Christmas wreath mini quilt

This stunning festive mini quilt with its beautifully full bow can be hung on your door instead of a foliage Christmas wreath. What’s more, you can use it again and again, year after year. 

There are so many things I love about this Christmas wreath quilt. It’s a great recycling project, perfect for using up leftover bits of fabric, batting, ribbons and even buttons and trims, or even nostalgic pieces of jewellery.  

This festive quilt is also ideal if you are short on space – it’s the right size for a door but will also look good on the wall above a hall table or cabinet. Complete the setting with a few candles and festive ornaments and you’ll have a swoon-worthy Christmas home.  

This quilt measures 19” square (approx. 48cm). It is made of four identical quarters, which in turn is made from nine blocks, each containing nine squares. The quarters are rotated and joined to form a circle. 

If you are thinking ‘that’s a loooot of squares to cut and sew’ – fear not! In this Christmas wreath quilting project tutorial I’ll show you how to do them in strips and then crosscut and sew to get it done quickly.  

For quilt decorations, I’ve used fabric-covered and novelty buttons in assorted sizes, but you can add little rings to hang embellishments onto or simply pin your little treasures to the quilt with a safety pin if you like. The idea is that this Christmas wreath quilt becomes a festive family heirloom, containing memories and trinkets from loved ones.

Materials needed

• Green fabric: a mix of six or more in differing patterns, colour value and print sizes. You need 21 to 24 strips of 7 x 1½” each, plus nine to 11 strips of 11 x 2½” for half square triangles (HST) 
• White or cream fabrics for background, a mix of patterns with subtle variations in colour value: 34 to 36 strips of 10 x 1½” each, plus six to eight strips of 11 x 2½” for half square triangles (HST) 
• Red fabric for binding: two strips of 44 (WOF) x 2½” 
• Backing: 21” (53cm) square piece of fabric 
• Batting: 21” (53cm) square piece of firm batting (needle punched batting works well) 
• Ribbons for the bow: approximately 1.5m each of five to six different kinds of ribbon, in varying shades and widths 
• Embellishments: we used fabric covered buttons, novelty buttons and rhinestone buttons. See our notes at the end of this post for suggestions on other items you could use. 

Equipment needed

• Rotary cutter, cutting mat and quilting ruler 
• 1½” quilters square (or a 2½” or even 3½” square)
• Sewing machine
• Quarter inch foot with guide
• Dynamic Walking Foot with In the Ditch attachment, or Dual Feed attachment with In the Ditch foot 
• Pencil 
• Sharp pins 
• Wonder clips 
• Stiletto or awl with a sharp point 
• Iron and ironing surface 
• Hand sewing needle 

Notes

• Finished size: 19” square (approx. 48cm). 
• Use straight stitch, 2.5 setting for all piecing. 
• Sew all piecing seams with an accurate ¼” width – I recommend using a quarter inch foot with a guide.  
• Use light grey or beige thread for all piecing.  
• HST = Half square triangles 
• WOF = width of fabric, 44” (112cm) 
• The quantities given for this tutorial are more than what is strictly needed. As this is a creative project using a variety of fabric, the extra quantity will allow for placing with a good distribution of colour and pattern. If you are using up scraps, cut the strips to more or less the same length to piece and adjust quantities accordingly. 

How to

Step 1 - make the half square triangles (HST)

Cut the 2½” wide strips into 2½” squares. Set eight to ten green squares aside. 

On the wrong side of the cream squares, draw a line with a pencil diagonally across the square from corner to corner. 

Pair up a background-coloured square with a green square, place with right sides facing and edges aligned. Sew on both sides of the drawn line, each a ¼” from the line.  

Cut on the line through both layers. Fold the top triangles up – you will now have two squares; each made up from a green and a cream triangle.  

Press the seams towards the green triangle.

Step 2

Trim the HSTs to exactly 1½” squares. Lay a pressed square with right side facing up and place the square with the 45° line on the seam. With the rotary cutter, trim the excess off the fabric square, repeating on all edges. 

Repeat these steps with the green squares set aside.  

For the Christmas wreath mini quilt you need 30 cream and green HSTs and eight green and green HSTs. 

Step 3

From the strips, pick randomly and set aside nine green strips and six cream strips. Cut them into 1½” squares. You need approximately 28 to 36 cream squares and 36 to 40 green squares.

Step 4

Mix the rest of the cream strips up and sew in sets of three. Try not to repeat the sequence of patterns so you get a nice, random mix. 

Press seam allowances to one side and then cut 1½” strips across at 90° to form little strips of three blocks each.  

Repeat with the remaining green strips.

Step 5 

Step 6 

Step 7 

Step 8 

Lay the Christmas wreath quilt top on your ironing surface with the wrong side up.  

Carefully press all the seams – they can lie in any direction but try to distribute the bulk at the corners (especially where there are HSTs).  

If you have twisted seam allowances, here is how to deal with them: 

• You can undo or even just loosen the stitches in one of the corners. Fold the seam allowance to straighten out the twist. You will see a little square of the right side of the fabric when this is done. This technique is only possible if the cross seam is not holding the seam allowance down.  
  
  
• You can snip into the twisted seam allowance – cut at a 45° angle, up to 1mm from the sewn line. Press the seam allowances each in the direction it needs to lie to have a flat seam. 

Press well from the right side too, taking care not to distort the sides and corners. 

Step 9 – sandwich and quilt.  

Step 10

Step 11

Add decorations! This is most fun part :)

We covered buttons in red and gold fabric. We used a variety of sizes – the really big ones are so fun! Cover them with colours to contrast your Christmas wreath quilt. Add novelty buttons or shiny ones. 

Here are ideas of things to use: 

• Buttons (look in your buttons jar!) 
• Costume jewellery – especially interesting brooches and earrings 
• Lapel pins 
• Small Christmas ornaments 
• Origami ornaments 
• Cover bottle tops of varied sizes with fabric or rhinestones

Step 12 – making the bow 

Step 13 – making the bow

Step 14