Tutorial - Charm Square Christmas Star

Today we have a special guest post from Karri who blogs at KarriofBerries.  She will be sharing a tutorial for a Christmas Star made from 5 inch charm squares. Be sure to look for a new holiday themed tutorial each week back here!

Hi! I'm Karri from KarriofBerries. I'm a member of the Houston Modern Quilt Guild, and I'd like to share a tutorial with you for a Christmas Star making use of your 5 inch charm squares.

This past summer, I participated in a Christmas charm swap.  I received 112 charm squares.  I used up most of them in my Christmas banner and Christmas tree skirt and I still had a few left over.  In an effort to make do with what I have I used the left over charms to make a Christmas Star.

I used 9 - 5 inch charms and left over Kona black.  I followed this tutorial - Solstice Stars.

Faith's tutorial calls for 3 - 5 1/8 strips and the charm squares are only 5 inches.  The 1/8 inch is important unless you want to re-size the pattern.  Math is not my friend and somewhere out there my former math teachers are dying on the inside but trust me, you need the 1/8 of an inch.  So, I cut 2 strips of the the strips.

 Sew them together using a 1/4 seam and then iron the seams open.

Then cut them to 5 1/8 inch.

I used the text print as a the center instead of using a solid.  I think it is more festive and all of my other prints have the colors of the center square.  This is how I color coordinated my star.

To make the triangles - I cut one side of the 5 inch charm to 3 5/8s.  Then I folded it half and ironed it.  Then I cut off the extra piece.  There is probably some geometry theorem that proves why this is so.

Then on the fold, cut into half and you have your RSTs and you only had to measure one side.

I continued on following Faith's tutorial.  I laid mine out exactly like she did.  Go slow.

think this is going to be a wall hanging for someone special!

Tutorial: Folded Fabric Star Ornaments

Today we have a special guest post from Tammy who blogs at Karamat Sews. She will be sharing a tutorial for Folded Fabric Star Ornaments. Be sure to look for a new holiday themed tutorial each week back here!

Hi! I'm Tammy from Karamat Sews. I'm a founding member of the Houston Modern Quilt Guild, and I'd like to share a tutorial with you for no-sew, folded fabric Christmas ornaments.



Supplies: 
(8) 2.5-inch fabric squares (center of star) 
(16) 2.5-inch fabric squares (first round of star) 
(16) 2.5-inch fabric squares (second round of star) 
(1) 3-inch Styrofoam ball 
small, thin pins (lots and lots of pins!) 
ribbon



Step 1: Starting with your center fabrics, fold each piece into quarters and finger-press a crease.

Step 2: Open up the starting square, and push a pin through the center, just a couple of threads below the center crease line. Push the pin into the styrofoam ball.

Step 3: Now we fold the first star point... fold the top half of the fabric down (covering the pin), and fold the right and left corners down, securing at the center with pins (I sometimes use pins at the bottom corners to hold the pieces in place until the next round of fabric.)
 
Step 4: Add 3 more center pieces in the same way, making sure to nestle the points together snugly.

Step 5: Use the same folding technique to add the next layer. Add the first 4 pieces on top of the existing pieces, about 1/2" down from each point.

Step 6: Add 4 more points to complete the round (again, place them about a 1/2" down from the center of the ball)

Step 7: Follow steps 5 & 6 to add the next layer.

Step 8: Flip the ball over and repeat the process on the other side. Use additional pins to secure down any lose edges. 

Step 9: Use an 8-inch length of ribbon to create a hanging lop (secure to the ball with pins), and wrap additional ribbon around the ball to hide the seam and pins. 

Step 10: Hang on your tree and enjoy!