12 Days of Christmas in July has begun!!!

 

Hi, all!

Good morning, and welcome to the first day of this year's 12 Days of Christmas in July!  There are some exciting things happening here over the next twelve days - a little bit different from past years, because taking a year off (through no choice of my own!) and getting a late start wreaked havoc on getting more bloggers this year - but we have some great bloggers who are participating, and I'll also have some of my own favorite Christmas ideas to share with you.  So strap in and get ready for a little Christmas overload - maybe that will help it feel a little cooler!

As usual, we will be having a quilt-along, which I will talk about more in just a minute.  But today we also have a great quilter to start us off with a bang -  Brenda of Songbird Designs will be bringing us something special today!  She's showing some of her favorite Christmas quilts from the past, and sharing a tutorial for a great quick Christmas gift.  So click the name of her blog above to go check it out!

We will also be joined on Sunday (and the following Sunday) by Carole of From My Carolina Home as she brings us a mini sew-along that looks really interesting.    Later in the week, Kate, who blogs at Arts and Socks, has a unique decorating/gift idea to share with us, decorating something you might not have considered decorating before!  And we'll finally end with Karrin of Karrin's Crazy World who will wrap up our hop for this year.  In between, I've got some fun things to share and great inspiration for your own Christmas festivities!

All that being said, if you think being part of a blog hop sounds like fun, but you need a long lead-in time to think of an idea, etc., feel free to let me know NOW if you want to be part of next year's 12 Days of Christmas in July!  I'll be sure to keep your request on file, and you can start planning early....

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And now, for this year's quilt-along....

O Christmas Tree

If you follow along, you should be able to make this top with an hour or so of work each day for the next twelve days.  Of course, you certainly don't have to keep that schedule - take it at your own pace!  But the daily tutorials will be posted and remain for as long as Blogger exists.

I will be providing instructions for two versions - a lap top (63" sq.) quilt and a wall hanging, too. Here's what the wall hanging looks like...

The wall hanging came about because I wanted to check my directions and measurements for the tree one more time, and it seems like a good use for this 27" piece.  It also gives a quicker option for those of you pressed for time. Makes a great gift too!

I posted the fabric requirements for the quilt earlier this week, but in case you missed it, here they are again, along with fabric requirements for the wall hanging.

Fabric Requirements

For Quilt:

Green: 1/2 yard or 1 fat quarter

Red: 1 yard

White: 3 1/2 yards

Brown: Scrap large enough to cut a 3.5” square

For Wall Hanging:

Green: 1/2 yard or 1 fat quarter

Red: 4.5” x Width of Fabric strip

White: 21” x Wide of Fabric (5/8 yard)

Brown: Scrap large enough to cut a 3.5" square

If you have all your fabrics ready, great!  If you need to head out to the store (because now you have an excuse!) go do that and come back!

Here are the cutting instructions...

Cutting Instructions

For Quilt:

Red Fabric:

Cut 23 1.5” x WOF strips

Green Fabric:   (Instructions are for yardage)

Cut 1 9.5” x WOF strip

Subcut 1 9.5” x 8”

2 9.5” x 2”

then 1 6.5” x 3.5”

1 6.5” x 2”

then 2 3.5” squares

4 3.5” x 2”

4 2” squares

White Fabric:

Cut 19 1.5” x WOF strip

Cut 6 9.5” x WOF strips

Take 5 of the 9.5” strips:

Subcut 20 9.5” squares

Take 1 of the 9.5” strips:

Subcut 4 9.5” x 5” 

Cut 10 3.5” x WOF strips

Take 1 of the 3.5” strips:

Subcut 2 3.5” x 9.5”

6 3.5” squares

Take 9 of the 3.5” strips:

Subcut 94 3.5” squares (total 100 3.5” squares)

From white leftovers, cut

2 8” x 2”

10 3.5” x 2”

4 2” squares

For Wall Hanging:

Red Fabric:

Cut 3 1.5” x WOF strips

NOTE:  This is assuming that you have a minimum of 40.5” of usable fabric (not selvage). If your fabric is narrower than that, you may need an extra strip of red.

Green Fabric:   (Instructions are for yardage)

Cut 1 9.5” x WOF strip

Subcut 1 9.5” x 8”

2 9.5” x 2”

then 1 6.5” x 3.5”

1 6.5” x 2”

then 2 3.5” squares

4 3.5” x 2”

4 2” squares

White Fabric:

Cut 3 1.5” x WOF strip

Cut 1 9.5” x WOF strips

Subcut 4 9.5” x 5” 

2 9.5” x 3.5”

2 8” x 2”

4 2” squares

Cut 2 3.5” x WOF strips

Subcut 20 3.5” squares

10 3.5” x 2” (you may need to use remnant of the 9.5” strip for some of these)

So this is your task for today - prep your fabric and cut those pieces!  I usually mark the different sizes using small post-it notes and quilter's clips - it makes finding the right size pieces easy later!

And I'm so grateful for my friend who gave me several of these storage boxes - they are so useful for gathering up all the pieces for a project!

Don't worry if you get behind - there are some light days coming up when you could catch up.  And as I said, the instructions will be there forever!  And - if you want - ask for a PDF version of the instructions, which I have ACTUALLY written up in advance!  So many people asked for them in the past week or so that I thought it might make sense to do that step first.  Duh!

I'm looking forward to working through this quilt and wall hanging with you, and sharing some of my favorite things about Christmas and a few new crafts too!   Buckle in!

Hugs!

Sarah