Christmas Caroling - RAL - Ornaments Song

Welcome to our Christmas Caroling Row-a-long!

As we kick it off this year, I have to confess it seems a little bit early to be doing anything related to Christmas, but I've also been participating in a "We Wish You A Merry ...Quilt-a-long" so we're all in the spirit I guess!

The idea was to select a christmas carol and be inspired by it. My row came together conceptually in a very different way. Ultimately it didn't end up anything like I had in mind, but it is a fun one regardless. I originally had a concept that was all pieced, curves and everything!

Northcott was so kind to provide fabrics, so that altered my design direction as well. We were given the opportunity to chose from these fabrics:

ColorWorks Premium Solid 9000Colorworks Premium --I used this one for Ornament tops (and hanging thread?)
Fat Quarter of  #9000-550 
http://bit.ly/nc-colorworks









Toscana
http://bit.ly/nc-toscana  --P.S. I have this entire line in my shop so if you want to order by the number, I can ship to you! Mention that you saw it here and I'll ship for free (minimum order 4 yards total) through the RAL ...until October 6, 2017. Yardage is $8.50/yd but I also have a Toscana Club program to collect the entire 135 colors--just ask me about it!







AND all of these new Christmas themed fabrics shipping now to various quilt shops, so be on the look out:

Best Tree on the Lot
http://bit.ly/nc-best_tree

Hurry Up Santa  --I used this one for the Background -1/3 yd 21712-64
http://bit.ly/nc-hurrysanta

  

Santa Claus is Coming to Town
http://bit.ly/santaclaustown

Silent Night
http://bit.ly/nc-silentnight

The Magic of Christmas
http://bit.ly/nc-tmagicoxmas

 

Tis the Season  --I used these for the Ornaments 

Fat Quarter of 21740M-12, 21740M-24 --a 5" square would do for each ornament.
http://bit.ly/nc-tisseason

Up On a Rooftop
http://bit.ly/nc-uprooftop

So, perhaps you've never heard this christmas carol before, but here it is. The Ornaments Song. Enjoy listening to it while reviewing how my row goes together.

Ultimately I ended up with a very simple applique design. I'm not an 'applique' designer, generally, so this was outside my normal box. But earlier this year I worked on a project where I did trapunto with a paper pieced heart shape and then appliqued it onto a background. I loved how it turned out so I continued to use this type of idea with this design.

My original concept was to have two different radii curves that make the ornament shape--pieced! But these were going to be so small I just didn't think it was practical. So, I made it an applique shape and was able to get the background as a single piece for the entire row. I couldn't decide whether or not to put fabric for the hanging 'thread' or just stitch it, so I'll leave that idea with you to decide for yourself. Here is the concept with fabric and all pieced.

or you could go vertical with a larger ornament or several vertical columns with ornaments at various heights and sizes.

I decided NOT to do the hanger with fabric and to just applique the ornaments and their toppers. The 'hanger' can be stitched in during the quilting. Using the fabric, at least at this stage of the design, they seemed to look more like hanging light fixtures.

First I laid out the ornaments in a pleasing to me pattern, not just straight across, but sort of up and down from each other, but centered 6" apart, and centered 3" from the finished outside edge on each end. I left some room on each end so that with the shrinkage that occurs when doing the applique and in the quilting process, I could ultimately trim it to exactly 12 1/2" x 30 1/2" so the binding could take up the extra 1/4" all the way around on the piece.

The zig zag stitch on my brother was set to probably about this. I happened to take this photo during a recent applique project and this is about what I like and so is what I dial it to whenever I want to do a loose zig zag.

I didn't even stabilize these pieces with fusible. I just put one pin into the middle area and then stitched around it. Then added the 'topper' and stitched around it.

Used Aurifil 2318 - 40 wt for the applique and the 'string' during quilting.

Next I added some 1" poly behind the ornaments and basted around them from the front, tight against the edge of the ornament. I did this on my domestic machine. Then trimmed away the batting outside of the ornament from the back side.

Next, I found a fun fabric in my stash for the backing that just seemed to be waiting there for this project.














Loaded it onto my long-arm, added a piece of warm & white batting that I had big enough around in my stash to work for this and then decided on a thread color. Here you can see I used my Aurifil thread chart to find what might work best and fortunately had this 50 wt spool of 4644. I decided that a bit darker was best for this project.

After getting the piece stabilized, I first stitched the 'hanging thread' in the same color /thread used to do the applique and stitched tightly around the ornaments and between the 'topper' and the ornament itself. By lining up my needle where I wanted it to hit on the ornament topper, setting my channel lock, I then started at the top of the piece and could stitch down to the ornament and it would intersect exactly at the right spot.

I considered a wood grain style of quilting, but I don't often just do straight line and this one seemed to be the right project to do that. So, without using my channel lock, I organically stitched about 1/4" vertical lines on the whole project.

Using the fabrics from my ornaments, I made a faux piping binding to finish it off.

I had only stitched a SINGLE thread for the 'hanger' and ultimately thought it wasn't sufficient, so put it back on (after the binding was there, I know!!! crazy!) and added 4 more vertical threads on each ornament for a total of 5 vertical stitchings right next to each other. Now I think it definitely tells your brain something is there, but doesn't take over the design. Do you agree? Perhaps a 1/4" strip of fabric (or less) would have worked too.

Different light gives different effects of the color of the fabric. It is more teal than it is blue.

Do you want to make this?

DOWNLOAD --> The pattern is free through September 11, 2017. Now available for a small payment on Craftsy (also has purchasable downloads from past RALs).

The pattern also has other design suggestions. I think it would go nicely with several other rows that will be featured during this Row-a-long. Enjoy getting in the spirit of Christmas --something worth while all year long.

But wait, there is more---giveaways!  Please register with Rafflecopter for these specific giveaways.

#1 - Inspired LED - 2 Sewing Machine Light Kits
Shipping Is Anywhere / Shipping Cost must be paid by winner.
Value $30.00 each Total $60.00

a Rafflecopter giveaway


And TWO more! 
Shared Giveaways For September 05, 2017

Northcott 1 FQ Bundles 2yds total
Shipping Is Everywhere
Value $20.00
Full Description
Available September 5 ends on 11th
Assortments Form Random Collections:
ColorWorks Premium Solid 9000
Toscana - 9020 - All
Best Tree on the Lot - Single Colorway
Hurry Up Santa
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Silent Night
The Magic of Christmas
Tis the Season
Up On a Rooftop

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Giveaway Is: Calibre Art 24x36
http://amzn.to/2vPfuLe
Value $99.99
Shipping Via Amazon
Full Description
Available September 5 ends on the 6th

a Rafflecopter giveaway


#aurifil #northcott #christmascarolingral #ornaments

Other Rows offered today:

Quilting Affection
Any Pattern
Just Let Me Quilt
Quilt In Piece
KISSed Quilts --you're here!

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