece, then do the under-robe the same as Joseph’s.

Mary doesn’t have a head scarf that is a different piece of fabric. Women in her day and religion didn’t show their hair, so I purposely didn’t make hair for her; you be the judge of what you want.

Pin the under-robe/face piece in place and tack down from the back, as you did for Joseph. Sorry for the nighttime-on-the-sofa-cushions photo.

Now add the embroidery. I put several lines of “scarf” on her, alternating navy and red threads, then another line of “braid,” closer to her face, to lower her forehead (foreheads shouldn’t be too large otherwise they’ll look funny). I used blue slightly slanted stem stitches, to give texture. I did a back stitch to outline the fold of her robe, then up around her head, mostly to anchor the robe/face/deep background piece in place. I did a backstitch about 1/3″ away at the hem, narrowing as it came near her face, then around the lower edge. I added small flowers and decorative French knots.

Time to add some embroidery to Joseph.

I did two lines of stem stitch on the scarf, acting as a braid holding it on. Then I figured out his beard by tracing a shape off the pattern about 1/2″ long, as wide as the opening, and in a wide arc at the top on his face. I used felted wool to get the right texture. Tack that on. Then start adding embroidery to the robe: back stitch, seed stitch, building up layers of design.

I actually gave some thought to the colors I used. Knowing that red is for the Savior’s robes after He’s resurrected, I tried to incorporate that in. Purple in my mind is for royalty, so Mary got some of that. Of course, Mary has to be in blue–she just does. I always think green is about life and living things, so Joseph got that color. You decide what colors matter to you, and where to put them. I stitched Joseph’s decorative lines in a variegated thread, so they have some depth to them.

In stitching the vertical lines, be sure to get narrower near his face, and farther apart nearing the hem of his robe. Add eyes. They are not French knots, but merely a tiny stitch. Set Mary and Joseph aside.

BABY JESUS

Here are the pieces cut apart, with wool felt. DON’T CUT THE YELLOW LIKE THIS. I learned my lesson from Mary and Joseph and re-cut the lower yellow to be sort of a large oval; see below.

And here’s another DON’T DO. Don’t appliqué the face ON the white. I’ll show you a better way in a minute.

Here’s the face appliquéd on like his parents.

Yes, he does resemble a Cabbage Patch Doll.

So, instead, CUT OUT that oval-ish slit. Tack the baby’s face in BEHIND the slit (easier to do at the beginning). Stitch the swaddling cloth lines in blue around the face. Then layer him on the yellow felt, with the red felt nestling in just below the white (see above, for the colors I chose). Start anchoring everything down with stitches. You can’t really see, but behind those purple cross-stitches is a small overcast stitch anchoring the white to the red to the yellow.

Now, doesn’t Baby Jesus’ face look better peeking out from behind the swaddling cloths?

I did the angled buttonhole stitch on his blanket, using yellow thread on the red, then tried to make a red fringe-looking stitch, as if there were fringe dangling down over the yellow (which becomes hay). I did the hay stitches at the end.

The manger was a half circle of blue, into which I cut legs then straightened out the bottom edge, so it looks sort of like a pot with legs. Or a step stool with a thick seat. It’s slightly less than the width of the baby’s assembly.

All of the decorative wood-grain stitching was done as before I tacked it onto the background. That is simply a stem stitch, done loosely and jaggedly, in a thinner thread (size 16 pearl cotton, but 12 would be fine), trying to imitate wood. The small buttonhole stitch is how I sewed it to the background, and that happens when attaching all of the Baby Jesus’ unit.

Star and Star Trails

OhChristmasTree_UndertreeStar Cut a 1 -1/2″ circle of yellow felt, and a 1 -1/4″ circle of light orange felt. Embroider them as shown (omitting the outside small yellow stitches–that’s added when you tack it onto your background).

The star trails are about 7 ” long, about a fat quarter-inch wide, and are slightly wavy lines. Sometimes they are a bit thicker. Don’t be too precise with them, as you are making folk art. In addition, make gradual waves — not sharp curves. You can shape them into the slight curving shape when you attach them, largely because of their gradual waves. I used a backstitch to put them on. I did not attach them to the star, but stitched them on, making sure they all ended in one place, then stitched down the star over that.

Here’s a ruler showing the approximate placement of things. The end of the tree is about even with the top of the blue manger. I pinned and checked several times, moving things by quarter-inches until I got them the way I wanted them. Notice that Joseph is closer to the tree, and Jesus overlaps both their robes. It just looked better that way to me: you decide what you like.

