November 17, 2002

Notes:

If printing these pages on a printer and you notice the edges to the right are cut off, then adjust your printer settings so that it prints "landscape" rather than "portrait".
When printing, the border to the left will not print on paper.
Be sure to read the guidelines at the bottom of this page.

Do you need a quick wallhanging for the Christmas season? Do you have a lot of red or Christmas or green and white/cream scraps? If you answered "Yes" to both of these, then this is the project for you!

The finished size of this project is approximately 32.5" x 32.5".

Materials Needed

Pre-washed, 100% Cotton fabrics, Two contrasting colors of Christmas-season scraps. Light-medium reds with dark reds would be a great choice. Or perhaps even a dark Christmas fabric in place of the dark reds.
Scraps of creams and/or whites
Sewing thread
Scissors
Pins

Preparing the Quilt Top

Very few half-square triangles (HST) and the rest plain squares makes this a simple and quick gift for the Christmas season, to be used as a tabletopper or a wallhanging.

This can be made from scraps or planned fabrics. If planning on fabrics, Either red/white, red/cream, green/white, or green/cream would look great. Regard- less of how you go, you will need three colors for the top: A light-medium color, a dark contrasting color, and a very light background (white or cream or a mix of the two).

Here are the colors I am using for the samples:

Light/Medium	Dark	Background	Border	Binding

Let's get started!

Cutting Squares

Cut 7 - 3.5" squares from the light-medium red.
Cut 4 - 3.5" squares from the dark red.
Cut 20 - 3.5" squares from the light background color.
Cut 4 - 2.5" x 42" strips from the binding fabric.
Cut 4 - 1.5" x 42 strips for the border.
Cut 9 - 4.5" squares from the light background color.
Cut 6 - 4.5" squares from the light-medium red.
Cut 3 - 4.5" squares from the dark red.

Making HST

Use the 4.5" squares to make these two sets of HST, using your favorite method of making HST. If you don't have a method, there are instructions online for the HST Tutorial. You should end up with a total of 18 HST.
Set 1: Background/light-medium red. To make this set, you need 6 of the background squares and 6 of the light-medium red squares. When finished, you should have 12 HST and they should look similar to this:
Set 2: Background/dark red. To make this set, you need 3 of the background squares and 3 of the dark red squares. When finished, you should have 6 HST and they should look similar to this:
Press the HST flat.
Trim all HST to 3.5" x 3.5".

Making the Blocks and Top

Block 1: Lay the following nine squares out into three rows, as illustrated, then sew each row together. Once the three rows are sewn, press the first and third rows in the same direction and the second row in the opposite direction. Align the seams and sew the three rows together, again looking at the illustration. Be sure to keep all of the pieces in this block positioned as shown. Once the block is sewn together, press it flat. It should measure 9.5" square.
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Block 2: Lay the following nine squares out into three rows, as illustrated, then sew each row together. Once the three rows are sewn, press the first and third rows in the same direction and the second row in the opposite direction. Align the seams and sew the three rows together, again looking at the illustration. Be sure to keep all of the pieces in this block positioned as shown. Once the block is sewn together, press it flat. It should measure 9.5" square.
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Block 3: Lay the following nine squares out into three rows, as illustrated, then sew each row together. Once the three rows are sewn, press the first and third rows in the same direction and the second row in the opposite direction. Align the seams and sew the three rows together, again looking at the illustration. Be sure to keep all of the pieces in this block positioned as shown. Once the block is sewn together, press it flat. It should measure 9.5" square.
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Block 4: Lay the following nine squares out into three rows, as illustrated, then sew each row together. Once the three rows are sewn, press the first and third rows in the same direction and the second row in the opposite direction. Align the seams and sew the three rows together, again looking at the illustration. Be sure to keep all of the pieces in this block positioned as shown. Once the block is sewn together, press it flat. It should measure 9.5" square.
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Block 5: Using 6 of the background squares and one of the light-medium red squares, lay it out as shown below and sew into one long block.
Block 6: Lay this simple block out as one row, as shown below.
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Block 7: Lay this simple block out as one row, as shown below.
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Using all 7 block made above, lay them out as shown in the following illustration:
Sew Block 1 to Block 6, then sew Block 3 to the bottom of 6. Be careful to match the seams. When finished, press it flat and it should look like this:
Sew Block 5 to the right side of the pieced blocks from step 9, as shown and press flat:
Sew Block 2 to Block 7, then sew Block 4 to the bottom of Block 7. Be careful to match all of the seams. Press flat. When finished, it should look similar to this:
Finally, sew the pieced unit from step11 to the top sewn in step 10. When finished, press flat. It should look similar to this:
Using the green border strips, first sew a border onto each side, then press flat. Trim the borders even with the top, as shown below:
Using the green border strips left over, sew the top and bottom borders on, then press flat. Trim the borders even.
Layer the top with batting and a backing, then quilt as desired. Bind the finished top. The quilt will look similar to this:
Lastly, add a label to the back of the quilt!

Can you see the large bow in the quilt? This makes a cute little wallhanging or tabletopper and is so simple!

Here's a picture of mine! Notice how I used my sewing machine to do some embroidery for the season in the large space at the bottom of the bow, between the left and right ribbon-tails? I use this small quilt as a tabletopper in which I put an arrangement of candles on. Last year, one of my candles dripped onto the center of this quilt and it took me several months and a ton of special treatments to get the green candle wax out of the white cotton fabric!

For more information, please contact quilting@quiltingpassion.com