12 Days of Christmas: Day 7

Christmas is only 70 days away!

Greetings from Christmas inspiration central! We're on day 7 of our 12 Days of Christmas extravaganza, featuring our favorite holiday fabric collections and free patterns, plus easy-to-follow tutorials by some of our favorite blogging designers! 

On the seventh day of Christmas, we have:

Christmas card holder by Dawn Stewart of Spring Water Designs made using prints from the Christmas Basics collection

Dawn: 
Fabri-Quilt asked me to use one of their lines to make a Holiday project, and I was happy to play with some of their Christmas fabrics!  I wanted to go with lots of reds and greens so I chose the Christmas Basics line to make my quilted Christmas Card Holder. 

Here's what you will need to make it:
 (The following cuts of fabric are minimum amounts needed ~ If you want some wiggle room, start working with 1/2 yard cuts instead of 3/8 yard)

3/8 yard Cream Background fabric
       - From the Cream cut, (1) 12-1/2" x 36-1/2" rectangle
Approx 1/3 yd each of assorted Red & Green Prints (I used 4 Greens, 3 Reds & 1 lighter Holly Print)
       - From each Green cut, (1) Triangle for Tree* & (3) 6-1/2" squares
         (Cut your triangle for the tree first as some of them are larger than the squares)
       - From each Red & the Holly Print, cut (3) 6-1/2" squares
       (Ultimately you'll want a total of (24) 6-1/2" squares)
6" square of Yellow for Star*
6" square of Brown for the Tree Trunk*
3/8 yard Red/Green Check print for the top and bottom border
3/8 yard of one of the Greens for binding
       - Cut (5) 2-1/2" strips to make your binding
1-1/2 yard of backing fabric
Approx 40" x 52" rectangle of batting
24 Buttons (I used 12 Red and 12 Green)

*Applique Templates and printer friendly instructions can be found Here on the Free Pattern Page of my website (or you can just cut your own shapes ~ there's no right or wrong to this :)  I used the Fusible applique method, but you can use any method that you wish for the applique tree.  For needle turn applique, you'll need to add seam allowances. 

To start, sew the 6-1/2" squares together in 6 rows of 4 squares per row, alternating the colors for a scrappy look.  Press the seam allowances in each row toward the green squares so that all of the seams will nest nicely when joining the rows together.

 Then sew the long cream colored background rectangle to the left side of the unit of squares.

Arrange the Tree shapes on the Cream rectangle in any manner that's pleasing to you, and fuse them in place with a hot iron.

 Then sew the Red/Green Checked borders to the top and bottom. 

Stitch down the edges of the applique to finish them.  I used a machine blanket stitch.

Layer with backing and batting and quilt "as desired" ;)  Next, sew a button to the top of each of the 24 squares ~ I put a Red button on the Green squares, and Green buttons on the Red and Holly squares.

 Finally I found yet another use for these little Wonder Clips by Clover...

I cut a 5" length of ribbon, and tied it in a loop through the little hole in the clear part of the Wonder Clip.

 ...Then clip the Wonder Clip to your Christmas cards as they arrive, and hang the loop over the buttons ~ simple, but effective.

Your quilted Card Holder makes a great decoration as you load up your 24 squares with Christmas Cards that you receive, or use your imagination to hang little goodies, notes, or daily devotions/prayers/Bible verses for a festive quilted Advent Calendar :)

I'd love to see some of the ideas that you come up with ~ Merry Christmas!

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn


For a chance to win a fat quarter bundle of fabrics from the Christmas Basics collection, leave a comment below letting us know that you follow Inspired by Fabric either by blog reader or email (you can sign up for either on the right hand sidebar), and/or that you like us on Facebook. In your comment, also tell us--do you still send holiday greeting cards? The giveaway will be open through Sunday, October 18th at 11:59 pm EST.

The 12 Days of Christmas:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12