I used a buttonhole stitch to attach Mary all the way around, but only did Joseph’s robe. I switched to sewing thread and simply tacked down Joseph’s head scarf, without decorative stitches around it.

Now I’m starting on the hay for Baby Jesus. Notice that I completed the zig-zagging buttonhole stitch along the sides of his red blanket. If you have yellow felt peeking out, trim it slightly smaller than the red and finish the stitching down. In the photo above, Mary, Joseph, the manger and the upper half of Baby Jesus are all stitched to the background. For the hay, I used a variegated light brown–golden yellow–med. yellow thread.

I started by making “hay” stitches all over, crossing each other, going over the edge like real hay would.

I turned the needle around and “threaded” it through the fringe on his blanket, when I needed to stitch hay behind the fringes. The thread colors in variegated run in long sections. Above you can see that I went quite wide with the med. brown section, then when the golden yellow section came up, I went over that section again. Some stitches are long, some are short. Some are perpendicular to the lower edge (I did that at the beginning, to anchor it to the background). Some stitches are at a 45-degree angle.

I even put a few strands of hay on the ground, and had them fall over the yellow onto the manger and onto Joseph’s and Mary’s robes. It has to look slightly dis-organized, like, well. . . hay.

Here are some more pictures of the Nativity, showing detail.

Mary was stitched down with a variegated blue thread; I like how it went lighter around her head. Totally random.

Whatever you choose to do, please keep tagging your photos on Instagram with #ohchristmastreeqal, so we can all share in your progress.

As I was wandering the aisles of Quilt Market, I found the National Nonwovens Company, who deals online with retail at Commonwealth Felt. After seeing my enthusiasm for wool felt — I don’t think they’d had that much excitement in the whole time they manned their booth — they happily donated some samples both of their 100% wool felt as well as their wool/rayon felt blend in their new colors.

The packet on the left is a mix of fall/summer colors, including medium blue, yellow, red, white, green and black:

To win, leave a comment below telling me why you don’t think it’s crazy that we’re making Christmas things in JUNE (sometimes I think I’m crazy!). I’ll activate the Husband Random Name Generator and pick a winner. Good luck!

Here’s a recap of our schedule:

~~January, Step “prepare”: buy the magazine, books, gather your fabrics, buy the felt/wool, buy/find the pearl cotton.~~
~~February, Step 1: Make the tree on the background and stitch it down.~~
~~March, Step 2: Make 21 flowers.~~
April, Step 3: Make 10 birds and all the leaves.
May, Step 4: Appliqué down the flowers and birds.

June, Step 5: Scene at bottom of tree–make, then appliqué onto background.

July, Step 6: Sawtooth border (reds); sew together and attach. I’ll have another idea for you to try, as well.

August, Step 7: (finish up Quilt-A-Long): Make wonky star blocks, sew them together and attach border #2.

September, Step 8 Show and Tell, just in time for school starting again. Please send pictures of whatever state your Christmas Tree is in–whether it’s just the bones of the tree, of a completed top–we want to see it!

Happy Stitching and we’ll see you in July!

Oh Christmas Tree QAL · Quilts

Oh Christmas Tree QAL –STEP 4

May 2, 2016April 28, 2016 Elizabeth E.16 Comments

Today is Step 4 of our Oh Christmas Tree Quilt-a-Long (#ohchristmastreeqal), following a pattern by Wendy of FlyingFishKits and which was published in Simply Moderne issue #3, by QuiltMania. As always, we have an assist from Wendy of Wendy’s Quilts and More (blog) and wendyquiltsandmore (IG), as she is slightly ahead of us in her creating.

Here’s the twist: instead of creating the under-the-tree scene this month, I’ve gotten so many queries about sewing these things on to the background and the tree, that I think we’ll head that direction instead. Go with the flow, right? Above is my tree, everything sewn on. I’m heading this direction because a lot of those questions have to deal with the idea of how much embroidery to put on that outer edge? Should you leave a space for attaching and more embroidery? Should you go right to the edge?

The basic idea for attaching is this: lay out your circles, birds, and leaves to your liking, using the pattern and photos as a guide. As I go through the rest of the flower photos, I’ll have some tips, so please read through to the end. But first! Wendy has some tips for us about what’s ON the tree:

She writes: “I thought I had too much white space in certain areas. I’ve added 4 more small leaves and 4 more small circles, keeping the additions symmetrical because the gaps were symmetrical. I just felt some areas were less densely filled than others and I didn’t want gaps in the middle of my tree. That’s probably because I didn’t exactly follow the pattern for the size of my leaves and flowers, but also because things move slightly as you sew them on.” She sent me two photos. The “before” is above.

