Hive 1 January Christmas Tree Block for Alanna

 

Hi Alanna,

Hope these go, with what you have in mind.

They are in the Post Box and will start their way to you tomorrow.

Happy quilting,

Rita

Hive 1- January Tutorial- Christmas Tree block for Alanna

 Hello everyone and welcome to 2026 Hive #1!

I hope your holiday spirit has not completely burnt out, because for the January block I am asking for christmas tree blocks.

I am travelling with my family for the holidays, and between that and organizing StashBee, I haven't had an opportunity to come up with a new tutorial. So I am repeating my tutorial from 2024, since I could use more blocks as I still have not gotten around to finishing that quilt.

Have you made a christmas/holiday quilt for your family? If so, please include a picture of your own holiday quilt when you post your finished block.

I have 2 little kids (my son just turned 6, and my daughter will be 4 in April).

Their excitement and joy over the magic of the holiday season is so fun, and we are in that stage where we are forming our own traditions and core memories.

I really want to finish a christmas quilt to add to our holiday decor, to snuggle under while we watch christmas movies.

Inspiration:

My inspiration for this quilt is vintage christmas ornaments, and the pink and red stockings my mother-in-law made for our family.

My partner and his mother are Haida First Nations, and there are cultural rules and protocols about what animal crests that you can use. They are part of the raven clan, so his stocking has a raven design.

My kids don’t have their own crest yet, so their stockings only have the buttons and fur, and no design yet. And for me, she made a hummingbird, which is one of the animal crests that don’t belong to a specific clan so she was able to use that for me, a non-indigenous person. 

 

I actually really like pink and red together, and love vintage christmas ornaments that have pink and aqua/turqouise in them as well.

Here are some additional images I found online that represent the vibe/colour scheme

Block Pattern:

I am asking for christmas tree blocks, based on the tutorial by Amy Smart, of Diary of a Quilter. 

https://www.diaryofaquilter.com/modern-christmas-tree-quilt-block/

I am not making any changes to her tutorial in terms of sizing, so the blocks will end up about 7″ x 9″ finished. It might not be exact, because this is kind of an improv block.

Based on the way this block is constructed, you will be cutting and piecing the block in a pair- so you will end up with two blocks that are inverse of each other in terms of colours.  

Fabric Selection:

For this block you need three fabrics:

• 2 colours for the background and trees; and

• 1 brown for the tree trunk

• Medium to dark, chestnut brown is ideal but use what you have (just not a light tan brown though, please)

For the background and trees you can choose 2 different fabrics in any combination of the following colours:

• Pink: 

• Medium to bright pink

• Bright Green:

• Emerald or kelly green

• Avoid olive or lime greens, or any super dark hunter greens

• one of my examples in my fabric pull definitely leans to the light side (the lime green with snowmen)- i dont want anything more yellow or light than that one

• Red:

• Bright, tomato/cherry true reds

• Reds with a lot of white in them are okay

• Please avoid super dark reds, maroons and burgundies, or reds that have a lot of brown or orange in them

• Aqua/turqouise:

• I am looking for a contrast with the bright green, so I don't want something that reads true blue (ie not a cobalt or royal blue) or too mint/green

• A bright teal is okay if it leans towards more blue than green

• 
  

Prints and solids are both great. 

If you are using a print, here are some parameters:

• tone on tone or blenders are great

• novelty prints are great too if they are winter/christmas themed (snowflakes, snowmen, sweaters, ornaments, reindeer, santas, peppermints etc) 

• Please no licenced characters (no mickey mouse, paw patrol,sesame street etc. while my kids love those, I do not want them in my decor)

• Prints that have a combination of the other colours in the quilt, or white, are perfect. Just try to avoid prints that introduce new colours into the quilt

Consider contrast 

When choosing your two fabrics, please try to have some contrast between them in terms of both colour and scale . So for example, if you choose a bright tone on tone green, for colour # 2 choose a lighter pink, or red print with more white in it. Or if fabric 1 is a larger print, choose a smaller scale print for fabric #2.

My Fabric Pull and Colour Inspiration

Here is my fabric pull from my own stash.

I think I may use this fabric as a border around the finished blocks

I found some completed quilts on instagram in a similar colour scheme. Here is one of my favourites. This one has navy though, which is not one of my colours.

Cutting:

Colour 1 (any of the four colours listed above)	Cut (1) 8.5” x 8.5” square Cut (1) 2” x 8.5” strip ***Note: If using a directional print, be careful how you cut this strip- in one of my blocks I have my print going the wrong way for this bottom strip
Colour 2 (a different colour than #1)	Cut (1) 8.5” x 8.5” square Cut (1) 2” x 8.5” strip ***Note: If using a directional print, be careful how you cut this strip (see above)
Brown (tree trunk)	Cut (2) 1.5” x 2” rectangles

Block construction:

Step1:

Stack your two 8 ½″ x 8 ½″ contrasting squares on top of each other. 

This is where the “improv” part comes in.

Place your ruler at an angle and make a diagonal cut.

Pull the fabrics from the first cut away, and make a second diagonal cut the other direction to get your tree shape. 

You can make the tree fat and wide, or tall and skinny, or any combination in between. The more variety across all the tree blocks I receive, the more visual interest the quilt will have.

***Note: Don’t cut your triangle point right at the top of the block – leave lots of room above the point so that there’s room for squaring up and for seam-allowance.

