Christmas Celebration Ornament Row

An “Ornament Row” is the sixth row in my Christmas Celebration quilt from the Shabby Fabrics' Christmas Celebration Row Quilt series, pattern by Coach House Designs. There are five blocks to make in this sixth installment, each with three ornaments. The fabrics are from the Emmitt and Ivy Sweetwater line for Moda. The balls are made from five fabrics as shown with a tape measure for scale on the first photo. The strings for hanging the ornaments are either red, green, or blue as shown on the left side of the second photo. The ornament tops are striped fabric, shown on right of second photo.

I prefer to work with assigned piece letters rather than a piece description. To me it is easier to say use "A" rather than use a "2" x 3 ½ " piece of Fabric 1". I write the letter in on the pattern instructions and also add letters to any figures. Then I use my Alphabitties to label the pieces as I cut them out and stack them.

I chain pieced the white corners on all fifteen balls first, all the H/D subcomponents. I did these fifteen units assembly line style. Even when trimming the corners, I lined five up at a time and trimmed the corners with one fell swoop of the rotary cutter. 

Here are five balls in the representative colors, with all four corners of each trimmed and flipped. I considered not trimming them, since the triangle being removed is so small, but then I was concerned that untrimmed dark print might show through the white. Being a small triangle to snip off had another advantage. I felt no obligation whatsoever to make these into pinwheels as I often do with leftovers from the stitch and flip method.

Next I chain-pieced the side additions to all fifteen ornament tops (first and second photo), followed by the side additions to each ornament string (third photo).

Now the challenge was to create the correct combination of ball, top, and string for each ornament. To keep the fabric locations clear, I write each fabric number in the block diagram for each of the five ornament-trio block according to the chart of fabric locations chart in the instructions. Of course it helps to have the color designations handy to correspond to those numbers.

Here are the three ornaments A, B, C from Block 1 individually, and then joined as a trio. At this point I began to layout each three-ball block one at a time. Chain-piecing at this stage was limited, since I had to move carefully to match balls with tops with strings. 

As I made the other four blocks I added them to the right of the growing row. I pressed that center horizontal seam alternately up or down to reduce the bulk at the interface between blocks. 

Here is the row of five ornament blocks up on my design wall, added to the previous rows from this project. Oddly, I felt a bit of sadness when I completed the final block; I really enjoyed working on this quilt — the colors, the symbols, the mini-prints. I excitedly anticipate the 7th installment of borders and sashing. 

This final photo shows the tools of my trade that streamline the assembly and helped me be organized, all gathered on one of my melamine trays from the Fat Quarter Shop. At the top is a Clover thread cutting pendant, but I insert it upside down in an empty spool and use it to slice all the threads from chain piecing. To the left are my Wonder Clips and below are my pink Alphabitties.

Christmas Celebration Wreath Row

Say “Wreath Row” several times fast! No, it is not an airport in London. It is the fifth row in my Christmas Celebration quilt from the Shabby Fabrics Christmas Celebration Row Quilt series. There are six blocks to make in this fifth installment. Wreaths are made out of these six green fabrics and these two red fabrics from the Emmitt and Ivy Sweetwater line for Moda. It is always a nice surprise to see the new additions each month. This month the fabric not revealed before in previous rows was the cream background one with the mini Christmas trees, fifth from the left. I mistakenly made the red bow four times for a wreath out of this fabric. Details later.

 

I cut the six green fabrics three layers at a time, to assure cleaner cuts. I cut the two red fabrics at the same time and labeled my pieces with letters. The pattern does not assign the pieces letters, but this is a habit I use that helps me keep organized. I write my assigned letters on the pattern and then lay the corresponding Alphabitties on each stack. During assembly, a letter is easier to reference than the dimensions of a piece.

This is the first wreath I made. From the triangles I cut off each of the four corners, I made a pinwheel.

Then I made the inside of the other five wreaths all at the same time. These cut off corners were too small to make a pinwheel, even for pinwheel obsessed me. 

Next I decided to make all the bows at once. They are fussy and tiny and I was on a roll This is the bow for the wreath of mini Christmas trees. I made it once. I took it apart because I wanted the center knot fabric to face the same was as the loops of the bow. I reassembled it…wrong a second time. This next time I got it oriented the way I wanted. When I went through my stack of wreath centers to add the bow on top, I found, stacked between the layers, a bow I had already made…and correctly, too! Oh, well. Now I have an extra.