This is the after. You can see extra circles and extra leaves. (And yes, I love her under-the-tree scene! Next month, next month.). In addition to adding these extras, she attaches them differently than I do. First she lays them all out, takes a photo so she can remember where they are, and then takes all off but the items closest to the tree trunk. She sews those down first then adds in the decorations bit by bit, moving from the center to the outside, because she said she got tired of being stuck by pins.

I couldn’t face the thought of re-attaching the flowers after I’d gotten them arranged, so I used appliqué pins (shorter than usual) and sewed on the decorations moving from the outside toward the center. Since I use really small pins, and put my hand around the flowers and birds as I sew, I didn’t have too much trouble. One IG reader said she used a bit of glue to secure the decorations and from her photo it looks like she’s attaching them from the inside to the outside. Again, try what works for you.

You can see me scrunching things up in my hand. Since I worked from the outside in, I had very few pin pokes. I attached the leaves by using the same stitch I used on the trunk: a separated back-stitch (refer to this post for more info).

I was intent on getting them all on, and doing it quickly. You could take more time than I, adding an extra embroidery stitch, if you wanted, for it’s YOUR tree.

I also learned to put a regular pin right in the middle of my decorations just before I started sewing them on, so they wouldn’t buckle. I have one bird who looks like she is expecting, as the wool can shift as you are attaching, bubbling up. I’ll show the Mama Bird to you later.

Now for some general tips about attaching the flowers and birds. Before we talk about different ways to sew them to your tree, here’s a couple of photos of circles before attaching, showing various state of “close-to-the-edgeness” of the embroidery.

After I pinned these to the tree, I went in and added another circle under the red one, giving it a bit bigger presence. Ditto on the purple circle below. You may find yourself making small alternations after you get everything pinned down, either adding leaves and circles as Wendy did, or giving another border to a too-small/wrong-color flower, like I did.

I group the way I sewed these down into two categories: A) snuggle a stitch in or around the existing embroidery, or B) adding another ring of decorative embroidery to affix it to the background. Let’s do the A-category first. You saw the flower medallion above; I attached it with tiny stitches at right angles to the outer edge in a matching thread.

Wendy often leaves the wings undecorated, using the “attachment phase” to put the stitches on, but I’d already embroidered them when she told me this, so I sewed it down to the background by using a small matching (green) thread in between the existing decorative (pink) stitch.

I used the small perpendicular stitch again here in matching (blue) thread, but varied the length of them slightly, so the longest are between the yellow stitches and the shorter stitches are near the yellow.

I also decided to keep some flowers simpler, and did a simple backstitch around the outside edge. Keep it smallish and even, and you’ll get questions like I do: “Did you do it on the machine?” No, and if you look closely, you’ll find the bobbly places. Remember, this is folk art and we aim to enjoy ourselves! More backstitching:

Now for some B-categories: adding another bit of embroidery to attach them.

This is a slanted buttonhole stitch. It’s done exactly the same as a regular buttonhole, but instead of keeping the needle perpendicular to the outside edge, you slant it. I like the look of this one a lot.

Regular buttonhole. I used matching thread if I thought the flower was busy enough.

Here’s where I used the backstitch (on the small yellow flower, left) and then used a different color of thread in a buttonhole stitch (magenta flower, right).

Here’s an “un-even” buttonhole stitch, with shorter and longer “legs” of the stitch, co-ordinating with the existing embroidery.

This bird was sewn on with a matching yellow thread, buttonhole stitch. But I slipped a smaller seed (or regular) stitch in between the existing red buttonhole stitch on the yellow bird’s wing to sew that down.

Photography of women depends on flattering angles, but I dropped the camera down low so you could see my pregnant bird. She didn’t start out that way, but the wool shifted. The bubbling up is exaggerated from this angle–it’s not really noticeable from the front, but now you know why I started putting that pin in the center of my birds and flowers as I stitched them down. Didn’t have that trouble with the leaves, for some reason. She’s attached to the background with a simple backstitch. I also did a line on the birds’ beaks. I tried to make them happy birds (It’s Christmas, remember?) by the slight curve of the stitching, but some of the birds turned out a bit moody.

This is another where I snuck a small stitch in between the existing embroidery (A-category), and below, the last photo (!) where you can also see detail on the bird’s beak.

