Decorating Christmas Trees – With Free Motion Quilting

December 5, 2012

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I wish I was one of those organized quilters who stitch their Christmas projects in July-but that’s just not me.  My quilting is usually seasonal (see here).  Now that we are decorating the house for Christmas, I’m inspired to stitch a few quilted motifs.  As usual, I start with a few doodles: (You can read more about Doodle Notebooks here)

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Then I head to my sewing room.  The nice thing about decorating Christmas trees is that the essence is so simple:  a triangle…with a trunk…and maybe a star on top.

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If you start with that shape, it almost doesn’t matter what you stitch…

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It will be recognizable as a Christmas tree…

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I liked this tree a lot and it was easy, easy to stitch.

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Lightly draw a triangle.  Start stitching in the middle and move up to the pointed top (add the star now if you would like one).  Then stitch down and to the right.

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Then, just sweep left and right to form the bows of the tree-offsetting the upward “swoop”.

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In less than a minute you will have a gorgeous tree…

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Then just stitch a few more trees with any pattern that comes to mind….

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I like this fancy tree:

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A bit plain, perhaps…

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I love this decorated tree–wish the tree in our living room was so quickly decorated!

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Now it’s your turn–give it a little glitz!

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Next week–I have an easy project for our quilted forest!

You might also like:  Poinsettia

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