GO! Ornaments Tutorial and Giveaway

Last year I made up a snowflake ornament using snippets and the GO! Holiday die. This year, I decided I needed more than just one! And a number of dies work well for these pretty ornaments.

The Holiday die is good for both the tree and the snowflake.

The Dove die is also very pretty.

I’m sure other dies would work well also – the cardinal, the snowflakes, the deer . . . .

Supplies – makes up 4 ornaments

• Eight cream and gold fabrics cut 7 inches square (I like a little holiday glitter so I made sure half of my fabrics included gold metallic)
• One 11" square of backing fabric
• One 11" square of batiste or lightweight muslin
• Eight 7" squares of Steam-a-Seam or other fusible
• One 11" square of Steam-a-Seam or other fusible
• One 11" square of heavier fusible interfacing, such as Décor Bond
• Four buttons
• Ribbon – four pieces, approximately 7 inches each
• gold metallic thread

Making the Snippet Fabric and Ornament

1. Fuse the Steam-a-Seam onto the backs of the 7" square fabrics

(I was having a Goldilocks moment: the picture shows ten fabrics that were 5 inch squares. That was just a little shy of what I needed. With my next set I used 8 fabrics 8 inch square, which was more than I needed, so this number is the final thought. The lesson here is that you have wiggle room: if you want more fabrics, cut a few more and just use a smaller size square).

2. Peel the paper off the fusible and lay the fabric square (one at a time) right side up on a cutting mat. Free cut narrow strips across the square.

3. Then cross cut more strips so that you wind up with little squares. Repeat with all your 7" squares and fill a bowl with little fused snippets.

4. Layout the 11" square of batiste. Begin to randomly place snippets (fused side down). (Tip: I like to work on an ironing surface so that I don’t have to move the layered snippets in order to stabilize them).

5. Keep going until you have all of the batiste covered. You will do a lot of layering as you go.

Tip: It helps to place a pressing sheet over your snippets before you iron them in place – just in case any of those snippets got placed fused side up instead of down. You don’t want little pieces fused to your iron!

Tip: to ensure that you have fully covered the batiste, iron and then hold your fused fabric up to a light source. Any snippet free spots will show right up.

6. Fuse the 11" square of heavier interfacing to the back of the fused snippet section. First, free motion quilt fairly densely using a cream colored thread. Secondly, free motion more lightly using the gold metallic thread. (Using a metallic needle will help but, honestly, even with a metallic needle, I had a fair amount of thread ravel and breakage. Patience helps).

A close-up of the stitching:

7. Fuse the 11" square of Steam-a-Seam onto the wrong side of the backing fabric. Then fuse the backing fabric onto the back on the snippet fabric square.

8. Cut the 11" square into four 5 1/2" squares.

9. I like to mark my dies with a quarter inch line around the outer edge of the cutting blade so that I can line up my fabric easily.

10. Run the snippet fabric through the GO!

11. Use the button to attach the ribbon to the ornament and you’re done. Now, aren't they pretty?

And Let’s Not Forget the Giveaway!

In order to be eligible for these two ornaments, just leave a comment here (be sure you are not a Do Not Reply blogger). I’ll use our old friend the random number generator to choose a winner on Sunday, December 18.

Remember to visit these other bloggers in our AccuQuilt Christmas Theme Blog Hop. AccuQuilt is giving away a GO! Baby so visit SewCalGal for more on that!

Monday, December 12th
SewCalGal

Tuesday, December 13th
Leona’s Quilting Adventure

Cherry (Cherry Bossoms)

Wednesday, December 14th
Terrie (Bits & Pieces)
Nancy (Tattered Garden)

Thursday, December 15th
Katrina (Sunflower Quilts)

Jacque (Lily Pad Quilting)

Friday, December 16th
SewCalGal
Paulette (Sweet P Quilting and Creations)