We are definitely getting closer to the end, now, and I’m pretty excited. Next month (June 2nd), I’ll have an alternate scene for you for under the tree, and then we’ll roll out from there.

No giveaway this month, but here’s a recap of our schedule:

~~January, Step “prepare”: buy the magazine, books, gather your fabrics, buy the felt/wool, buy/find the pearl cotton.~~
~~February, Step 1: Make the tree on the background and stitch it down.~~
~~March, Step 2: Make 21 flowers.~~
~~April, Step 3: Make 10 birds and all the leaves.~~

May, Step 4: Appliqué down the flowers and birds.

June, Step 5: Scene at bottom of tree–make, then appliqué onto background.

July, Step 6: Sawtooth border (reds); sew together and attach.

August, Step 7: (finish up Quilt-A-Long): Make wonky star blocks, sew them together and attach border #2.

September, Step 8 Show and Tell, just in time for school starting again.

Yes, we cut a month off our sewing, so you’ll have plenty of time to finish your quilt before December.

Happy Stitching and we’ll see you in June!

Giveaway · Oh Christmas Tree QAL · Quilt-A-Long · Quilts

Oh Christmas Tree QAL • STEP 3

April 2, 2016April 4, 2016 Elizabeth E.24 Comments

Here we are again, gathering together for the next step of the Oh Christmas Tree Quilt-A-Long (#ohchristmastreeqal), using the pattern found in Quiltmania’s Simply Moderne, issue #3, designed by Wendy Williams of Flying Fish Kits.

At this point, you’ve been working on your flowers for a month, and if you are like me, that first one was like jumping off a high dive, and thinking the pool was empty and you’d go splat. But you didn’t, and your flower circles are looking wonderful and you are actually having a great time. Keep working on them, you’ll need 21 of them in the various sizes shown on the pattern. I have to admit that all of mine are not the “perfect” size, as some are larger than what is called for. I mocked up the tree the other day (I’ll show you this at the end) and it was okay. So no fretting. Just #startyourneedles and keep creating and stitching.

But. . . this month we’re adding two easy tasks: leaves and birds. First up, birds.

Remember all that tracing you did of the birds, and how you labeled them and marked the dashed overlap lines on a folded piece of freezer paper, so you’d be making two copies of the bird (one regular, and one reversed) and you stapled it together to keep the pieces from shifting? Now’s the time to get them out. Hold them up to the light and transfer the dashed overlap marking on the wing to the wing piece on the other side, then cut them out and start picking your colors.

Be bold! Red beaks! purple bodies! wild wings! I ironed down the freezer paper patterns, using a wool setting (NOT your regular cotton setting–or you’ll scorch the wool), and then cut them out. I tucked the beaks under the body, guesstimating where they’d go (hint: NOT even with the top of the body) and pinned them. Then I place the wing on the bird, using the dashed overlap line to place them, then pinned that in place.

(No worries…I fixed that purple bird’s wing before I pinned it down!)

Wendy of Wendy’s Quilts and More gave me a tip to sew on the beak first. I just used a few overcast stitches to get it on securely. I’d never qualify for a bird plastic surgeon, that’s for sure. Then attach the wing by blanket stitches (or overcast stitches, or a back stitch or a running stitch), beginning where it attaches to the body and work your way around the lower edge and back up again.

Now do the floaty part of the wing, and tie it off.

Add a few French knots, or seed stitches, or whatever small decorative stitch. Cut a teensy circle of white, then an even teensier circle of black and secure them both with a French knot, done with white thread. I started by cutting 1/2″ squares of white felt, then rounded them off, and then cut smaller squares of black and just kept going around and around, cutting, until it was the right size. Be prepared to sacrifice a couple of eyeballs until you get the hang of it.

Ta-DONE!

I got fancy with that red bird, attaching the wing with running stitches, and doing a zig-zag stitch across the wing.

I took them with me on my trip to Portugal and Spain (pictures of that trip are on my Instagram, to the right and on a previous post) and was able to get them sewn without too much trouble on the [long] flight out there. These go MUCH more quickly than do the flowers, so I’m also adding LEAVES to this month’s tasks.

Okay, that wasn’t hard! I traced half of all the leaves I’d need onto freezer paper, doubled it over to get two layers, then cut them out. Iron on to your felt using a wool setting, and cut out. Repeat for the inner, smaller, leaves. I cut a few out of a different green just to give some variety. Place the smaller leaves as shown, setting them closer to one end. Using a backstitch, sew them down. It’s tricky near the tip, but you can see how wobbly mine are and how it really doesn’t matter. (Last time I checked, The Creator didn’t use a ruler to create his leaves either, and our world is the more beautiful for that variation.)

