Handmade Holiday Blog Hop: Day 5

It's Handmade Holiday Blog Hop time! We're sharing both gift and decor ideas here on the blog. Make them now; bookmark them for later. Either way, we hope you'll enjoy the inspiration and ideas to help you get in the holiday spirit and/or cross a few names off your gift list.

Today Jessica from Quilty Habit is sharing an easy evergreen pennant. Use your favorite holiday prints (she combined Snow Days with a few coordinating solids) to make a seasonal decoration that can brighten up your house all winter long. Enjoy her tutorial and then head over to her blog for a chance to win a Snow Days bundle. 

Here's Jessica:
Hi! I'm Jessica Skultety, a quilter, teacher, and lecturer on modern and modern traditional quilting - and I blog voraciously over at Quilty Habit! I love decorating for the winter season (not just the holidays, but winter - after all, here in New Jersey, I'm inside quite a lot over these next few months. Might as well make it pretty).

I designed the Evergreen Pennant Banner to work for both winter and Christmas (or one or the other - whatever you prefer). It's unique because it uses two different sizes of Evergreen trees, and it's reversible! Might I suggest trying an all-solids version with Benartex's Colors for Quilters? Whatever fabrics you choose, I hope this banner brightens up your space this season!

Evergreen Pennant Banner Tutorial

Materials: 
Templates (download here) 
Cardboard or template plastic 
Sewing machine and general sewing supplies 
Iron 
Rotary cutter and ruler 
Turner, chopstick, or pencil 

Fabric: 
9 fat quarters (I used six from Snow Days and three solids: Lime, Lipstick, and Kelly) 
1 fat quarter for strip (I used White)

Making the Trees: 
1. Print out the templates above at 100% (not fit to page). Cut out on the lines. 
2. Trace onto cardboard or template plastic - cut them out.
3. Fold your fat quarters in half along the 22" side and trace your trees. This way, you'll have two trees from each fabric to cut out from just tracing once.  See diagram below.

*If you are using directional fabric like the snowmen, you may want to fussy cut. You also will not be able to fold as instructed above because the directions will likely lay the wrong way - you will have to cut them out separately (this is why you have a whole fat quarter!)

For the rest of the tutorial, I decided to make my evergreens without raw edges. You could simply sew them together wrong sides together and proceed to "Making the Strip" IF you don't mind raw edges. 
4. Place your evergreens RST (right sides together). Pin and leave a 2" opening on one of the long sides. 
5. Sew all the way around with a 1/4" seam.

6. Snip all the corners. This will reduce bulk! 
7. Use a chopstick or turner to carefully turn the trees out. Press. 
8. Topstitch around the trees at 1/8" - this is both to close the opening and for prettiness.

Making the Strip: 
I didn't want to cut the points of the trees off by encasing them in bias tape, so here's an alternative method. 
1. Cut 7 strips from your strip fat quarter. The strips should be 2" wide x 22" long. 
2. To join them on the bias, lay them RST at an angle (see picture below). Draw a diagonal line from top left to bottom right. 
3. Sew on the line and cut off at 1/4". Press open.

4. Join all your strips in this way. This should leave you with a strip of about 120". You may want to to decide at this point if you want to add or subtract length, based on where you will hang your banner. Also, just as a note, the measurements in Step #10 will have to change if you alter the length. 
5. Fold the entire piece in half and press.
6. Fold the two ends to meet the middle and press. You should now have three press lines down your whole strip, like below.

7. With the two ends folded to the middle, fold the strip in half (along the first press line you created).

8. Sew a topstich 1/8" from the edge along the strip to close it.
9. On each end, fold over the strip 1/4", then 1/4", and sew. This might be tricky to get through your machine, as it is bulky. Take this step to ensure that the raw edges are enclosed.
10. At 20" in from one end, place a pin. Pin along the strip every 11" to allow for 9 evenly spaced evergreens. You may want to alternate big and small trees like I did, or come up with your own pattern!
11. Sew each tree onto the strip in an "X" fashion. I started at one corner, used stay stitch or back stitch, sewed to the other, and cut my thread. Then I did the same on the other side). Sew slowly and your "X" will come out nearly symmetrical.

12. Hang your pennant banner and enjoy!

Thank you to Benartex for inviting me to be a part of the blog hop! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that you'll check out my projects, tutorials, and musings over on my blog. Happy Holidays to everyone!

Thanks Jessica! 
Head over to her blog to find out how you can win a bundle of Snow Days.

Don't miss any days of our Handmade Holiday Blog Hop!

Day 2: Nesting Pocket Dolls by Debby Kratovil of Debby Kratovil Quilts using Little Katerina 

Day 3: Sew Easy Travel Case featuring Sew Easy

Day 4: Firewood Tote by Mary on Lake Pulaski featuring Shades of Winter

Day 6: Patchwork Apron by Kristen of KD Quilts featuring Frosty Forest

Day 7: Christmas Adorned quilt by Kelly of My Quilt Infatuation featuring Santa's Here

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