Day Eleven of the Twelve Days of Christmas in July!

 

Hi, all!

Welcome to the 11th day of the Twelve Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop!   I really fell down a rabbit hole while writing this post - I couldn't for the life of me remember what the eleventh day gift was, so I went to look it up.  (Just FYI, it's eleven pipers piping!)  But I also found out that if you received all the gifts listed in the song (and they accumulate - each day repeats all the gifts to date) you'll have 364 separate items by the end of the 12th day!  And since 1984, the cumulative costs of the items mentioned in the song have been used as a tongue-in-cheek economic indicator.  Two pricing charts are created, the Christmas Price Index (the index of the current costs of one set of each of the gifts given) and the True Cost of Christmas (the cumulative cost of all the gifts with the repetition listed in the song).  The people mentioned in the song were hired, not purchased.  In 2015, the total cost of all goods and services in the Index was $34,130.99.  The True Cost of Christmas was $155,407.18 for all 364 items!!  All I have to say is that was one dedicated true love!

Now that I've dug my way out of that rabbit hole, let's get down to today's business!  I've got some cute trees to share with you, along with some guidelines for how to know what you need to decorate your Christmas tree.  Because this is the year of the Christmas tree, after all!  Then we'll have some more instruction on the quilt top.

Let's get started!

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You'd never guess it, but around my house, we love Christmas and all things Christmas-y!  This is the tree that stands in our front entry area - we usually put up a fresh tree here, and it is decorated more formally than the family tree in the den.  I try to get one large enough to have a real presence in the tall entry, so it's usually 8-9 feet tall.  Luckily, we have a friend who runs a tree farm at Christmas time, so we know just where to get one!

If you're like me, you never know quite how much stuff to drag out to decorate a really big tree.  But I stumbled across a chart on the internet that is absolute genius!

With this chart in hand, I know that for an eight foot tree, I should have 800 lights, 72 feet of garland, and 160 ornaments.  And thankfully, with all the Christmas stuff I've accumulated over the years, that's totally do-able!  It really makes it easier, particularly with lights, to know how much to put on before I start.  

But enough about big trees - how about small ones?  I spent a fun afternoon cutting out these cuties, all from free printables available from Hattifant.  You can click HERE to find out how to get your own!

One tip - I did find that it was easier to open these trees out using a small plastic stick I had on hand.  It's about the size of a pencil or a chopstick, either of which would work well too.  I would also print them out on slightly heavier paper, I think - but they were fun to make and would be easy for kids, too!

Then I stepped back into the world of origami and made this cute little tree!

My husband says that this picture is deceptive, and makes the tree look bigger than it really is.  I just like the fact that it echoes the tree in the center of the quilt waiting on the long arm!  

Maybe this will give you a better idea of the scale, though. This is inside a hurricane lamp, paired up with some kosher salt (the snow) and a tiny elf statue.  

This was super simple to make, although I will admit that folding down the tiny points took a bit of practice!  Click HERE for a very quick video that shows how it is made.  I have no doubt I will be making more of these, and may branch out into different sizes if I can find the right origami paper!

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Your task today on the quilt is to finish making your 20 double nine-patch blocks.  Once those are done, you are ready to lay out and assemble your quilt.  

The quilt is laid out in a 7x7 grid, with double 9-patch blocks in each of the corners.  The top two rows are a simple checkerboard design, alternating the double 9-patch blocks and white squares.  Lay those out on your design wall or floor.  Now take the 9 blocks that you made for the Christmas tree center and arrange them as shown under the center three blocks. Continue your checkerboard to the right and left of the tree center.  The bottom two rows are also a simple checkerboard.

Tomorrow we'll assemble the quilt top (unless you just. can't. wait!)

Hugs!

Sarah