Sunshower Quilts: A Christmas Tree-Skirt and GIVEAWAY!

Hi all!

Welcome to all of my existing readers and new readers alike! Today is my day in SewCalGal's Christmas blog hop! You have to hop on over to SewCalGal's blog and check out the list of all the other hoppers - there are some great tips and tutorials and a great give-away so run on over and check it all out!

I hope that you like my tutorial using the Accuquilt Go! Sleigh and Snowflakes die. I have been wanting to make a new tree-skirt for our tree for a while and this blog hop gave me the perfect excuse. I love this die since it makes cutting reindeer and the sleigh so quick and easy - not to mention the snowflake (but I don't use that shape today).

First let's start with the background for the tree-skirt. I decided to do a non-round tree-skirt so we are going to need to peice it. Now if you feel comfortable making an octagon without peicing feel free!

You will need:
2 x 12.5" squares
1 x 12.5" by 36" rectangle
1 x 18.5" square

Cross-cut the 18.5" square on each diagonal to make 4 triangles.

Piece two of the triangles to each side of the 12.5" squares as shown.

Piece these two units to either side of the long rectangle as shown. Now we have our center. Trim off the excess from the setting triangles

Now cut 4 strips 3.5" by the width of fabric for the borders. You can either use your 3.5" strip die or rotary cut these.

Add these onto the sides first to the shorter 12.5" sides and trim to the correct angle to match up with the longer sides.

Add the longer sides.

And trim off the excess. Whew, the hard work is now finished!!

Ok now onto the fun and easy part!

Press fusible onto the back of some brown fabric and cut 8 reindeer (9 if you want Rudolph!). Press some fusible onto the back of some red fabric and cut the sleigh. Choose some various Christmas prints and put some fusible on the back of those to make 4 presents using your 2" square die (or you can rotary cut these as well). The presents in the sleigh make it look like Santa is completely enveloped and covered in presents!

Lay out your top and draw a circle in the middle - mine was about 7" square or the size of my side plate. Then draw a line from the circle to the end - you will be cutting on these lines later. Lay out your applique shapes until you are happy with them and press.

I debated adding some snowflakes around the reindeer but every time I placed them I didn't like the effect - maybe if I used a blue snowflake print as my background fabric I would have liked it better with the snowflakes. But, against the white background I just didn't like it as much so I left them out. I really like the simplicity of this design.

Layer your quilt top, batting and backing and applique and quilt as desired. I used Sliver metallic thread by Sulky to machine quilt and to applique.

After I finished all of that my kids started to ask where Santa was in the sleigh! So I grabbed the Holiday Accessories die and cut out the mitt and the small circle. I placed the mitt and the circle on the presents to look like Santa was completely engulfed in the presents on the sleigh with only the top of his hat one one mitt sticking out. This is optional but I think it gives a little more action to the tree-skirt. You could also use the bow on the Holiday Accessories die to add a bow to the present heap but again I thought that it got a bit fussy for my taste and i really like how this one is simple and flowing.

Next I free-motion quilted the reins using black thread and a very fine zig-zag stitch to join the reindeer and the sleigh together. I love the movement the reins give to the piece. It makes the whole thing flow. I thought about adding cording but I figured that with the hustle and bustle of Christmas morning that cording might not last too long before it was pulled off.

You will need to cut bias binding for this since because of the circle in the middle. If you need a tutorial on cutting bias binding you can find one here.

Well there it is! I hope that you have enjoyed my tutorial to make this tree-skirt. You could easily embellish this more that I have - with bells and ribbons etc - it is all up to you!

Ok now onto the GIVE-AWAY!!!

How would you like to win all the applique shapes needed for this tree-skirt? The sleigh, the reindeer and presents all pre-fused and die-cut? I debated doing the background fabric as well but since I started thinking about a blue sky or a night sky instead of the white I thought that I would leave that up to you! LOL

Ok here's the fine print!

For one chance to win you can comment on this post. Tell me anything about Christmas past or present. Do you have a tree-skirt? Did you make it - or are you thinking about making this one?

For a second chance to win, become a follower and leave another comment here for a second entry. If you already follow my blog that's fine just leave a comment here telling me that you do.

For a third chance to win like me on Facebook and leave another comment here. Again, if you already like me on Facebook just tell me so in a comment.

Every comment is your entry - 1 comment one entry ;-)

Please, please make sure your blogger is not set to no-reply!!!! Please see my previous post here on how to make sure that you are not a no-reply blogger! If a no-reply blogger is chosen then I will be forced to draw another name and I really don't want to do that!

The winner will be chosen on Sunday to give everyone a chance to enter! Good luck everyone!

Don't forget to visit all the other blogs on the hop! There are some great tutorials offered.

Here is the line up for this blog hop:

Monday, December 12th