So I was curious as to how I was doing at this point, so I smoothed my tree up on the design wall, and stabbed pins through all the flowers and the four birds I’d finished. Then, ACK! I was stuck. What number flowers were where? What had I sewn and cut and what was I lacking? I got out all the baggies of labeled flowers and set up a little station on my ironing board, right below the tree. I wrote out post-it notes labeling the flowers as in the pattern, and then a master list of where they were supposed to go. I then lined up the circles from the pattern, drawn out on freezer paper below each sticky note, so I could see the relative sizes.

Now that I was organized, I could figure it out. I had enough of certain flowers and needed more of others. Some of the directions in the pattern were wrong, so I corrected for those:

If you want it to look like the one in the magazine, Flowers 6: should read “floating above branch 2” and Flowers 7: should read “on branch 3.” I say, just squinch them all in where they’ll look good. This is just a test run, but later we’ll do it for real.

After a while, I could pin up what I’d cut out, fabric medallions, layered felts and all, and was pretty pleased with how it was coming along! I’d encourage you to do this interim step, if only to give yourself a little pat on the back that you’ve come this far. After taking the photo, I put everything away in the proper baggies, and planned to keep stitching flowers and finish up the birds.

At the last minute, I decided to take a bunch of the flowers with me on our trip, squeezing them into a cute bag made by Sherri of A Quilting Life. I snapped a photo of my stitching on the airplane tray table. I kept stitching until I had nearly all of the flowers done:

And after getting home, I did another mockup. I didn’t pay too much attention as to what number flower should go where, but instead put my largest one on top, then the next two largest on the lowest limbs, moving on up the tree and thinking more about size and color placement. I’ll let this stay up on the design wall for a few days while I move things around. I did have one dud–a flower I ended up not liking, but that’s pretty good, I think. I only had three flowers left to finish, which I did yesterday, so I’m ready to move on to the next phase.

A recap of where we are:

~~January, Step “prepare”: buy the magazine, books, gather your fabrics, buy the felt/wool, buy/find the pearl cotton.~~

~~February, Step 1: Make the tree on the background and stitch it down.~~

~~March, Step 2: Make 21 flowers.~~Keep stitching, keep stitching!

~~April, Step 3: Make 10 birds and the leaves.~~ Keep stitching, keep stitching!

May, Step 4: Scene at bottom of tree.

June, Step 5: Appliqué down the flowers. (Wendy gave me some tips for this last week, which I’ll pass along.)

July, Step 6: Appliqué down the birds and the scene.

August, Step 7: Sawtooth border (reds); sew together and attach.

September, Step 8 (finish up Quilt-A-Long): Make wonky star blocks, sew them together and attach border #2.

See you May 2nd for the next step: scene at the bottom of the tree. Wendy’s done one scene, the pattern shows one, and I’m cooking up another. See below for the giveaway.

#startyourneedles for the #ohchristmastreeqal

Initially I wasn’t going to do a giveaway, but after visiting with Anna in Barcelona, I thought it would be fun to have a Spanish connection from our trip. In Barcelona, I purchased five balls of size 8 pearl cotton (my favorite size) and will send that to the lucky person who is chosen from comments left below. I’m also including a 1 yard piece of metallic purple embroidery floss that I purchased in Lisbon. Even though it is a little like sewing with tensile steel, it makes fun accents on our flowers (I used mine for some back stitching here and there, and also for some French knots on another flower).

Please leave a comment below, telling me either where you’d like to go a a trip outside the US and why, or the place where you had your favorite trip (outside the US) and why. I love to read about other people’s trips, or their hoped-for travels! I’ll let this run for a few days, then will close it off and chose a winner.

UPDATE: Comments are closed now. Thanks for writing!

Oh Christmas Tree QAL · Quilt-A-Long · Quilts · Sewing

Oh Christmas Tree-QAL–Step 2

March 2, 2016March 4, 2016 Elizabeth E.29 Comments

I’ve been haunting the IG feed #ohchristmastreeqal and love seeing all the progress of where the trees are and how things are coming along. We’ll finish this tree up in no time flat, but I think I’d like to keep sticking to the schedule (below).

We also have a giveaway at the end of this post, so please read all the way through, and then follow the steps to enter.

