Sew Seasonal Blog Hop - Ornamental Ornaments

Sew Seasonal Blog Hop

Welcome Sew Seasonal blog hoppers to my little home on the blogosphere! Thanks for dropping in, feel free to hang out a while.

One of my must-do Christmas traditions is new ornaments for my children each year. They have their own little boxes of ornaments and I just love watching those boxes fill up over the years.

So when I saw Alyce's very cute Ornamental pattern, I decided to turn my block into personalised ornaments for my children.



Working with block two, here's a mini-tutorial to turn any of these blocks into ornaments. Note that this would make a great chain piecing project if you wanted to cut your 1 1/2 inch strips from the width of fabric and whip up a whole bunch of these cuties.

Materials - for 5 inch pattern:
As per pattern:
2 - 4.5in x 1.5in strips of red fabric (I used two different prints)
2 - 4.5in x 1.5in strips of green fabric (I used two different prints
(Note: you will not be using the white background fabrics)
Also:
6in square backing fabric
6in square scrap of thin binding or pellon
6 inches of narrow red or green ribbon
red or green sewing threads
red or green embroidery floss (if hand sewing)

Start by embroidering your name and the year onto one of the colored strips in a contrasting thread. I used a marbled almost solid for this strip so it showed up well. Regular readers will know I just discovered the alphabet function on my machine, so I machine embroidered it. You can get the name on any way you want - hand embroidery, fabric marker, whatever floats your boat.

Chain piece the red and green pieces into pairs, then pair them up so you have a square of red-green-red-green.

Trim the corners by lining up your ruler at a 45 degree angle and cutting them off (at the bottom of the ruler). Note that I cut my first one slightly further in than this diagram and I prefer the more angled result, it was also easier to get the sharper points. Again, do what works for you.

Cut your batting and backing just a bit bigger than your ornament fronts. (About 6 inches).

Layer your batting, then backing right side up, then ornament front right side down. Stitch through all three layers with a 1/4 inch seam, leaving the top open for turning and ribbon insertion.

Trim the backing and batting back to the ornament top, then turn right side out and press.

Insert the ribbon, pin to hold it in place, and top stitch about 1/8 inch around the entire block. Quilt across the strips, I used decorative stitches for this.

Wait until you're allowed to put up the tree and hang your ornaments!

Thanks for checking in. Paper piecing fans, don't forget to visit my blog hopping buddy Marieka of Bespoke Bites today, where she has a delightful little card using a paper pieced blog.

And have yourself a merry little Christmas (to paraphrase my most favoritest Christmas song ever!).

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