Vintage Christmas Ornaments: Material Requirements

Welcome to the Vintage Christmas Ornaments Quilt-Along!

Today I’m posting the fabric and supplies you’ll need to make your Vintage Christmas Ornaments project.

First, you’ll kind of need to know what project you want to make, right?

So here are the three possible options for that . . .

You can choose to hand-embroider your ornaments, and your stitchery wall quilt will end up 36″ wide by 16″ tall:

You could also turn this project into a bench pillow, and I’ll provide instructions for that in a bonus project later on.

You can choose to appliqué your ornaments (using your favorite method of appliqué), and make a throw quilt that measures 52″ x 63″ (which can also hang on a wall).

This throw quilt can also have the bottom section left off, and be made into a 48″ x 30″ wall quilt (an extra option).

And finally, you can choose to appliqué your ornaments, and make a 31″ x 43″ wall quilt, featuring the ornaments in blocks. Here’s the layout for that:

You wanna make them all, don’t you?

Next, you’ll need to know what materials to gather up for your chosen project.

You will need basic sewing supplies for every project:

Sewing machine, in good working order
Thread to blend (I’m using white and light gray)
Pins, scissors, and hopefully not, but possibly a seam ripper!
Iron and ironing mat/board
Marking pencils
Rotary cutter, ruler, and mat (I’m mostly using my 6″ x 12″ and my 6″ x 24″ rulers for this)

If you’re doing hand applique, you will also need basic hand-sewing supplies:

Applique needles
Your favorite thimble (here’s what I use)
Threads to match your appliqué fabrics
You might also find that a 1/4″ bias tape maker will come in handy, but it’s optional

And if you’re doing embroidery, you’ll need:

Embroidery needles
Your favorite thimble (here’s what I use)
Embroidery floss in your chosen colors (I use DMC embroidery floss, and I’ll give you the color numbers I’m using)
Your favorite embroidery hoop (scroll down to see the one I like to use)

Now, for the fabric . . .

I’ve put the fabric requirements in PDF files (these are free to download), so you can choose the one for your project and not have all the rest to sort through, and you can print it out and take it to your sewing room or take it shopping with you. Also included in these files is the instructions for cutting your background fabrics for the quilt projects, so that you can have that part done by the time the first pattern comes out, if you so desire. (I will write a separate post in a few days on how to prep the background fabric for the embroidery project.)

If you’re making the embroidered wall hanging (or bench pillow), click here: VCOLayout1

If you’re making the throw quilt (or the wall hanging based on the throw quilt), click here: VCOLayout2

If you’re making the wall quilt with sashing and borders, click here: VCOLayout3

Here are the floss colors I’m using, along with the possibility of some black thrown in:

And here are the fabrics I’ve gathered so far to make my appliqué ornaments from. This is way more fabric than I will need, and I will certainly not use every one of these, and I might along the way find others I want to add in. I also plan to use little pieces from my scraps as much as possible. This is just a start:

Notice that these are all fairly small-scale, simple-geometric prints. I don’t want the fabric to take away from the design of the ornament, so I didn’t pick busy prints. In fact, I’m hoping that some of these choices play up and accentuate the ornament’s shape and design, so we’ll see how it goes. These decisions can be adjusted on the fly!

It’s entirely possible, too, that you don’t want this vintage-style color palette for your ornaments, so you can definitely choose something more modern or traditional — I have a friend that likes lots of blues in her Christmas decorating. Or you could make a collection of white ornaments on a dark background. There are endless possibilities — make it your own!

There is also an option to embellish your ornaments with a little extra something, including bling, if you like, so if you want to have on hand various trims and doodads, feel free to gather up some of those. I’m using some rickrack, and while I may not get any fancier than that, you may want to consider pretty ribbons, buttons, beads, charms, hot-fix crystals, metallic threads, etc. Just some more ideas for you to make it all your own.

And, finally . . . as I like to do, I’m offering up a free download for a sheet of labels you can use to help you keep things organized as the Quilt-Along progresses. You can get that by clicking here: VCOLabels

I think that’s it — this might keep you busy for a little while — so I’ll give you a few days to get everything together. The first ornament pattern comes out next Tuesday, the 26th. Before that, I will publish a post on prepping the embroidery background, so check back soon.

As always, if you have any questions, or if something isn’t clear, or I’ve left out something important, please don’t hesitate to contact me. You can leave a comment here, or use this contact form to send me an email, and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

PS: Here’s the embroidery hoop I like to use. It’s a French General embroidery hoop, and this is the 6″ size. It’s also available in a 4″ and an 8″ size.