Monday, October 26, 2015

Assembling your Christmas Wreath!

Hopefully by now you have stitched all six blocks and are ready to create your very own Christmas Wreath Mini-quilt!

As shared in each block's instructions, after stitching you should have cut around each hexie shape leaving a 1/4" buffer.
Fold the 1/4" of extra fabric over to the back of the paper hexie shape and hand sew a line of large running stitch around the edges to secure in place. Press the edges flat with a hot dry iron...
Make a seventh 2" hexie shape using some of your red fabric. See if you can fussy cut a piece to give you a centred design. 
Make six 1" hexie shapes from your red fabric, and again, see if you can fussy cut a good centre design.
Press their edges well.

With the papers still inside your hexie shapes, sew all the pieces together (as shown below) by slip stitching along the side edges...



From the front your 'wreath' should look like this...



Press the wreath, then remove the large running stitches and carefully extract the paper hexie shapes.



Next step, cut your background fabric. I chose a silver grey dove print which I cut on a slight diagonal line to give some visual movement to the finished quilt.
You will need a 15 1/2 inch square.
Fuse a same sized piece of Pellon or quilt wadding behind the square.

Measure 5 inches in from each corner and draw a line diagonally to create a triangle...

Cut away each corner triangle.



Hand quilt around the inside edge of all your hexies with a running stitch...


Lay your quilt front onto the wrong side of a square of red backing fabric. Fuse together with basting spray, or hand baste with thread or pins...



Make a length of binding from the rest of your red fabric and sew it around the sides of your mini quilt...

 Trim away the excess backing fabric and press the binding away from the quilt...

...before turning it over to the back and slip stitching in place.

Hand quilt around the large hexie wreath and also just inside the edge of the binding line.
My hand quilting beside the silver hexies was in a contrast red, whilst around the red hexies I used a silver grey thread.


 The quilting along the edge of the binding was stitched in silver grey...



I used a few stitches to secure the mini quilt to the metal hanger for display instead of adding a hanging sleeve. This was because next year I will probably display my Christmas Wreath as a large candle mat or table centre.
Pretty versatile, right?!

Hope you have enjoyed this free Stitch-along. 

This tutorial will remain free on the blog for everyone to use. 

Email photos to me of your completed Christmas Wreath okay? I'd love to see them and share them here on the blog in a special Show & Tell in December.

Have a blessed week!
hugs



UPDATE: A new updated stitch-along begins on my blog November 18th, 2019

12 comments:

Createology said...

Jenny Dear this is positively beautiful and I am sorry I didn't sitch along as you shared each step. Your instructions are very clear and easy to follow and understand. Thank you sew very much for generously sharing your beautiful design. Creative Wreath Bliss...

Pat said...

Jenny - this is truly beautiful and thank you so much for sharing it with your readers. This is on my list to stitch! Thanks again, Pat

Ondrea said...

OOO it looks so lovely. Just the last one to stitch and then I shall piece it together . Thanks so much.

cerato said...

Jenny, thanks for this beautiful design.I'm a little late but when I finish it , I'll send you a photo.
A big hug

Brenda said...

Jenny, your directions for this project are fantastically written. I think that your wreath is beautiful. Thank you for sharing and have a wonderful creative day!

Kathleen said...

Thank you for this lovely project. Although I am unable to make it for this year, I hope to make it for 2016. Your enormous generosity with free embroideries and projects is always greatly appreciated.

Anonymous said...

That doesn't look too hard. I just have to finish the last four stitcheries. =) Thanks, Jenny, for your generosity and your clear explanations. I hope your cold has gone and left you in peace.

Águeda said...

En cuanto termine la mía, será un placer mandarte las fotos. Un beso. Gracias por todo.

Unknown said...

Gorgeous, Jenny. Have you told what the fabric lines are that you are using? So love the white with birds.

robin :-)
happy valley mercantile

Jenny of Elefantz said...

Robin,the main fabrics are Yuletime from Lecien, and the spot for the embroidery background is a Lynette Anderson "bread & butter" basic. :-)

Jackie said...

This is so beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Thank you Jenny for another Lovely Project!
Carol O