Sister's Choice Quilts

My interests are quilting, reading, cooking, family, decorating, and matters of style. I post regular quilting tutorials and book reviews of current fiction.

Let’s Make Christmas Tree Blocks

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I got an idea that I needed to make another Christmas themed table runner over the weekend and spent some time searching for free patterns on line.  Lucky me, I found a super cute one which originated from the Moda Bake Shop.   Here is a link to download the free pattern.

I had a couple of older Sweetwater Christmas themed jelly rolls that had virtually the same color palette, so I cracked them both open and chose the fabrics I liked for my three blocks.  I think the two collections were Cookie Exchange and Hometown Christmas.  Both so cute.  These tree blocks went together so quickly. I had a runner sized group of blocks in no time.  The only thing is, I think this runner would look better with some narrow cream colored borders at least, but then it will be too big for the place I want to use it.  It will fit my son in law's dining table perfectly, so I think I will quilt it and give it to him.  He always appreciates my little quilts so much, and I love to pass things on to him.

Meanwhile, I need to go back to the drawing board and scale down my trees for a runner that will suit my space.  I can't decide if I should just eliminate the bottom row of each tree, or trim down my strips and make much smaller trees.  Any suggestions?  If any of you know of a book that has a small tree pattern in it, or a pattern for one (free or not), I would love to know about it.

I also dithered for the longest time about making the middle tree upside down so that people viewing the runner from each side would see at least one right side up tree.  Then I decided that was just weird to have people on the other side of the runner have to look at one or two upside down trees.  There is something so wrong about an upside down Christmas tree.  Do you find it disturbing as well?  Feel free to weigh in on the upside down tree dilemma too!

36 responses to “Let’s Make Christmas Tree Blocks”

  1. Great table runner! I like the idea of every other one going the opposite direction Nicole. To me it would be balanced!
    Mary

  2. Great table runner! I like the idea of every other one going the opposite direction Nicole. To me it would be balanced!
    Mary

  3. Great table runner! I like the idea of every other one going the opposite direction Nicole. To me it would be balanced!
    Mary

  7. Oh, my gosh! I hadn’t noticed, but Dianne is so right! There ARE 2 white trees going the ‘other’ way! What about a red, green or black binding? That might make the white trees pop a bit. Upside down? My sister’s mother-in-law used to cut the back branches off & hang her Christmas tree on the wall! (that’s just wrong!)

  8. Oh, my gosh! I hadn’t noticed, but Dianne is so right! There ARE 2 white trees going the ‘other’ way! What about a red, green or black binding? That might make the white trees pop a bit. Upside down? My sister’s mother-in-law used to cut the back branches off & hang her Christmas tree on the wall! (that’s just wrong!)

  9. Oh, my gosh! I hadn’t noticed, but Dianne is so right! There ARE 2 white trees going the ‘other’ way! What about a red, green or black binding? That might make the white trees pop a bit. Upside down? My sister’s mother-in-law used to cut the back branches off & hang her Christmas tree on the wall! (that’s just wrong!)

  10. I see the trees Diane is seeing!
    There is a pattern for a 6″x10.5″ tree in the book Favorite Christmas Quilts” by That Patchwork Place.
    E
    Enjoy!

  11. I see the trees Diane is seeing!
    There is a pattern for a 6″x10.5″ tree in the book Favorite Christmas Quilts” by That Patchwork Place.
    E
    Enjoy!

  12. I see the trees Diane is seeing!
    There is a pattern for a 6″x10.5″ tree in the book Favorite Christmas Quilts” by That Patchwork Place.
    E
    Enjoy!

  16. Good Morning! I liked your table runner. I really like the Sweetwater fabric and I think I even have the pattern bookmarked! For a coffee table I prefer to see a similar design from both sides. Just a few minutes after reading your post I happened upon a tutorial by Free Motion by the River here https://conniekresin.com/2017/12/christmas-tree-tablerunner-resized.html
    Maybe you could remove a row of “branches” and add a tree trunk. Having the trunks within a cream border might work.
    Hope you have a wonderful day!

  17. Good Morning! I liked your table runner. I really like the Sweetwater fabric and I think I even have the pattern bookmarked! For a coffee table I prefer to see a similar design from both sides. Just a few minutes after reading your post I happened upon a tutorial by Free Motion by the River here https://conniekresin.com/2017/12/christmas-tree-tablerunner-resized.html
    Maybe you could remove a row of “branches” and add a tree trunk. Having the trunks within a cream border might work.
    Hope you have a wonderful day!

  18. Good Morning! I liked your table runner. I really like the Sweetwater fabric and I think I even have the pattern bookmarked! For a coffee table I prefer to see a similar design from both sides. Just a few minutes after reading your post I happened upon a tutorial by Free Motion by the River here https://conniekresin.com/2017/12/christmas-tree-tablerunner-resized.html
    Maybe you could remove a row of “branches” and add a tree trunk. Having the trunks within a cream border might work.
    Hope you have a wonderful day!

  19. If the runner had more than three trees, I’d reverse every other one, but only three, no. All the same direction. I love how much you share what you’re doing. Thanks for the great blog.

  20. If the runner had more than three trees, I’d reverse every other one, but only three, no. All the same direction. I love how much you share what you’re doing. Thanks for the great blog.

  21. If the runner had more than three trees, I’d reverse every other one, but only three, no. All the same direction. I love how much you share what you’re doing. Thanks for the great blog.

  25. Love your tree table runner and I love that all collored trees are in the same direction and the white ones in the other.
    There’s a tree pattern in Thimbleblossoms ‘Winterville’ I really love.

  26. Love your tree table runner and I love that all collored trees are in the same direction and the white ones in the other.
    There’s a tree pattern in Thimbleblossoms ‘Winterville’ I really love.

  27. Love your tree table runner and I love that all collored trees are in the same direction and the white ones in the other.
    There’s a tree pattern in Thimbleblossoms ‘Winterville’ I really love.

  31. I also want to Christmas trees,
    but I too can’t find a pattern I like. Drafted my own but it also looks stupid…
    I guess back to the drawing room ; (

  32. I also want to Christmas trees,
    but I too can’t find a pattern I like. Drafted my own but it also looks stupid…
    I guess back to the drawing room ; (

  33. I also want to Christmas trees,
    but I too can’t find a pattern I like. Drafted my own but it also looks stupid…
    I guess back to the drawing room ; (

  34. I always struggle with the upside down thing— but I think people on both sides of the table should have trees to look at. I bought. Pumpkin runner with three pumpkins and one was upside down. (Trying to convince myself.) Its also a problem on bed quilts— I always put the bottom row on upside down but have had people question it! Guess it’s another unsolvable dilemma in life! Xox

  35. I always struggle with the upside down thing— but I think people on both sides of the table should have trees to look at. I bought. Pumpkin runner with three pumpkins and one was upside down. (Trying to convince myself.) Its also a problem on bed quilts— I always put the bottom row on upside down but have had people question it! Guess it’s another unsolvable dilemma in life! Xox

  36. I always struggle with the upside down thing— but I think people on both sides of the table should have trees to look at. I bought. Pumpkin runner with three pumpkins and one was upside down. (Trying to convince myself.) Its also a problem on bed quilts— I always put the bottom row on upside down but have had people question it! Guess it’s another unsolvable dilemma in life! Xox