Welcome to My Day of the 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop, hosted by the Amazing Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict. I do appreciate all she does to put on this blog hop.
When I was invited to participate in this blog hop again this year, I jumped at the chance and knew exactly what I wanted to do. My sister had suggested several years ago that she would like a Christmas Tree Skirt. Several years ago I had purchased some Christmas designs for my embroidery machine and never had a chance stitch them out, and wanted to incorporate those into a tree skirt.
This is my finished skirt.
I went looking on Pinterest for tree skirts, and finally decided on this one by Newton Custom Interiors, mainly because she gave the dimensions, and has a tutorial on how to make the tree skirt. About the only thing I used was the dimensions to make the pattern. I made the pattern with paper, and traced it on a piece of muslin and cut it out about an inch bigger around the sides of the pattern. The reason for me doing this was after I stitched out my Christmas designs i was going to crazy piece the rest of the unit, and they might shrink after embroidering seams. I love, love, love crazy quilting and haven't done it in several years and it was so heavenly to be back at it.
I started embroidering my Christmas motifs on my machine and ran into a couple of snafus. For a good laugh here are a couple of them.
This one got a tangle of threads underneath, and when I tried to cut them loose, the whole throat plate came off.
This one apparently got out of syc from the last mess and was sewing things in the wrong places. I figured it out when it put his eyes and hair and beard on top of his head.
I was finally able to get the 8 motifs embroidered and I started crazy piecing the units. I spent the next two weeks embroidering these units by hand.
I'll show my finished units. and explain the process below on something simpler.
I assembled all the units and added a backing and binding for the top. I was going to add batting but it was going to be too much. Crazy quilting is not generally quilted.
I also decided to have a giveaway on my blog, a little crazy quilted stocking ornament, and I will show how I made that. I had a lot of scraps leftover from my project and decided to use those.
1. I drew out a stocking outline on a piece of muslin for a base. My first piece of fabric I always just randomly cut a 5 sided piece and place it on the muslin.
2. I place the next piece of fabric along one of the edges and sew along that edge. Don't go any further than the piece you are covering. I sew along that edge, and flip it back.
3. Just keep going around in a circle until you have covered the entire shape (plus a little beyond). That shape on the muslin is what I am going to cut out.
3. When I have made the rounds once, I trim up the edges so there is a 5 sided shape again. And just keep going until you have filled in the whole shape. The stocking shape is sort of lost. I trimmed it up again so I have the shape I want to end up with
4. Next comes the embellishment, lace, braid, stitches. There are lots of good resources out there. Sharon Boggan has an online Stitch Dictionary here. I have been crazy quilting for over 20 years, and have multiple books by Judith Baker-Montano, my favorite the Embroidery and Crazy Stitch Tool, Foolproof Crazy Quilting by Jennifer Clouston, Crazy Quilt Stitches by Dorothy Bond, and many others.
5. After I did my stitching, I just added a backing, and I did add a piece of batting.
This is the finished stocking ornament. I am offering this as my giveaway. You can enter to win by leaving a comment. If you are a no-reply blogger and would like to be entered, I will need an email to contact the winner. I will randomly choose a winner on July 30th.
Also the 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop also has a giveaway. FIGO Fabrics has donated a fat quarter bundle of their new Christmas line Wintertide
All you have to do is fill in the form below. Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the form to submit.
*** THE DRAWING FOR THIS IS NOW OVER
You can submit an entry at each blogger, and on Sarah's post for the day. Sarah has a beautiful quilt-along going on too.
The line-up for the 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop is below.
SUNDAY, JULY 14TH
Thank you for the lovely tree skirt inspiration. Your stocking and tutorial are lovely!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great blog hop and cant wait to get back home and try a few love your crazy quilting how big did you make your ornament
ReplyDeleteI have done a little crazy quilting and love the finish. Thanks for the ideas.
ReplyDeleteI love crazy quilting. It looks so antique. Thanks for sharing. Janice.snell@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteBeautiful tree skirt. But that little stocking is just adorable!
ReplyDeleteBoth of your projects are beautiful!! I'm a sucker for crazy quilting, it just draws me in!!
ReplyDeleteThat is a beautiful Christmas Tree skirt. Your sister should be thrilled. Love the problem pictures. I have had tangles, but nothing as wicked as yours. Thanks for the mini tutorial and overview of your process and the info on resources. And last but not least, thanks for the opportunity for a chance to win that wonderful stocking.
ReplyDeleteThanks for offering your sweet stocking ornament as a giveaway for the 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop! Best of luck to all of who comment. Your sister will absolutely LOVE her tree skirt! Thanks for sharing bits of the construction process with us.
ReplyDeleteLove the tree skirt. I don't have an embroidery machine but can see the possibilities of using fussy cuts from holiday fabrics. Thanks so much for providing the directions for the stocking and offering it as a prize!
