Ornament: Show Me How
TRANSCRIPT:
Hi I'm Linda Augsburg, Editorial Content Chief of American Patchwork & Quilting magazine and this Show Me How video is brought to you by Baby Lock and the Crescendo machine, I'm going to show you how to make this adorable little Christmas ornament. Now you can download the instructions for this ornament and two others at AllPeopleQuilt.com/ShowMeHowOrnament. In this ornament, because these triangle squares are so small, we're going to make them a little larger and then trim them down, if you've never done that before, I'll show you how that works. So what you need to make the ornament are four- two and half inch squares, two in one color, two in the other color. A four inch square of fabric for the backing, it can be anything coordinating, if you want to use scraps for this it's a great project for that. Also, you'll need a four inch square of batting and then four ? 1 1/8th by 4 inch strips for the side binding. You'll also need a piece of size five pearl cotton and that'll need about 8 inches long, now pearl cotton comes in a twisted sane, so if you're looking for pearl cotton you can also use ribbon or a thick thread but I like the pearl cotton that comes in so many colors; so let's get started sewing. So there are lots of ways to make triangle squares, the instructions tell you to cut these two and half in squares in half diagonally so you have small triangles that you would sew together in pairs to make your triangle squares. I like working with a little bit bigger piece of fabric than that, so instead I'm going to start with a square and do my sewing and then I'm going to cut. So I'm going to line up my ruler, this is my 45 degree line on my ruler, I'm going to line it up with the side of my lighter fabric block, on the wrong side and I'm going to make sure I've got both corners lined up and I'm going to mark that diagonal with a pencil. You can use another marking tool, whatever your favorite is. Then I'm going to layer my fabrics right side together and I'm going to sew a quarter an inch from the line on each side and then I'm going to cut along that line that I drew. And what I'll end up with is two half square triangles. SO once you've sewn and cut your two pairs of two and half inch squares you'll end up with four half square triangles that will look like this, now I'm going to trim them down. So the first thing I'm going to do is, again use that ruler with the 45 degree line on it, and I'm going to line it up the 45 with the seam line, the diagonal seam line in the black. I'm just going to trim off a little bit; then I'm going to rotate that block line it up again but this time I'm going to line up both the diagonal line and this 1 ? inch line also on my ruler, so that I'm trimming this to a 1 ? inch block. I'm just going to trim again, you want to make sure it's good and linked up on that diagonal. And then trim. I know it seems like there's a lot of waste, but I would have a hard time piecing something that small accurately, so I find that it's worth the time and effort to trim these squares up so that they're perfect as opposed to try and make something that small be accurate. So now that you have all four of your triangle squares trimmed up to 1 ? inch squares, you're going to lay those four out into a pin wheel design, you're going to sew the pairs together and then you're going to sew one row to the next. Then when your ornament front is finished, you'll layer it right side up batting under it, and then the backing, four inch squares of both of those, underneath, the backing will be wrong side up. Making a quilt sandwich, just like you would with a regular quilt. You can quilt as desired, I just did an X and a Plus sign along the seam lines, just to hold those three layers together. Now I'm going to trim the backing and the batting even with the ornament front, so again just lining it up and I'm using both the edges and that diagonal line just to be a bit of a guide. So those binding strips that we cut 1 1/8th in by 4 inches, we're going to add to the opposite sides of the ornament, you can see I added one here already, I sewed it on with a quarter inch seam allowance, I'm going to show you how to do the second one. It doesn't matter if you choose to line up these first strips, even here and then sew and trim off the excess or trim off excess from each end, it's just personal preference. I'm going to sew at a quarter inch seam allowance, sewing the strip right side toward the ornament right side. Once you've attached that binding strip, you're going to bring it and fold it along that sewn edge, bring it around to the back fold under about quarter inch on the edge and then hand sew that folded edge down to the back. You're going to do the same on this side, and then you can trim that excess even with the ornament. So now I've sewn the two formal binding strips onto the ornament, I made sure that I did I had a half inch at least to the top and bottom so that I had enough to turn under those ends. I've trimmed this one, it's about half inch beyond both ends, I'm going to turn the ornament over, and I'm going to fold in those half inch ends and just finger press them and I'm going to fold under like I did for the other strips, the quarter inch on the long edge and then bring it around and hand sew it again right along that seam. I'm also going to do a few hand stitches on the end making sure all that seam allowance and extra fabric is tucked in nice and neat. From there, just attach that 8 inch piece of pearl cotton making sure you knot the end and make a loop and your ornament is finished. And that's all there is to making this adorable ornament, you can make a whole set of them to give as gifts or you can use them as a fun little attachment to a gift tag and bow, I know that they would look great on one of those mini ornament trees or even your regular Christmas tree. So whip up a few this season. Again if you need those instructions, AllPeopleQuilt.com/ShowMeHowOrnament. Thanks so much for joining us.