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Sewing and Quilting Christmas Trivets Is Fast and Fun

Sewing and Quilting Christmas Trivets Is Fast and Fun

by Jennifer Houlden

It’s just over a week until Christmas and I’m sure some of you are still looking for a fast and easy last-minute project to make. This little Christmas tree trivet is perfect for your own table or as a last-minute hostess gift. Sewing and quilting Christmas trivets is fast and fun. Today, I’m going to show you just how much fun!

This is also a great project to use up those scraps that keep piling up, multiplying, and taking over precious space in your studio or workspace. Not to mention they take up prime real-estate for new fabrics.

This is a perfect project for the Pfaff IDT system on the Ambition 1.0. The strips are sewn together on the batting and will require the dual feed feature to evenly feed the layers over those feed dogs.

IDT system engaged

IDT system engaged

What you need

2 – 2″ x WOF strips of the background fabric or enough scraps to equal that.

1 – 2¼″ x WOF strip of the background fabric for binding

1 – 2″ x WOF strip for the tree or enough scraps to equal that – the tree can be the same fabric or multiple fabrics

1 – 2″ x 2½″ rectangle of black or brown for the trunk

1 – 11″ piece of fabric for backing

1 – 11″ piece of insul-fleece or 100% cotton batting

Thread to match the backing and thread for piecing

Let’s get started!

Cutting the pieces

From the background strips cut:

1 – 2″ x 9½″ Row 1

2 – 2″ x 5″ Row 2

2 – 2″ x 4¼″ Row 3

2 – 2″ x 3¼″ Row 4

2 – 2″ x 2¼″ Row 5

2 – 2″ x 4″ Row 6

From the tree strip cut:

1 – 2″ x 3½″ Row 2

1 – 2″ x 5″ Row 3

1 – 2″ x 7″ Row 4

1 – 2″ x 9″ Row 5

Sewing the pieces

Draw a line at the 2-inch mark on the back of the background pieces for rows 2 to 5.

Draw a diagonal line through the square just made on the background pieces from each row starting at the top right corner across to the opposite bottom corner stopping at the line.

On the remaining background pieces, draw a diagonal line from top left corner to the opposite corner stopping at the line.

Lines drawn for sewing angle

Lines drawn for sewing angle

Sew the background pieces to the corresponding tree piece. They need to be placed at a right angle to the tree piece in order to form a straight line after sewing. See image above. Do this for rows 2 – 5.

The quarter inch foot without the guide works best for this job since the sewing is done across the piece of fabric rather than running along the edge of it.

Row six: sew the background pieces to the trunk.

Rows sewn together

Rows sewn together

Quilting the trivet

Mark a guide line along the left-hand side and top of the batting ¾″ from the edge. Place the backing piece on the back of the batting.

Place row 1, which is a background piece, along the guide lines right side up. If using insul-fleece, you’ll want to spray baste the backing in place as it’s very slippery, In the photo below, you can see it’s very shiny. If using 100% cotton batting, you may or may not need to spray baste.

Row one in place along guide lines

Row one in place along guide lines

Place row 2 on top of the first row right sides together. Pin the pieces together through all the layers regardless of which batting is being used. I continued to use the quarter inch foot making sure the IDT system was engaged.

Sewing each row in the opposite direction will help to keep everything square and prevent shifting.

Row 2 pinned on top of row 1

Row 2 pinned on top of row 1

Sewing with the quarter inch foot

Sewing with the quarter inch foot

I also found that I needed to change the presser foot pressure. This is done by turning the dial on the top of the machine. Because of the layers, I needed to release pressure, so I turned the dial towards the negative sign. Don’t forget to turn it back when you are finished!

Sew the rest of the rows in place as you did row 2 to make the tree.

Pressure dial on top of machine

Pressure dial on top of machine

Finishing the trivet

Add an applique star to the top of the tree or a star button. I chose an applique star as I didn’t have a star button large enough to do the job. If you have a button, there’s no need to hand sew it in place as the Pfaff Ambition 1.0 has a feature to sew on buttons. How cool is that? Full instructions for this feature are in the Ambition 1.0 manual or check out my post in September when I did just that with the Passport 2.0.

Back to the applique. After fusing the star in place, I looked at the many different stitches available – 136 in total – and chose #57 a regular blanket stitch or pin stitch. Using the Sewing Stars Foot, I stitched around the star using the tie off option to start and finish.

Ready for stitching with foot 1A

Ready for stitching with foot 1A

Love the stitching! How even and regular the stitches are. They look great with the 30 weight Sulky rayon thread.

Close up of blanket stitch

Close up of blanket stitch

Bind the little trivet using one 2¼″ strip of the background fabric using your favorite method with your preferred foot. My preferred foot is the quarter inch foot with a guide, which keeps everything nicely aligned.

Sewing on the binding

Sewing on the binding

The Christmas Tree Trivet

Completed trivet

Completed trivet

I bet you can’t stop at making just one now that you can see how sewing and quilting Christmas trivets is fast and fun. They make a perfect last-minute gift that can be whipped up in no time. For more trivet ideas and designs visit Quilts by Jen.

Happy Quilting

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3 comments

Kate December 18, 2014 - 2:50 pm

This is really cute. Thank you so much for sharing.
Merry Christmas!

Reply
Jennifer Houlden December 19, 2014 - 6:01 am

Thanks Kate and my pleasure. Have a wonderful Christmas. Jen

Reply
Tutorial: Christmas Trivet – Quilting December 17, 2014 - 1:54 pm

[…] to tutorial, Sewing and Quilting Christmas Trivets Is Fast and Fun, at […]

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