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....
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!