Here are the six wreaths all joined in a row. Above them is their corresponding bonus pinwheel. I now have an extra bow for the wreath second from the left. The row measures 8½“ high by 50½“ wide. I am excitedly awaiting the shipment of the sixth row near the end of July,

Christmas Celebration Gift Row

There are eight blocks to make in this fourth installment of the Shabby Fabrics Christmas Celebration Row Quilt series. Gifts are made out of these fabrics. The pale blue ornaments #23, the green snowmen #25, and the wonky red gingham #29 from the Emmitt and Ivy Sweetwater line for Moda are new to this fourth row. It is always a nice surprise to see the new additions each month.

Numbers 6&14, 4&22, 23&28, and 25&29 pairs to make four gifts, then the four pair trade positions, 14&6, 22&4, 28&23, and 29&25, for the other four gifts. I cut the eight fabrics four layers at a time, to assure cleaner cuts. I label my pieces with letters. The pattern does not assign the pieces letters, but this is a habit I use that helps me keep organized. I write the letter on the pattern and then clip it to the piece with my Alphabitties and WonderClips. A letter is easier to reference than the dimensions of a piece.

First I made up the four gifts from the 6&14 and 4&22 combinations starting with the upper portion of the bow on the top of the gift. These went really quick. The cut off corners were too small for me to try to make them into pinwheels as I often do. I was only constructing the block parts with no extra freebies from the scraps. Here are the tops of four gifts.

Then I made the bulk of the gift itself using the wider fabric pieces for the wrapping paper and the narrower pieces for the ribbon. I made a group of four at a time from two pair of complimentary fabrics 6&14, 14&6, 4&22, and 22&4.

 

I repeated the process for fabrics 23&28 and 25&29, making the other four gifts

Instead of all eight gifts adjacent in a row, they were divided up into two groups of three and a central group of two. In this case I used my Alphabitties for a different purpose— to denote the letter of the completed block as specified in the pattern.

Here is the whole row assembled. It is 9½" high and 50½" long. It is long enough that my design wall is not wide enough and the row needs to wrap around the corner on the left.

I made up this row within a day of it arriving in the mail. Now I have a whole long month to wait until the next row installment comes. But I like the pacing, and the project does not become overwhelming. Besides, now I have an imposed window to make progress on all those other UFOs I have been avoiding.

Links to the previous three rows in this series are: 5/29/26 stockings, 5/30/26 trees, 5/31/26 stars.

Christmas Celebration Star Row

The first row in the Christmas Celebration Row of the Month Club at Shabby Fabrics was stars. I'd made the second row of Stockings in my post for 5/29/26 and my third row of Trees in my previous post before sewing up the stars. Now I am looking back and making the Star row.

The stars are basically four flying geese blocks around a central square. I have a Bloc-Loc tool which works well to make flying geese. The tool requires cutting the fabric a slight ¼" larger than the norm. Although I have extra fabric provided in the kit, it was not of the dimension that allowed me the luxury of oversizing without some creative positioning. That's OK. I can use my old standard method. The flying geese of the star points still yielded me enough HSTs to make two pinwheels per star for a total of twelve pinwheels.

Each row of Christmas Celebration introduces a few new fabrics from the Emmitt and Ivy Sweetwater collection by Moda. The red/white ornament and the pale blue snowmen, marked by blue star in the following image, are new in this row of stars. None of the stripes from the stockings are repeated. I look forward for when other fabric options from the line appear. Perhaps they will be used in the upcoming rows:  4) Gifts, 5) Wreaths, and 6) Ornaments.

I am one half of the way through my row making (3 out of 6) and it is still fun. Yay! Next row installment has been shipped and I eagerly await its arrival in the mail any day now.

Christmas Celebration Tree Row

The third row in the Christmas Celebration Row of the Month club at Shabby Fabrics was trees. I'd made the second row of stockings first in my previous post. Upcoming rows are 4) Gifts, 5) Wreaths, and 6) Ornaments. After struggling with my stocking row, the trees went together fairly easily. I could assemble the four strips/level of each tree and wait to press until the adjacent neighbor was determined. Then I could alternate the seam direction for the white background. "Press to the dark side" was not always best. I do like that the trees have separating spacers between some of them to break up the rigidity of an all-in-a-row look.

