Oh Christmas Tree

Happy Holiday everyone!

After making the Pumpkin wall hanging in October, my daughter requested a Christmas Tree shaped walling hanging. She lives in upstate NY and wall space is very limited. I surfed around and quite by accident I came across an idea for a space saving wall hanging at Buzzing and Bumbling. It is a Christmas Tree wall hanging with so many possibilities. There are no specific cutting directions but the idea was just what I was looking for.
I decided to make 3. One for each daughter. So I washed, cut, and starched enough fabric for 3 plus a little extra to make a small tree for AAQI.

This is the one that is now hanging in my living room.

Since I have to mail out the Trees, I wanted to send them ornaments with it as well. I didn't want to spend a fortune on those ornaments either. I hit the local Walmart, and the Dollar Tree. Then Target was next and they had some great Christmas balls for $3.00 a pack. I think there are a dozen in the pack. All in all, I think I only spent about $10.00 for the ornaments for each tree. They are plastic so they won't break in shipping. I did get a long string of red beads for $2.00 at the Dollar General and it was enough bead garland for all three trees. I sewed on ribbon to secure the beads. My daughters will have their trees against the wall. Mine is hanging on my quilt rack. This caused some bowing at the bottom. I fixed this by putting some tabs on the bottom back and running a wooden dowel through the loops.

What I learned --- 1st tree took me about 6 hours to figure out. Next two where sewn up in about 2 hours. Since you have to sew the ribbon tabs in as you go, it is hard to judge how many you really want. I started with the bottom row and worked my way up. 1st and 2nd quilt I have bottom row tabs. On the one going to my daughter in Seattle, I left out the bottom tabs. Hers is going to hang in her cubicle at work and may cause the ornaments to hit the desk top. In other words, customize it for your needs. As for the FMQ, really had to be careful not to quilt down those tabs. I had to pin them out of the way as I added the long loops to mimic tree foliage on the green. Couple of oops moments but not bad. The star at the top did not stand out on the background. I should have used a deeper gold color. Solution was to zigzag around star. I did one in black thread and it was too dramatic so this one I sewed in red instead.

I think half the fun for the recipent will be dressing the tree. My daughter and grandson had a blast putting the ornamanent on while Grandma kept plugging away at the other 2 trees.

Decided at the last minute to make a Christmas stocking for grandchild #3 that will be coming in March. It was a rough year for my daughter. She miscarried earlier on  and was quite depressed. This baby is very special. She will be the first girl! I am very excited.
Last year I made them all Christmas Stockings. Could not wait for Christmas 2013 to make her a stocking, so here it is!

This is a pattern from Calico Moon Patterns. It is called Bottoms Up!
I changed it a little so that it has a lining. It only took me a couple hours to get it done. You can put stuff in the pants as well as the front pocket. Really a fun stocking.

Hope your Holiday is full of Peace and Joy

Aileen from FL


P.S. Amber just posted her tree on FB! So here it is. She loves it! I am so glad!!!!

Shara received hers last night. Here is her decorated tree. 

She loves it. Her co-workers keep stopping at her desk to look at. 

So glad I made it for her!

Also sent her a tiny 8" wreath. She had fun decorating that too.

Happy Holiday!