First up, this post is co-authored by Wendy of Wendy’s Quilts and More (blog) and wendyquiltsandmore (IG). Wendy has been a great partner in this Oh Christmas Tree QAL. Because she is about 4 months ahead of us, and I can send her different questions and she is unfailingly helpful. I asked her if we could use a lot of her photos for this particular post about the flowers, and she was happy to allow me to post them, so get ready for a photo-heavy post.

This month is the flowers. The basic idea is to layer up felt circles, or use a piece of medallion-style fabric appliquéd to a felt circle, then embellish it with embroidery stitches, using pearl cotton. I originally started cutting out a lot of circles, from the prepped up freezer paper circles in my numbered baggies (see previous Oh Christmas Tree QAL post on tab above), but realized that it might be better to be more of a one-by-one process. So let’s do one circle and you’ll see what I mean.

I cut out a medallion print (meaning that it’s a design that is self-contained in a circle), and pinched the edge under all the way around the outside, to set the edge for turning under (a Becky Goldsmith tip for appliqué). Here are some examples of medallion fabrics, from Wendy:

And here are some of mine (above). After writing back and forth with Wendy, I went through all my fabric stash and found even more than this. It’s surprising how many I’d overlooked. We do have some the same. Okay, back to the stitching.

Placing the circle on a larger piece of felt, I sewed down the edge, stitch by stitch, scooping the raw edge under with my needle, sometimes swishing the needle tip left and right under that edge if there was a tuck/sharp point (above). Often it’s what’s happening underneath that bumpy edge which determines the smoothness of your appliqué, so pay attention to what your seam allowances are doing, even trimming them further to a scant 1/4″ inch if you need to. I also try to have my needle come out the “center” of that folded edge, not on the top. That way the stitches won’t be too obvious, and then I don’t pull it too tightly. I want my circle to float.

As I mentioned, I am appliquéing this medallion to a larger piece of felt. Wendy picked up this tip from Wendy Williams, the author of this pattern (and found on IG at Flying Fish Kits–also a resource for stitching ideas), and this tip is also found in Williams’ book, Wild Blooms and Colorful Creatures.

Then just cut around the circle evenly, and you have your first completed appliquéd medallion. Wendy of Quilts and More recommends a medium-blade scissor (although I used a lightweight pair of larger shears, shown in the photo, but they are SHARP). Her scissors are below:

She writes “Once the fabric flowers are on, Wendy just cuts the felt circle free hand, keeping an even margin around the fabric. She says it’s meant to look hand made, and the circle doesn’t need to be perfect. Keep the scissors in the same position and turn the felt with the other hand, rather than cutting around corners. Use very sharp scissors with medium length blades. Not tiny embroidery scissors, not huge dress making scissors. I use the orange ones in this photo.”

Layer it up, and save it for a good TV program (Wendy of Quilts and More has a great shot of herself stitching while she watched a cricket match) when you can stitch away. This is circle #1, and is the largest circle of the bunch.

Next up is my auditioning another fabric medallion against several colors of wool felt. I added more info about where to buy wool felt to the original “Prepare” post, and yes, you can mix the felted wools and the wool felt, without any Quilt Police coming after you, if you want to purchase some. I am using Kaye Buckley’s scissors, which have one serrated edge that grips the fabric and helps me trim them evenly.

Being the Nervous Nelly that I am (it took me weeks to screw up the courage to start the flowers), I layered the circle over one of the smaller appliquéd flowers to kind of get the size I needed, then cut halfway around. I took off the freezer paper, and finished up the job.

So here is my first batch of prepped-up circles; some have fabric and one doesn’t.

To make my life easy, I pulled out my Sue Spargo book and leafed through some ideas.

I’m using two weights of pearl cotton: size 12 (recommended) and size 5 (larger, more visible).

I am using wool appliqué size #22 needles, which have a nice big eye and a sharp point and aren’t too long. Then I pulled up Wendy’s IG feed (all the photos below) and got a few more ideas, then just put my needle in the center and began. I happened to think about what I wanted to do and decided to stitch them all layered up like this. However, you may, on some circles, choose to embroider one circle, then add it to the next. I was still trying to gather my courage when I began this, so stabbed my needles into the center of the magenta circle, close to the edge and ran the orange #5 thread all the way out to the edge of the yellow-green circle, working my way around. Then, I took a small catch stitch over each of those “rays,” close to the outer edge of the magenta circle.

