Day Eight of The Twelve Days of Christmas in July!

 

Hi, all!

Welcome to Day Eight of this year's 12 Days of Christmas in July blog hop!  Today I have a fun craft to share with you that may help alleviate some "stash" at your home, as it has at mine, plus give you a way to spend some fun time with the kiddos in your life.  We'll also be working on two more blocks for the Christmas tree center of this year's quilt.  Let's go!

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Every so often, you should take the time to look back through your old Pinterest pins.  Rather like scrolling through years-old blog posts, you will find things you completely forgot about.  I discovered this picture that I had saved as inspiration, and boy was I inspired!

Now, if you're like me, you remember fondly playing with buttons in your granny's button box.  My granny had a silver cookie tin that she kept hers in, and it was a favorite game to sort the buttons by size, color, and shape.  So of course my instinct with buttons is to save them, regardless of whether I ever use them or not.  And any time we would receive buttons at church in and among the fabric donations, I would take them home (because the quilt ministry doesn't use them and no one else wanted them!) Which means I have a RIDICULOUS amount of buttons, as you can see here...

I'm guessing that's probably 15-20 pounds of buttons!  But it's perfect for this project. I dug in my drawers of craft goodies and found some leftover cord (although any thin twine would work) and cut 3-foot lengths. 

I tied a knot about three inches from the end and let the kids start threading buttons onto the cord!  We only used two-hole and four-hole buttons, threading the cord through two holes on each.  Once our strands were full, we tied another knot three inches from the end, then tied the strands together.  And look what we made!

It's interesting to see the difference in how they chose their buttons - Lilli's alternates red and green, with a gold button after every seven; Nathanael's are piled one on top of the other; and Emmy searched out the flower and animal buttons to add to her strand!  But all together on a tree, they are so pretty...

We still have a long way to go to make enough for my life-size tree but since this is a project that lends itself to quiet times, I think we can get enough done by Christmas to make a respectable showing!

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Are you ready to make the next two blocks for your Christmas tree center?  We'll be making blocks F and G today, and while these two blocks look similar, they are mirror images of each other, so it's less confusing to work on them one at a time.  Let's start with block F - for this block, you will need the following fabrics:

        1 9.5” x 5”         white

1 9.5” x 3.5” white

1 8” x 2” white

1 2” sq. green

1 3.5” sq.         green

1 2” x 3.5”         green 

Step 1 -  Take the white 9.5" x 5” piece and the green 2” square.  Draw a diagonal line on the green square from corner to corner.  Take the green square and lay it on the lower right corner of the white piece, aligning the sides and corner, with the diagonal line running from upper right to lower left.  Stitch on the line.  Trim off the corner.  Press out.

Step 2 - Take the white 9.5” x 3.5” piece and the green 3.5” square.  Draw a diagonal line on the green square from corner to corner.  Take the green square and lay it on the right end of the white piece, aligning the sides and corners, with the diagonal line running from upper right to lower left.  Stitch on the line.  Trim off the corner.  Press out.

Step 3 - Take the white 8” x 2” piece and the green 2” x 3.5” piece. Lay the short end of the green piece on top of the right end of the white piece, aligning the sides and corner, with the extra length of the green piece above the white piece as shown below.  Draw a diagonal line from the lower left corner of the green piece to the spot where the white piece and the green piece meet at the upper right.  Stitch on the line.  Trim off the corner.  Press out.

Step 4 - Sew the 9.5” x 3.5” piece to the bottom of the 9.5” x 5” piece.  Sew the 9.5” x 2” piece to the bottom of that piece.  

Your block F is finished!  Now let's move on to Block G, the mirror image of block F.  For this block, you will need the following pieces:

1 9.5” x 5”         white

1 9.5” x 3.5” white

1 8” x 2” white

1 2” sq. green

1 3.5” sq.         green

1 2” x 3.5”         green 

Step 1 -  Take the white 9.5" x 5” piece and the green 2” square.  Draw a diagonal line on the green square from corner to corner.  Take the green square and lay it on the lower left corner of the white piece, aligning the sides and corner, with the diagonal line running from upper left to lower right.  Stitch on the line.  Trim off the corner.  Press out.

Step 2 - Take the white 9.5” x 3.5” piece and the green 3.5” square.  Draw a diagonal line on the green square from corner to corner.  Take the green square and lay it on the left end of the white piece, aligning the sides and corners, with the diagonal line running from upper left to lower right.  Stitch on the line.  Trim off the corner.  Press out.

Step 3 - Take the white 8” x 2” piece and the green 2” x 3.5” piece. Lay the short end of the green piece on top of the left end of the white piece, aligning the sides and corner, with the extra length of the green piece above the white piece as shown below.  Draw a diagonal line from the lower right corner of the green piece to the spot where the white piece and the green piece meet at the upper left.  Stitch on the line.  Trim off the corner.  Press out.

Step 4 - Sew the 9.5” x 3.5” piece to the bottom of the 9.5” x 5” piece.  Sew the 9.5” x 2” piece to the bottom of that piece.  

Your block G is finished, and you have completed today's blocks!

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Come back tomorrow, when I'll be sharing a delicious recipe that makes a perfect small gift, and the last two blocks for the Christmas tree center!  

See you then!

Sarah