Strip-Pieced Christmas TreesWritten by Abigail Dolinger, Dec. 2015

Select several green prints. Cut four 2” wide strips.Sew the strips together and press seams to one side (or open).The strip-set should measure 6 ½” wide.

Place a 60-60-60 triangle ruler on top of the strips. A line marked on the ruler should align with the edge of the strip closest to you. Notice the blunt tip on the uppermost point of the triangle on the right. The blunt tip will help you align the white background pieces later. Cut through the strip-set on both sides of the triangle ruler.

Turn the ruler upside down as shown in the photo above, and cut out another strip-pieced triangle. Continue in this way, flip-flopping the ruler along the length of the strip-set.

From white background fabric, cut a 7” wide strip. This will yield white space at the top of the tree which is helpful if you plan to tack on a red ribbon bow and jingle bell after quilting.

Keeping the background strip folded as it came off the bolt, place the 60-60-60 triangle ruler on the background strip. Align a line of the ruler on the edge of the strip. Leave at least 1” to the right corner of the ruler. Cut along the right edge of the ruler.

These pieces form the right and left background pieces for the tree. Use a straight ruler to make the next cut, perpendicular to the cut edges of the background strip. Again, leave at least 1” to the right of the ruler.

Cut here

Second cut

Blunt tip

1“

1“

Sew the background to the strip pieced triangles (trees): Begin pinning at the bottom of the tree. Notice that a tiny green triangle of the tree fabric extends past the white background piece. This slight “off-set” allows the pieces to fit properly.

Sew the background piece to the right side of the strip-pieced tree. Press the seam allowance toward the background. Notice that the background extends past the top point of the tree. Trim away this excess after sewing on the background to the left side of the tree.

Begin pinning at the bottom and sew the background piece to the left side of the strip-pieced tree. Press the seam allowance toward the background. Trim away the tiny excess triangle of background fabric at the top of the tree.

Cut brown rectangles 2” x 2 ½” for trunks. Sew the trunk pieces between 2 strips of 2 ½” wide background fabric. Center and sew the trunk unit to the tree. Press seam toward the trunk unit. Trim tree block as necessary. My block measures 8 ½” x 9,” unfinished.

Cut borders about 3” wide and sew around the tree patchwork to make a mini quilt. Quilt and bind. Tack a ribbon for hanging and a bow on the tree top. Insert a bamboo skewer or piece of wire through the corner of the binding to add stiffness.

Off-set background piece

Trim

Option: Before sewing on the background pieces, you may turn the strip-pieced triangle so that the bands of color are diagonal rather than horizontal.