O Tannenbaum Tutorial

Last week on my stop on the 12 Days of Christmas in July blog hop hosted by Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, I showed this Christmas tree hanging I made for my son. I'm blown away by the tremendous response to this post. Thank you!!!

A lot of people requested a tutorial so here it is.
If you are experienced enough at quilting to be interested in quilt blogs, you can probably figure it out from a bare-bones tutorial. I didn't keep a lot of notes and photos as I was making it. In a nutshell, it's all 3-1/2" cut strips and you can use a Tri-Recs ruler (no affiliation).

This wall hanging is about 30" wide by 78" long. You can modify the size by adding or subtracting another tier or two to the overall tree.  Or you can make it smaller by cutting narrower strips and reducing the size of your triangles accordingly.

Cutting: 
All greens and low volume backgrounds are cut from 3-1/2" strips.

Use as many scrappy green prints as possible. My tree has 27 different greens. (Leftovers from FQs were used to piece the back.)

Use low volume prints for the background. I cut WOF strips from about 18 different background fabrics.

Use a Tri-Recs ruler or your preferred method to make the kind of triangles used in Triangle-in-a-Square blocks, also known as Peaky & Spike blocks. The triangles finish at 3" high (cut 3-1/2").

• From greens, using the Tri ruler, cut triangles from 3-1/2" strips. 189 triangles are used in the tree; you may want to cut extras so you have flexibility to lay out the prints. 

• From the low volumes, cut 3-1/2" WOF strips. Cut strip lengths as indicated. Where it says pairs below, one piece of the pair is for the left of the tree and the other piece is for the right, so if you want the background to match across, use the same fabric for both pieces in the pair. Where more than one pair is called for, use different fabrics for each pair. Sometimes you can get two pairs, one longer and one shorter, from one strip.  Using the Recs tool, cut a mirror image pair of triangles for each pair of strips except as noted.
• 2 @ 30-1/2" from different fabrics, no Recs needed
• 8 @ 14" (4 pairs)   only one pair Recs needed
• 4 @ 12-1/2" (2 pairs) 
• 6 @ 11" (3 pairs)
• 6 @ 9-1/2"(3 pairs) 
• 6 @ 8" (3 pairs)
• 6 @ 6-1/2" (3 pairs)
• 6 @ 5" (3 pairs)
• 4 @ 3-1/2" (2 pairs)
• 2 @ 2" (1 pair) 

• From tree trunk fabric: one 3-1/2" x 9-1/2" piece

Assembly: 

Lay out your triangles and background strips on a design wall, using this graphic as a guide, matching the background at each end of a triangle row. 

Sew triangles into rows. Add the Recs background pieces to each end of the row. Add the rest of the background to each end of the row.  

Join the rows.

Add two whole strips of background fabric to the top. 

Join 3, 14" background strips, stacked; make two. Add the tree trunk piece vertically between these two units. Add this sub assembly to the bottom of the tree. 

Layer, baste, and quilt as desired. I quilted around the triangles in the ditch and about 3/8" apart in the background. 

Square up and trim your quilt. Mine finished at 30" x 77".

Bind as usual. You will need 6, 2-1/2" x WOF strips of fabric for binding. 

Add sleeves to the back, top and bottom, for hanging and to anchor the bottom for stability.

Stitch thread loops for hanging ornaments at the intersections of the triangles. (I omitted the outer points and the very bottom of the bottom row.) I used #8 perle cotton and a very long needle that I could pass within the quilt from one point to the next to hide threads; nothing shows on the back. Take two stitches about 3/8" long across the intersection, then make buttonhole stitches around the thread (like a tailor's thread button loop). 

For the tree topper, find a suitable ornament and determine how it will hang. I added a thread loop at just the right height above the tree for this star to top the tree.

If you'd like to make a case, use some of the leftover green FQs and piece them together, about 20" x 40". Add a contrasting cuff (I used the burrito pillowcase method). Seam the long side together and across the bottom. Then box the bottom. Attach a ribbon to tie the top closed. This case will be both the gift bag and a dust cover to store the Christmas tree wall hanging when not in use.

Thank you for visiting my stop on the 12 Days of Christmas in July blog hop and coming back today for the tutorial. I hope it's pretty clear.  If you have any questions, leave a comment. If you make a Christmas tree hanging like this, please send me a photo - I'd love to see how yours turns out!


Link ups:
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Tips & Tutorials at Quilting Jetgirl
Small Quilts & Doll Quilts
Em's Scrapbag
Love Laugh Quilt
Sew Fresh Quilts
My Quilt Infatuation