I made up into pinwheels from all those triangles cut off at each level of each tree. Those six trees yielded twelve pinwheels. They are pressed but not yet trimmed to be truly square and accurate

The fabrics were again from the Emmitt and Ivy collection by Sweetwater for Moda. Only the red snowman print was a repeat from the stockings. The wonky gingham, the green snowmen, the green/white ornaments, the red evergreen sprigs, and the white evergreen springs were all new.

This so far has been a fun row-by-row monthly kit with cheery fabrics. I am enjoying assembling it. I am one third of the way there. Hmm... those pinwheels...  It remains to be seen what I will do with them.

Christmas Celebration Stocking Row

I signed up for a Christmas Celebration Row of the Month club at Shabby Fabrics. Each of six months has the pattern and fabrics for one themed row: 1) Stars, 2) Stockings, 3) Trees, 4) Gifts, 5) Wreaths, and 6) Ornaments. I always swear that I will not get behind when I sign up for these monthly projects and usually I do succeed. This time I had received the first three months and had not started. At a mini two-day retreat at a friend's home, I decided it was the perfect project to attack since there would be no interruptions... except of course eating, talking, and mutual project ogling. Even so, on the first day I did assemble one row. I started with Row 2, the stockings, first. Why? Maybe because Row 1 was stars which can be somewhat mundane and the Row 2 stockings just seemed a bit different and had fewer diagonal cuts.

The original design for the stocking row had the stockings alternate in which direction they faced. To me, instead of stockings, I could not unsee the letters J U U U U ᒐ. Stockings hung on a mantle all face the same direction normally, so I wanted to change the layout to mimic that tradition. 

The original design had five blocks of heel-to-heel pairs each with a width of 10½". When joined with four seams, the total width of the row is 50½". Where blue are the stocking pairs and black "|"s represent each ½" consumed in the seam:

 

10½" |  10½"| 10½"| 10½"| 10½" 

5 x 10½" - 4 x ½"per seam = 50½ "

I did some cutting and pasting of the image in PowerPoint to see how stockings all in one direction would appear. I decided I preferred that look. When I decided to face all my stockings the same way, the change involved a bit of recalculating the spacers. Ten 5"stockings joined in the same direction with nine ¼" seams sum to 45½" (10 x 5"- 4 x ½" per seam) falling short of the required row dimension of 50½" so I needed to figure out where to add the vertical divider spacers and how wide to make them to make up that 5" shortage. Until I made that decision, I proceeded with making individual stocking blocks rather than stocking pair blocks.

The original design had four places where the stocking would be toe-to-toe. With all my stockings facing the same way, I would have heel-to-toe situations, nine places if I added no spacers. Those tiny triangles to round the toes sure made pressing the seam allowances a challenge. The amount of bulk at that joint took a lot of steam and hard pounding to lie flat.

The seam pressing in general took some thought. Along the banded area in the calf of the stocking was not an issue, but at the cuff and foot areas, I had to really put on my thinking cap. I alternated directions at the cuff and at the sole and was not consistent among the blocks. Where a stocking was in the line-up determined the optimal pressing direction.

Rather than adding to either side to make up the 5" I lacked, I wanted to distribute the spacers so the stockings were in two or three groupings. The possible combinations for ten were 3-2-2-3 or 2-3-3-2 or 2-3-2-3 or 3-4-3. I chose the 3-4-3, grouping so there would be no central vertical bar. Where blue are the 5"wide stockings, red are the vertical spacers, and the black "|"s represent each ½" seam allowance, the grouping of 3 - 4 - 3 would look like: 

1½" | 5" | 5" | 5" | 2" | 5" | 5" | 5" | 5" | 2" | 5" | 5" | 5" | 1½"

10 x 5"   +  7" -  13 x ½" seam =  50½"

Following is my completed row with the two 1½" spacers on the ends and two 2" spacers distributed in the central area. Believe me, there was some creative seam allowance pressing to minimize the presence of lumps at a few of those seams.

The fabrics are the from the Emmitt and Ivy line by Sweetwater for Moda. They are mini-prints whose scale is just perfect for these blocks that measure approximately 5" x 10".  The print scale is not too teeny-tiny; the theme images of snowmen and sprigs of leaves show clearly, yet are not so big they get chopped up into oblivion. 

I look forward to catching up and making my row of Stars (#1) and my row of Trees (#3). I just got email notification that my row of Presents (#4) has already shipped.