Li'l Twister Christmas Wreath Workshop

My Wreath for the Workshop

Our November quilt guild meeting was quite an event because I conducted a workshop on the Twisted Christmas Wreath quilt using the Li'l Twister ruler. It was so exciting to see the quilts that were made as part of this workshop and displayed at our December Christmas party. Most were finished - pieced, quilted and bound.

2013 Christmas in July Twisted Wreath

Last year in July 2013 I used the Li'l Twister ruler for the first time and blogged about a Christmas Wreath wallhanging I made and used it for a show & tell at our Spring Quilt Retreat earlier this year. The guild members were interested in learning this technique & asked me to conduct a workshop at the November meeting this year.

There was an enthusiastic response! 16 members participated and here is a gallery of the wallhangings from that workshop.

This trio of quilts was particularly interesting because the quilter decided to use every last scrap of fabric. The quilt on the right was made from 5" squares with the help of the 3-1/2" ruler. The quilt on the top left was made from the resulting 2.5" squares, using the smaller ruler and the quilt on the bottom left was made with the remaining tiny squares which were sewn together and used to cut out the ivy leaves for the wreath.

This quilter made 3 wallhangings as Christmas gifts. We have an awesome group of ladies in our quilt guild! Enjoy the gallery of quilts.

Twisted Xmas Wreath Quilt

Layered, Quilted and Bound
The wall-hanging measures 22-1/2" square

Although I was not aware of it at the time I wrote this post, a printed pattern for this wall-hanging is available for sale. The pattern will guide and help you to assemble the pieces of the jig-saw puzzle.

This quilt was started as a Christmas in July project, just after I'd acquired the Li'l Twister tool.  The tool simplified the construction of this quilt because of the little feet on the underside of the ruler that grip the fabric and raise the ruler off the seams to make it easier to cut out the 3-1/2" squares.

Or you can make your own template using a 3-1/2" square ruler.

Make your own template

I used a charm pack called Winterscapes, manufactured by Benartex, which was purchased from Craftsy.

Winterscapes 5" square Charm Pack

The inspiration for this quilt came from a post on The Knitting Quilter.  I imitated the fabric configuration to achieve the wreath effect and used graph paper and colored pencils to keep the design straight.

The white squares form a cross in the center and cornerstones in this configuration and the whole block is surrounded by a 3-1/2" border.

Red, White and Green Fabric Configuration
using 5" squares from the charm pack

Tips:
I made sure to consistently place the logo on the Li'l Twister tool in the bottom right hand corner of each square.
I also made a conscious decision to cut the squares from top to bottom and left to right.
The third tip is to cut each square and place it immediately on a design wall in the same order it came off the above block.

Once all the 3-1/2" squares are cut and placed on the design wall, the pinwheels or whirlygigs become noticeable.

Cut squares are placed on work surface

After the horizontal columns are chain-sewn, each row was attached to the row below it and the entire block took on the appearance of a perforated curtain. I pressed odd rows to the left and even rows to the right so that seams were nested which always makes sewing easier.

Horizontal columns are chain-sewn

All the vertical rows are sewn down

I chose a Christmas tree fabric for the borders.  The quilt was measured across the center, horizontally, and two borders were cut to this length and sewn to the top and bottom.

Horizontal borders are attached

The quilt was measured down the center, vertically, after the two horizontal borders were added and two borders were cut to this length and sewn to the sides.  A multi-colored rickrack was sewn along the seam between the quilt top and borders.

Multi-colored rickrack sewn along seams

The quilt top was layered with batting and the same border fabric was used on the back.  I chose to quilt around the outline of the pinwheels.  This quilting is more visible on the back of the quilt.

Quilting on back of quilt

I made straight-edge binding from the same Christmas fabric that is on the borders and the back.  The mitered corners came out really well because of a neat trick I tried for the first time.  I was aiming for a half inch binding. After quilting the quilt, I trimmed the batting and backing a quarter inch away from the four sides of the quilt top.  During the binding step, I stopped stitching 1/2" from each corner, turned the quilt and back-stitched all the way off the top of the quilt. I then removed the quilt from the sewing machine, folded the binding up at a 45 degree angle to the corner and folded it down along the top edge of the batting (instead of aligning it with the quilt top) and then down the side of the quilt top.  I then sewed a 1/4" seam beginning from the top of the folded edge down the side of the quilt top.

Perfect mitered corners

The binding was folded to the back, pinned to make sure the binding on the back covered the sewn line and was sewed in the ditch along the seam of the binding on the front.

Binding is machine sewn on the back

This was a most interesting project, and I hope you will give it a try.  There are still two and a half months to Christmas, so there's lots of time to get it done!

Cheers!

Twisted Xmas Wreath Quilt Top Is Done!

Twisted Xmas Wreath Quilt Top

Finally got the quilt top done!  I'd started this in July as a Christmas in July project, but had to put it on hold because there was too much going on.

See the completed quilt here!

Cheers!

Inspiration - Twisted Xmas Wreath Quilt

It all started with an inspiration piece I found on the internet - a Christmas wreath wall hanging made with the Li'l Twister Tool.

It was the last week in July so I still had time to make a 'Christmas in July' quilt.  I ordered the tool from Quilted Works and read their tutorial to familiarize myself with the ruler.  Received it in the mail before the week was out and set to work with a Christmas themed Charm Pack, which had also just arrived.

Winterscapes Charm Pack

The Li'l Twister Tool makes pinwheels really easy to construct.  All I had to do was sew my 5" charm squares into the required configuration, line up the ruler the same way each time, and cut around each and every intersection.  Then it was a matter of taking that square from cutting table to design wall and placing it in the exact same location as it was in the sewing configuration.

Placement of Li'l Twister

The Li'l Twister is perfect for 5" charms and its sister the Big Twister is meant to be used with 10" layer cake squares.  These rulers are really easy to use because of the teeny tiny feet in the four corners.  They raise the ruler off the fabric so the rulers are steady and don't rock due to the bulk in the seams.

Here are a couple of more pictures of Xmas Wreath quilts made with the Li'l Twister.

See the completed quilt here.

Cheers!