O Tannenbaum

Hello, and welcome to my post on the 12 Days of Christmas in July blog tour hosted by Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Thank you, Sarah, for all your hard work in making this fun blog hop happen.

Each day for 12 days in July, the 14th through the 25th, bloggers are sharing their Christmas ideas and projects. If you need inspiration for gifts, or motivation to get going on a holiday project of your own, check out all the posts each day. The complete list of bloggers is at Sarah's post here. Today's featured bloggers are Kate at Smiles From Kate, and myself.

I had extra motivation to get going on a Christmas project here: My son requested something special. He and his housemates live in a very small house. There simply isn't room in their home for a Christmas tree, live or artificial, nor is it practical with three cats and a two-year-old. So he requested a life-size hanging of a Christmas tree that they can hang real ornaments on.

It was originally made to fit on the back of a door. Then my son decided it would be safer hanging on a wall, so the ornaments wouldn't get jostled when the door is opened, or crushed between the open door and the wall.

Good call. Even with industrial strength magnets here, the weight of the tree with just these few glass ornaments is pulling the hanging all the way to the floor. I added sleeves top and bottom to the back so he can hang it on a wall, and it won't move.

The tree was easy to make with triangles and lots of green fabrics, with a variety of low volumes for the background.

I quilted it in the ditch around the triangles, and added dense straight line quilting in the background.

Then I stitched thread loops at the intersections of the triangles, for the ornaments to hook into.

I'm pleased with how it turned out and how well it works for hanging the ornaments.

It's a German tradition to hang a pickle hidden in the Christmas tree. Here it's not so hidden....

I still need to find a tree-topper that will work, and add a way to attach it. My plan is to give this to my son at Thanksgiving, and by then the stores will have plenty of potential toppers to choose from. I may find a 3-D star, cut it so the back is flat and back it with felt, and add a white thread loop at the proper height for hanging it. 

This is a long post with a lot going on, so I'm not going to include a tutorial here. If you want a tutorial, let me know in the comments, and I'll post one soon.

Speaking of comments, let me tell you about the give-away. For each comment you leave on any blogger's 12 Days of Christmas in July post, Sarah will enter you in the drawing to win. She has thirteen prizes to give away, all Tula Pink's Holiday Homies line from Free Spirit. Sarah will tally all the comments through Wednesday July 26th, and draw winners. Six design rolls, six layer cakes, and the grand prize, a fat quarter bundle. Give-away details here. Visit the participating blogs each day and leave a comment! If you are a no-reply blogger, be sure to leave your email address in the comment.

Thanks for stopping by my 12 Days of Christmas in July post. There's lot's of time left to get projects and gifts completed before Christmas - good luck with yours!