Christmas tree wall hanging - 2012

I found this design in an old quilting magazine. A hand-quilted, batting-in-the-middle, wall hanging with sequins, buttons, and beads sewn on as ornaments. I machine appliqued garland in yellow thread, and a bright yellow star on top. I hand stitched the star rays with yellow thread. 

The tree was originally supposed to be pieced together with Christmas fabric. But I wanted my tree to be all one pattern piece, so I had to design my own tree pattern, and the green fabric I used actually matches the valance next to it (not shown). 

The white background fabric is a large (about 10" x 16") piece of eyelet. I ironed some fusible webbing to machine appliqué the tree, trunk, and skirt to the eyelet background, and then added the red strips to the top and bottom. The star squares in each corner were hand sewn (because I don't like piecing little squares with the machine), and then the side strips and binding were added. The top tabs were almost the hardest to attach because just when I thought I had them all level and even, one would be too short when I put the dowel through them. Then as a final touch, I added little satin ribbon bows across the top binding. As it is, the tabs are just a hair off, but it's done and over with! 

Not too bad for a first try at this pattern!

The dowel its hanging on is painted light brown and I super glued the wide red ribbon to each end, and tied a large bow at the top.

It was fun to make, so this'll be one wall hanging that we'll keep for years!