Twelve Days of Christmas Decoration Tutorial

I love the song Twelve Days of Christmas, and have wanted to make a quilt with the blocks representing the song for ages.  I have no time to actually do that, but when I found this great Machine Embroidery redwork design, I just had to stitch it out.

The designs can be purchased here.

Here's how I made my cute (and fast!) wall hanging.

You will need

Embroidery Designs

Twelve 8" Embroidery hoops (just cheap ones because they are simply the frames).

Twelve 10"squares of green felt.

Twelve 10" squares of white fabric.

Tear away stabiliser

Red thread (I used Wonderfil) & Bobbin fill

Circular Attachment tool for you machine (if you have one)

White construction thread

Sewing and Embroidery Machine

Chalk maker

Begin by stitching out the designs on the white fabric.  Be sure to centre the designs to make it easier when cutting the 10" square down to a circle.

Using one 10" square of felt and one embroidery stitch out, layer the stitch out on top of the felt, centring the design on the felt.

Using white construction thread, and your circular attachment tool, sew the white fabric to the felt.  I used a straight stitch, and set my circular attachment to a 16cm diameter.  

Keep the work attached to the circular attachment tool, and use scissors to trim back the excess white fabric.

Re-thread with red thread.

Select a decorative stitch, and sew around the outside edge of the circle (this is why you don't remove it from the circular attachment tool!).

Remove the tear away from the back of the work.

Use a chalk maker and trace around the outside edge of the wooden embroidery hoop.

Use scissors and trim around 1/2" wider than the chalk line you drew.  This will allow extra fabric to make it possible to mount the design into the hoop.

Clam the design in the hoop (you can use extra glue on the hoop edge to help the fabric stay in place if you wish).

Use ribbon to loop through the hoops to string them together.

I intended my design to be hung in two vertical columns, but when I asked Louise at the shop to photograph it she hung it from side to side, which looks really cute too!

Enjoy!