Please read the General Guidelines first.
Some points to remember from the General Guidelines:
Use Vilene water soluble stabilizer;
Use the same thread for the upper and bobbin to get two-sided embroidery.
DO NOT embroider several designs in one hoop.
Our FSL Twelve Days of Christmas designs are meant to serve as ornaments.
You can put them on a garland, decorate windows and curtains, adorn a Christmas tree or make an attractive door quilt, as we did. We made a "crazy" quilt featuring a tree and decorated it with ornamnets and garlands. Every day after Christmas, we're going to add one of the 12 Days ornaments to it, to correspond to the famous carol.
To make the quilt, you'll need a piece of plain cotton fabric measuring about 32" x 70" of any light color, a piece of batting of the same size, and a piece of fabric for backing of the same size. You will also need scraps of green cotton fabrics of all sizes and shapes, pieces of leftover rick rack, lace, ribbons, and quilt binding (about 2 packs if you buy yours).
On the large piece of cotton, draw a fir-tree with a removable marker. Place the green scraps inside the shape. Ours follow no particular pattern. Using temporary fabric adhesive, or pieces of fusible net, glue the green pieces in place.
Place the backing on an even surface (table), cover it with the batting, then cover with the quilt top. Pin all layers together.
Using decorative stitches from your machine, stitch along each green shape in the tree. You can cover the seams with rick rack, ribbon or lace. When the inside of the tree is done, quilt along the outside the tree shape. Finish the raw edges with the quilt binding.
To the back of the quilt, attach a sleeve through which you can slide a pole.
We plan to hang our quilt up on Christmas eve and hang the first "Christmas" plate from it.
On the first day of Christmas, we'll put up the first day decoration, and add one each day:
On the 1st day of Christmas my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree.
On the 2nd day of Christmas my true love gave to me two turtle doves.
On the 3rd day of Christmas my true love gave to me three french hens.
On the 4th day of Christmas my true love gave to me four calling birds.
On the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me five gold rings.
On the 6th day of Christmas my true love gave to me six geese's laying.
On the 7th day of Christmas my true love gave to me seven swans a-swimming.
On the 8th day of Christmas my true love gave to me eight maids a-milking.
On the 9th day of Christmas my true love gave to me nine ladies dancing.
On the 10th day of Christmas my true love gave to me ten lords a-leaping.
On the 11th day of Christmas my true love gave to me eleven pipers piping.
On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me twelve drummers drumming.
By the Epiphany, January 6th, our door quilt will look like this:
We hope that you like our idea, and that you come up with many ideas of your own.