Christmas Tree Place Mats, Part 1: The Tree

Eight Christmas Tree place mats are in the works. So far, I have four of them almost finished and waiting for the inner panel to be quilted.

I'll have instructions for the actual place mats ready in a few days, but today, while my leftover turkey stew is simmering on the stove, I'll focus on just the tree.

This is such a sweet little tree, and it's a super stash buster to use up some of those leftover bits of green fabrics. Not too large, not too small, just right for either a place mat or for a really quick batch of mug rugs.

The scrappy strips finish at 1" each. Templates for the trees are traced onto the paper side of fusible web, fused to a rectangle of pieced fabric strips, then appliqued to a background fabric. Fast and so easy.

A. Make a template for the tree.

1. On a piece of stiff paper like card stock, draw or cut out a rectangle 3" x 5 3/4".
2. On the top of the 3" side of the rectangle, make a mark 1 1/2" in from the side. This will mark the center point for the top of the tree.
3. Use a ruler to draw straight lines from the mark at the top of the template to each corner at the bottom of the rectangle.
4. Cut the template on the lines.

B. Make a layout to use with fusible web. 
 

The layout shows the position of the trees on the pieced strips. Dotted red lines show the direction and number of the fabric strips.

1. Either start with a rectangle of paper to trace onto a piece of fusible web, or draw directly onto the paper side of the fusible web.

• For two trees, make the rectangle 4" wide and 6 3/4" tall. 
• For four trees, make the rectangle 7 1/2" wide and 6 3/4" tall. 
• For eight trees, choose one of two sizes for the rectangle as described below.

If making eight trees, determine the size of the rectangles by the way you want to place the trees.

• To place the two sets of four trees one above the other, make the rectangle 7 1/2" wide and 13" tall. (Many of my scraps were short, so this is the layout I used.) 
• To place the two sets of four trees side by side, make the rectangle 15" wide, by 6 3/4" tall.

2. To draw the first tree, line the template up with one one long side parallel with the edge of the rectangle. Align other trees with side edges together as show in the photo above.

3. Set the layout on the fusible web aside.

 C. Make the strips sets of green scraps.

Six strips of green may be enough, but I cut seven just to be sure.

1. Cut green fabrics into strips 1 1/2" wide.

• For two trees, cut six or seven strips, each 1 1/2" x 4 1/2
• For four trees, cut six or seven strips, each 1 1/2" x 8".
• For eight trees placed with one set of four above the other, cut thirteen strips, each 1 1/2" x 8". 
• For eight trees placed with two sets of four laid side by side cut six or seven strips, each 1 1/2' x 15 1/2". 

2. Sew the strip set together with 1/4" seams. Press all seams to one side.

3. Lay your fusible web cutting layout on top of the wrong side of the strip set, paper side up. Press to fuse.

 4. Use a quilting ruler to cut the trees out on lines drawn on the paper side of the fusible web.

5 Make the tree trunks. Fuse a small piece of fusible web to the wrong side of brown fabric. Cut each trunk 1/2" x 1 1/4".

6. Remove the paper backing from the trees and trunks. Position them on your background fabrics and stitch in place with your favorite zigzag stitch. I used the blanket stitch. As usual.

Done!

And my stew is done, too! Oh, yum! It smells so good!

Oven roasted carrots, celery, onions, and potatoes, leftover turkey, leftover broth from the turkey, parsley, rosemary, and thyme, salt and pepper - dumped in a pan and simmered slowly.

Wishing you a lovely week!