Step 2:

Sub-Cut your two 2″ x 8 ½″ strips in half to make two sets of 2″ x 4 ¼″ strips.

Step 3:

Swap out the ‘tree’ piece and match it up with the contrasting background pieces.

Sew the tree piece to the background side pieces starting with the side of the second cut.

Tip: When lining up your tree piece with the background piece right sides together, place the top corner of the tree ¼” past the edge of the background piece.

Press seam away from tree.

Step 4:

Now sew the side of the background from the first cut to the tree.

Press away from the tree

Step 5:

Once your sides are pieced, square off the bottom so that the edges are straight across.

Step 6:

Sew the two sets of 2″ x 4 ¼″ strips on either sides of a brown 2″ x 1 ½″ ‘trunk’ piece.

Press towards the trunk

Step 7:

Sew the trunks to the bottom of the blocks. (The trunk strips are purposely wider than the tree parts so that you have wiggle room to center the trunk under the wonky trees.)

Press the seam open.

Step 8:

Trim off any pieces hanging off the side.

Do not trim the top. I will do that when I get them all, and trim them all to the same size. 

Repeat for the inverse block, and your done!

Here are three sets I made so far, all mixed up. 

Hive 5 - Dala Horses for Josie

 Happy New Year, Quilters!  I am starting off the year with some sweet little Dala horses in bright red and blue.  This pattern comes from a Moda Christmas Countdown and is written by Nicola Dodd of Cakestand Quilts. Traditional Dala horses are in bright primary colors, most often in red, and have such a cheerful, sweet Scandinavian vibe.  They are unofficial mascots of Sweden, which is why you may be thinking "...didn't I see this in Ikea??" 

For your background fabric, please select a bright, clean white.  It can have a tone on tone pattern if you would like, but it should read visually as clean white. For your horses, please select bright, crisp blues or reds...but you have options!  Please select either a fun, lively pattern that reads red or blue overall, OR go with a nice solid.  I plan to embroider some of the Dala horse details onto the solid horsies, or if you have a yen for embroidery (or a machine that does fun stitches), please feel free to send your own pattern.  Here is my pull of my colors, and I can tolerate all the way to a bright scarlet (a little darker than pictured) or royal blue.  As long as it's poppy and fun, you've got the right idea!

Let's get cutting!

From WHITE BACKGROUND, cut:

• one 4.5x9.5"
• one 4.5x5.5"
• one 3.5x8.5"
• one 3.5" square
• one 2.5" square
• one 1.5x5.5"
• one 1.5x2.5" 
• one 1.5" square

From your HORSE BODY COLOR, cut: 

• one 4.5x9.5"
• one 3.5x7.5"
• two 3x5"
• one 1.5" square

Start simple with the horse's body...we gotta give him a little butt. Draw a line down the center back side of the white 1.5" square, then pin the piece, right sides together, to the upper right corner of the large 4.5x9.5" rectangle of body color. Sew along your line, then trim your corner a quarter inch from the seam, and press flat. Set aside.

 The legs are the only tricky bit of this block. Take your two 3x5" body pieces and place them right sides together.  Mark a point 1.25" from the lower right corner on the short side, and draw a line from that point up to the top right corner. Cut along this line and you should have two mirrored pieces. I'm including Nicola's sketch as well as my work because my pattern makes the line a little hard to see.

Now that we have our legs, we're going to mark where they'll be sewn in place.  Take your 4.5x9.5" background piece, and with the piece sitting lengthwise, make a mark 2" in from both top corners, and another pair of marks 1" from the bottom two corners. Draw lines connecting the top and bottom marks. 

Take your leg pieces and with right sides together, align the cut diagonal edge of the leg piece with the line you just drew on the background fabric. The corners of the cut diagonal edge should extend about a 1/4" over the background fabric. Stitch 1/4" from the cut diagonal edge, then you can press the leg open and trim the block to the original 4.5x9.5", using the background fabric as a guide. (After I trimmed this section, I also flipped the legs back over and trimmed the excess white fabric, but you don't have to!) My picture shows one leg aligned and sewn, and one already flipped and pressed.

Now we need to make this little guy's head.  Take your 3.5" and 2.5" white background squares and draw a line down the center back side of the fabric. Align the 2.5" corner in the top left side of the 2.5x7.5" body color rectangle with right sides together, sew along your line, trim your excess, and press open.  Do the same with the 3.5" square in the top right corner of the body color rectangle.

Last corner triangle!  To make our horse's ear, draw a line on the back side fabric of the 1.5" body color square, position it right sides together at the bottom left of the 1.5x5.5" background piece.  Check your positioning to make sure that the ear will be cocked forward! Sew along the line, trim excess, press. 

Finally, join your 1.5x2.5" background piece to the left of the ear strip.  

Now all we have to do is put this little friend together!  Sew your ear strip to the top of the head block (As you can see, my ear strip was very slightly short. For alignment's sake, I recommend lining up the leftmost edges of the head and ear strips so that the ear lands nicely at the top of the "forehead.").  Then, attach your 4.5x5.5" background piece to the right side of the head. Sew the legs to the body, then sew the 3.5x8.5" background piece to the left side of the body/leg block.  Finally, sew the head unit to the body unit. 

Look how cute that little Dala horse is!  Your finished block should be about 12" square.  If you choose to add designs to your solid block, please feel free, but don't feel that you have to...I will be embellishing as I assemble!