I switched to the thinner #8 thread and did straight stitches in between the others, then went back and added the yellow French knots at the top of each of those “rays.” I threaded on the blue thread, and did a few more French knots (odd number) in the center, not really caring how they landed, as I wanted a clustery look to them. Then I did an open Laisy-Daisy stitch on the outside, creating a row of “petals” with my thread.

Truth-in-Stitching: the back.

Here’s another. On the left, the beginning. You can see on this flower, I chose to echo the print of the center fabric. I am doing the first layer of felt by itself. I then layered it onto the second (gold) layer and kept stitching. This is the biggest flower, destined for the top of the tree, so I wanted something bright, yet echoed the colors throughout.

Again, here they are, unadorned.

After a couple episodes of Downton Abbey, they are embellished. I wrote to Wendy and asked her how long they took her to stitch (hence that hashtag on IG of #startyourneedles), and she replied that she can get two done in an evening. That’s about my speed, although I think I as get more familiar with stitches, I’ll be faster. Pay attention to your pearl cotton/felt colors. I loved the fabric in the pink one, upper right, but after I stitched it? Not so much. Either I’ll put that one where it’s not really noticed, or stitch another. I also started with the bigger circles; I’m sure the smaller ones will go faster.

Okay, now for the photo gallery from Wendy:

You can see Wendy has a great variety of stitches, and uses the appliquéd fabrics to great effect.

I searched “embroidery stitches” on Google Image and came up with tons, including these two:

A recap of where we are:

~~January, Step “prepare”: buy the magazine, books, gather your fabrics, buy the felt/wool, buy/find the pearl cotton.~~

~~February, Step 1: Make the tree on the background and stitch it down.~~

~~March, Step 2: Make 21 flowers.~~

—-> I just have to make a comment here. We have until June to get our flowers done, as well as the birds (which will go really fast because we’ll be so experienced, right?) So no panicking, please. Just #startyourneedles, steadily stitching and by the time it comes to stitch down the flowers, you’ll be ready.

April, Step 3: Make 10 birds.

May, Step 4: Scene at bottom of tree.

June, Step 5: Appliqué down the flowers. (Wendy gave me some tips for this last week, which I’ll pass along.)

July, Step 6: Appliqué down the birds and the scene.

August, Step 7: Sawtooth border (reds); sew together and attach.

September, Step 8 (finish up Quilt-A-Long): Make wonky star blocks, sew them together and attach border #2.

See you April 2nd for the next step: birds. I have a few tips on these, too, courtesy of Wendy. You’ll enjoy visiting both her website and her IG feed for great ideas and to see a master quilter and stitcher at work, and take a look at how far she is on her tree. Inspiration! Thank you, Wendy, for all your help.

Reminder: If you tag your IG photos with #ohchristmastreeqal, we can all help each other out with ideas for stitching, plus it’s just fun to see what you are all doing!

Here we go. I have two giveaways, and I’ll choose the winners from comments here.

First is another magazine, if you know someone who wants to jump in, or doesn’t have their own copy. It’s courtesy of QuiltMania, who gave it to me at QuiltCon, when I explained what we were doing. I’m sure if you wanted to subscribe, they wouldn’t mind a bit, or order the Simply Moderne #4, if you want another eye-popping design (way below).

Second giveaway is an envelope full of fabric medallions, my choice (I’ll cut from my extensive stash of medallions). You can use some, share some. There will be at least a dozen to help you get going on your stitching.

I’ll announce the two winners on Friday. Indicate in your comment which you are most interested in: Simply Moderne #3 magazine (with our tree on it) or medallions. Yea, you have to choose.

UPDATE: Comments closed. Winner announced tomorrow mid-morning.

#startyourneedles for the #ohchristmastreeqal

See you April 2nd for Step Three!

Of course you want to subscribe! (I’m an enabler, for sure)

Giveaway · Quilts

Oh Christmas Tree Quilt-A-Long & a Giveaway!

January 5, 2016February 11, 2016 Elizabeth E.38 Comments

When I first saw this Christmas Tree on Instagram, I fell in love. So I proposed a Quilt-A-Long that would ~~force~~ enable me to to get it completed in time for Christmas 2016, for there is power in having to put your innermost feelings about quilts/goal setting out there in the world and shaming yourself into finishing it. I’m really good at this, I know. I wrote to Wendy Williams, who designed this pattern, and she gave us her blessing, and said “she can hardly wait to see the quilts that will come of this.” So onward, everyone!

