December 2022 Fabric Holiday cards
In this time of texts, emails and rhetoric, wouldn’t it be nice to reach out to those we truly care about with honesty and genuine sentiment. Do you remember when family and friends sent holiday cards with photos and handwritten messages inside meant just for us? It seems so long ago. Well, this year I’ve decided to let those closest to me know how much having them in my life means to me. My family has always made homemade items as a sign of love. My Mom paints and gifts ceramics, my sister is a painter, my brother builds furniture, my Dad built unique wooden designs and once made me a quilt stand out of a desk so I could learn to hand quilt. How did these things come to fall by the wayside?
A message may be someone’s only gift this year. Let’s make it mean something! So dig through that stash, envision a simple design and have fun personalizing holiday cards!
I’ll describe my process for this moonlit reindeer romp through the snow to get you started….
Read through the directions and photos below in preparation for gathering your supplies. It’s a fast and enjoyable process watching your design come to life…
Materials needed:
- 5″ x 7″ Pellon product with fusible on one side
- strips of cotton fabric
- pressing sheet
- matching or complimentary threads
- optional: embellishments (I used Angelina fibers, metallic threads and reindeer ribbon)
- 11″ x 7 1/2″ cardstock
- 5 3/4″ x 7 3/4″ envelope
Lay your Pellon product with the fusible side up. Cut your fabric strips into freeform wavy strips. Place the first strip slightly overlapping the top edge of the Pellon. Press.
Audition a second strip slightly overlapping the first. Topstitch the first piece, sewing through the two strips. Press.
Continue auditioning fabric strips, layering, stitching and pressing until you intend to change colors.
Here I choose to use white “snowy” fabric. Use a somewhat busy print if you plan to place a white strip over a dark one or use two layers of the lighter fabric.
Play with color and prints. I used a few small pieces to create mounds of snow.
I found a card of reindeer ribbon at Joann Fabrics. It may have been intended to wrap packages with but it’s perfect for adding reindeer to my card.
I cut two reindeer and stitched and placed the bottom edge of the ribbon to meet the bottom edge of the fabric edge. I stitched through both fabrics to hold them in place and continued on my way.
Trim the edges of your card even with the Pellon product.
Binding the edges: Cut two strips of fabric 7″ x 3/4″. Sew to the side edges of the card using 1/8″ seam allowance.
Flip strip to the back of the card and press. Stitch in the ditch on the front of the card to secure the strip. You can also use a decorative stitch if you prefer.
Cut two strips measuring 3/4″ x 6″ for the top and bottom. Attach in same manner, allowing 1/2″ to extend on each end of the strip.
Wrap each end to the back and fold out of the way as you stitch in the ditch.
I used Angelina fibers to create a moon and affixed rhinestones in the sky as stars.
Trim a piece of cardstock to measure 11″ x 7 1/2″ and fold in half. Use Steam-A-Seam 2 to fuse your mini-quilt to the front of the card. A card this size will fit nicely in a 5 3/4″ x 7 3/4″ envelope. Envelopes are available at Joann’s and dollar stores. If you have a supply of a variety of sizes, make your card to fit a particular size. There are no rules!