Kaffe Christmas Tree

My Kaffe Christmas Tree is finished - in February, of course. I purchased the kit for this mini quilt back in April 2014. I don't know why I never managed to get it finished for Christmas 2014, but it is now ready for Christmas 2015.

Kaffe Christmas Tree

A number of people on facebook have asked me for instructions to make this quilt. If this design was available as a downloadable pattern I would direct you to the online shop to buy your own copy. However, it's not, and I purchased the last kit at the shop, so I will provide some brief details about my quilt.

As you can see from the photo, there are 40 squares of different coloured green fabrics. I cut at 2.5" so they ended up as 2" squares. My kit contained mainly Kaffe Fassett fabrics and I love Kaffe fabrics, but you could use any green fabrics. Or I've even seen someone do it in blues and that was lovely too.

In the background there are  48 x 2.5" squares of white and cream fabrics, some of which have sparkles.

Then there are 18 half square trianges. As you know, you need to cut the squares bigger for half square triangles and then trim them to 2.5" square. I used the same green fabric for all of my HSTs.

I used a single piece of brown fabric for the base of the tree. It's as big as 4 squares combined.

I laid out all the pieces in the shape of the tree, and then sewed them together in rows. I then joined the rows, starting from the centre and working up and then down.

I cut 1.5" narrow border, and then a 3" wider border. I made my binding 2.25" wide from the same fabric as the tips of the branches.

The finished size is approx 27" wide x 30" high.

 


I quilted the green part of the tree with a great new thread called Wonderfill Dazzle in dark green. It has a sparkle embedded in it.  I got mine from a supplier at the New Zealand Quilt Symposium, but here's the website of the manufacturer.

Wonderfill Dazzle

I used Perle 9 to outline the tree and the borders, and I used regular cotton to quilt in the ditch between the white and cream blocks. I also quilted narrow lines on the trunk of the tree in brown Perle 8.

Although this quilt is small and could be used as a table runner, I put a hanging sleeve on it so it can also hang in our hall way at Christmas time. Of course I used Kaffe on the back of mine too - this is Paperweight in Jewel.

This is the second item on my Finish Along list for the first quarter, so I'm on track. Just one more mini quilt to hand quilt and finish before 31 March.

I'll be linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday and Crazy Mom Quilts.