The magazine where this pattern is found is Simply Modern Issue #3, and that’s the giveaway part. I have an extra copy which you can win, but wait a minute. First let’s do the business of this. If you aren’t lucky enough to win this, you can buy it from Fat Quarter Shop, or the QuiltMania people, or if you live in Australia, it’s on Wendy’s website Flying Fish Kits (link below).

I’ve broken it down into several steps, some easy and for some months you will be carting around your embroidery around with you everywhere you go, but these are definitely do-able steps. Here they are:

January, Step “prepare”: buy the magazine, gather your fabrics, buy the felt/wool, buy/find the pearl cotton. More about that in a minute.

February, Step 1: Make the tree on the background and stitch it down. If you use wool felt, she has an easy appliqué method.

March, Step 2: Make 21 flowers.

April, Step 3: Make 10 birds.

May, Step 4: Make the scene at the bottom. Wendy’s pattern (IG: flyingfishkits) has two cavorting reindeer. I plan to switch mine out to a simple nativity. Your choice. (If I were you, I’d also start haunting her IG site as she has lots of great embroidery ideas for the flowers. I’d also consider buying her book, Wild Blooms and Colorful Creatures, for more tips and helps.)

June, Step 5: Appliqué down the flowers.

July, Step 6: Appliqué down the birds and the scene.

August, Step 7: Sawtooth border (reds).

September, Step 8 (finish up Quilt-A-Long): Make wonky star blocks, sew them together and attach border #2. Ta-Done! I just have to deliver you here. You are on your own for getting it quilted and bound.

So here’s the drill for Step: prepare. Wendy calls for wool felt. Some of my IG followers have left a lengthy series of comments on an earlier IG post about threads and wools (scroll back in the feed to find it–it says Step 1 on it, which is an oops, but it’s those Flying Monkeys again). You can buy 100% wool and felt it yourself (more tips in her book or on the internet), or buy 100% wool felt. According to @yondergirlie, the preferred is the felt, as you don’t have to stitch it down as much as it doesn’t fray (sometimes the felted wools can fray). The general consensus was to use pearl cotton #8 for the embroidery. According to the pattern, you’ll also need a medallion-style piece of fabric to appliqué in the center of some of the flowers. I love Wendy’s combination of wool and felt together.

(all of my felts, threads and wools; some of the fabrics, and Sue Spargo’s Creative Stitches book for embroidery ideas)

I visited with the people at a local shop today that specializes in felted wool. When using the wool they use Steam-A-Seam 2 to back their pieces, fuse them to the top, and then they handstitch around them, using pearl cotton size 12 thread. All these are options for you to try and to experiment with. I’ll be using wool felt, plus some felted wool sweaters for accent pieces, that I recently re-discovered in my garage (let’s hear it for UFOs that deliver to your newest project). I also found a stash of wool felt that I purchased in Munich, Germany some years ago. If you want to take a trip there, I can provide the address (it’s another one of those things that I buy, hoard away, and then later find a use for, much to my delight).

Many others mentioned an ETSY shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/quiltingacres [copy and paste addresses into your browser address bar]. I’ve also seen Primitive Gatherings mentioned for felted wool, as well as @benziedesign on Instagram. I have found lots of Christmas fabric on sale this past month to use for the wonky stars, borders and background. So, gather away and get ready for the Oh, Christmas Tree quilt-a-long!

UPDATE (2/11/16): I’ve found two more sources for high-quality felt from companies here in the United States. I’ve ordered from both of them and can attest to the quality of these felts (and no, they aren’t giving me anything for free).

The first one is A Child’s Dream. Above snapshot is from their website; they have several different thicknesses and many more colors, but I went for the “Holland wool felt” type of wool.

The second is The Felt Pod. Again, a snapshot from their website shows many of their different products in their wool felt. This is the “Reds” page.

Now for the giveaway (domestic only). HOWEVER! if you live in Australia, Wendy has patterns of this tree for sale on her blog (just thought you’d like to know).

Since it’s my birthday tomorrow, I’d like you to leave a one-or two-line memory about your best birthday ever. I’ll randomly draw a name this weekend and get it sent off on Monday. Make sure you fill in an accurate email address as I’ll use that to contact you. And if you throw your name in the ring for this magazine, I’ll expect to see a finished quilt this coming December, as you wouldn’t want to just hoard it away from someone who really really really wants it, would you? ~~Leave your comments below.~~

NOTE: Comments are now closed. Giveaway winner will be announced this afternoon (Friday, Jan. 8th).