ReplyDeleteThe tree skirt is beautiful!! Thanks for sharing with us!! And the Christmas stockig is adorable!!
ReplyDeleteWonderful tree skirt, I love crazy quilting! I have also had the "privilege" of having my machine plate come off while trying to untangle a thread nest disaster. Not fun! Very cute stocking, would love to win it! Thank you so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleteLove the tree skirt! I've made plenty of stockings just like this except I do make them patchwork on both sides!
ReplyDeleteThank you for showing your embroidery snafus! I am new to embroidery so it's lovely to see other's boo-boos. Your tree skirt is lovely!
ReplyDeleteThe tree skirt for your sister will become a family heirloom. Thanks for your detailed tutorial on the stocking ornament and for offering it as a prize.
ReplyDeletePat
Beautiful tree skirt. I love crazy quilts and yours is fantastic. That stocking is sweet too...how kind of you to offer it as a giveaway!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful tree skirt and I like how you made the stocking. Very clear directions. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteSweet idea for a stocking! Crazy quilting seems like a great place to try that out.
ReplyDeleteLove your stocking, makes me want to make one
ReplyDeleteBoth of your projects are so fun! I really love the stocking - thanks for the tutorial!
ReplyDeleteLovin' the little stocking ornament. You have done quite a bit of work on it, plus the tree skirt! Beautiful! thank you, peterstankovich@comcast.net
ReplyDeleteGreat projects, wonderful way to use your embroidery machine motifs! I've made dozens of crazy patch stocking like that too! One other thing I do is sew smaller pieces together before adding to the project to cover the bigger spaces, so the size of the pieces don't get too big. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI love all things scrappy and crazy so of course your stocking and tree skirt are just perfect! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThe tree skirt and stocking ornament are beautiful. Thank you for sharing them. I would love to try some crazy quilt projects.
ReplyDeleteYour tree skirt looks
ReplyDeletelovely and the stocking
is darling!
Carla from Utah
Wonderful stocking and tree skirt. Thank you for sharing!!
ReplyDeleteKim
Love your tree skirt& stocking. Have always thought it was beautiful,you’ve inspired me to try. Crazy quilting. Thank you for posting your favorite books to help the process.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing how you created your Christmas tree skirt and stocking. I love the things that can be done with an embroidery machine, but rarely remember to take mine out. I would like to try making a crazy quilt Christmas stocking like yours, but using stitches and designs stitched out on my embroidery machine.
ReplyDeleteWhat a sweet stocking. Thanks for sharing your tutorial on this Hop.
ReplyDeleteCarol Andrews
QuiltSchmilt@gmail.com
I have not tried crazy quilt stitching on a project as yet, but it looks great! Thanks for a chance at your lovely stocking.
ReplyDeletebarbkaup@yahoo.com
I'm working on a Crazy quilt as you go quilt..with my BFF...we are having fun going thru all our scraps! :) Thank you for your Tutorial..and chance to win your Give-a-way too...the stocking is so cool!
ReplyDeleteI know your sister will be thrilled! I love doing machine embroidery. The stocking is too cute!
ReplyDeleteI love your crazy quilt stocking! I love Christmas stockings and try to make a new one every year. I think I will try your method.
ReplyDeleteGreat combination of techniques. Crazy quilting is on my bucket list. Your projects look great!
ReplyDeleteKarrin, I love your tree skirt and stocking!! I do my crazy quilting mostly via my embroidery machine also! I do enjoy it!! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI'm a crazy quilter too, so of course I loved both of your projects! All of mine is done by hand though because I live in an apartment and no room for an embroidery machine. I haven't done any for a little while but my fingers are itching to get back to it. Thank you for inviting us for a visit!
ReplyDeletewow, lots of work for that tree skirt. I'm sure your sister will love it.
ReplyDeleteI may give this idea a go, to make a little stocking for a friend from work. thanks for the inspiration.
Merry Christmas🎄⛄🎄
I love your tree skirt and stockings. They are adorable. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeletePretty tree skirt, and stocking. Thanks for the tutorials.
ReplyDeleteWhat a gorgeous tree skirt! Your snafus made me laugh but I'm so glad you could take them all in stride. I might have pulled my hair out!
ReplyDeleteWow, love your table runner and stocking!! Thanks for showing us how to make it, I will give it a go.. great way to use up Christmas scraps! xx
ReplyDeleteThe tree skirt turned out well, after all the hassle at the start. It's so nice to see your beautiful even stitching again! What an adorable stocking ornament, too. Thanks for a chance to win it. I think I might have one you made for Fran when you were here Shoebox person. I'm not sure it's yours, but it might be.
ReplyDeletethanks for tutorial and share information
ReplyDelete