Welcome to Day 6 of the 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop

Thank you for stopping by.  I am thrilled to be part of this particular hop. Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict has done a fantastic job of organizing this varied gaggle of bloggers and keeping us in line (well sort of).  Make certain to visit her blog daily for the next installment for the quilt along.  She had us test the project ahead of time so that it worked into about an hour or less of sewing per day.

We have reached the midpoint of the blog hop.  Based on what I have seen so far it looks like there is something for everyone who celebrates Christmas and with a little tweaking there is something for everyone who celebrates anything.

For my turn I am going to talk about Folded Fabric Ornaments or Fabric Origami.  There are all kinds of videos on YouTube showing how to do the folding.  This I discovered after I started my love affair with folded fabric.

The red and green "flower" above started as two 21" circles of fabric and finished at just over 10" square.   I have found good contrast between the front and the back improves the final look of the flower.  I thought this one could be a hot mat for the table so it also has an insulated layer of thermolam inside, much as you would have layers of a quilt.  I layered the batting, then the back (green) right side up and then the red print right side down and stitched around the circle, leaving a hole to turn the circle right side out. Before I turned it right side out I went around the circle and took tiny little notches out of the seam.  This reduces the bulk in the seam and helps the seam lie flatter when turned right side out.  Once turned right side out and the opening is stitched, the directions for all sizes are the same after adjusting for the newer size.

The maroon and green ornament shown above started as an 8 1/2" circle, and finished at 4 1/4" square and the smallest one, next to it, started as a 4 1/2" circle and finished at 2 1/4" square.

Steps to make your own:

1.  Start with two fabrics that have fairly high contrast.  Determine the size you want and cut two circles to that size. The final product is approximately half the starting circle size and in this case a circle becomes a square.

2.  Place the two circles right sides together and stitch around the outside edge with 1/4" seam, leaving a break large enough to turn the circle right side out.

3.  Clip the curves on the seam or if using a batting take little V notches out of the seam.  This reduces bulk and allows the seam to lie flat once turned right side out.

4.  Turn right side out, press and stitch the opening in the seam closed using a blind hem or other nearly invisible stitch.

5.  Fold the circle in fourths and find the centre and mark that with a pencil on the good side. this will be covered over when you are finished.

6.  Lay the opened circle on a flat surface with the good side down or the back facing up.

7.  Fold in the curved edges all the way around (1/2" for the small, 1" for the medium and 2 1/2" for the large).  This photo shows the back of the piece with the edges folded back.

8.  Turn your piece over so that the side that has the folded over edges is at the back.  Pull each corner to the centre.  That is the spot you marked in step 5.  Stitch these four points together.  To "hide" these stitches you can add a button or a bead to this center location.

The book Flower Origami by Kumiko Sudo has this and many other flower shapes made using origami techniques. The instructions are clearly illustrated and easy to follow.

Be sure to "hop" over and see what today's other 12 Days of Christmas in July blogger, Suzy over at Adventurous Appliqué and Quilting, has to share! Piecefully, Joanne