Wonky Christmas Tree Quilt Pattern and Quilting Tutorial

This Wonky Christmas Tree quilt pattern can be pieced in a day! Learn how to make this funky quilt step-by-step with several quilting videos to guide you. This Christmas quilt pattern is improv quilting at its best! This is a no math Christmas tree quilt pattern, so it's the perfect relaxing stitching project for your holiday season.

In this video, we tackle the Christmas Tree quilt pattern again, but with three additional quilting techniques:

1. Improv curve seam piecing
2. Bias tape applique
3. Bring on the bling with crystals and glitter fabric!

Improv quilting is a fun way to make your wonky Christmas tree quilt blocks even more interesting! Layer the fabrics right side up, overlapping along the edge you're wanting to sew. 

Cut a gentle curve into both fabrics at the same time using your rotary cutter. Layer the fabrics right sides together and piece, understanding that the edges and curves will not align perfectly.

When you've improv pieced several curves together, follow the steps in the quilting video trim your block into a tree shape.

Bias tape applique is another creative quilting technique allows you to create deep, curving lines on your quilt blocks. You'll need packaged 1/4-inch bias tape for this applique technique, which is very popular and easy to find at most sewing / quilt shops

Place the bias tape on your fabric, and using a hot, dry iron, force the thin fabric into a deep curve. Use Elmer's Glue in a microtip bottle to glue the bias tape in place.

Repeat this process to cover a rectangle of white fabric with red bias tape applique. Then follow the steps in the quilting video to sew a Christmas Tree cake quilt block.

Now that we have multiple versions of this awesome Wonky Christmas Tree quilt pattern to play with, let's learn how to piece these quilt blocks into a quilt top:

If you cut up 10 fat quarters for this wonky Christmas tree quilt pattern, you're going to make dozens of quilt blocks! 

Because each quilt block made two Christmas trees, I  easily pieced twenty quilt blocks in all shapes and sizes in less than an hour. Most were around 8 inches wide because that's how wide my tree trunk strip set was from the beginning. The length of my quilt blocks varied from 4 inches to 20 inches.

So how do we sew quilt blocks together that are all different lengths?

Simple - piece additional background fabric to the blocks until they are all the same height. Follow the next steps in this Christmas tree quilt pattern to sew your quilt blocks together into a row:

1. Select the tree blocks you wish to piece together.
2. Sew a 1-2 inch strip of fabric to the longest quilt block, then measure the length of this block. This is the length all of the quilt blocks must be pieced to match.
3. Take a look at your other tree blocks. Measure the difference between the tallest tree and the shortest. Cut a strip of background fabric a little wider than this difference.
4. Piece more background fabric to the top of each quilt block to make them all the same height.
5. Trimmed the edges of each quilt block straight and square.
6. Sew the tree blocks together in a row, starting from the base of the tree.

When you've completed piecing one row of your tree quilt, piece a 1-2 inch wide background strip to both sides. This will add a little more "sky" around your Christmas trees and help to even out the widths of the rows.

Piece more quilt rows, then trim the edges so they are all the same width.

If you've followed this wonky Christmas tree quilt pattern up to this point, you should have a few rows of pieced quilt blocks that are cut to the same width.

To sew the rows of quilt blocks together, you can simply piece them to a 2-3 inch straight strip of white fabric.

But a far more interesting way to connect the rows is to add a bit of applique to this quilt! I used a curvy ruler to create the gentle curving effect. Any curvy edge ruler or even a curvy line you draw yourself will work just fine.

You can turn the edges of your rows as I shared in the video using a turning template. Or you can save time and just to fuse the fabrics together with fusible web. I thought of this after making my quilt and realized it would be a faster and easier method.

I pieced 3 1/2 inch strips of white fabric to both sides to complete my quilt. Feel free to expand on this wonky Christmas tree quilt pattern with additional borders or quilt blocks. You can always increase the size of your quilt by adding additional border strips in festive Christmas colors!

When quilting with thick bobbin thread like this, make sure to increase your machine's tension on the top. This will help the top thread pull the bobbin thread tight against the quilt. Also you may need to loosen your bobbin tension so the thicker thread can feed smoothly. This is a great reason to have an extra bobbin for decorative quilting.

Crazy Curves is a very simple, free form quilting design and it's the perfect choice for a simple finish to this Christmas tree quilt pattern. See how I quilted in the narrow border and between the tree blocks in this video:

Would you rather quilt Crazy Curves with ruler quilting? The Super Slide and Mini Slide rulers can both be used to make our curvy snow applique and for ruler quilting this quilt!

I would keep the snow areas very simple with curvy lines of quilting that echo the curves we've appliqued in the quilt. With busy fabrics and funky colors, sometimes simple quilting is the best!

You only have four more steps to this Wonky Christmas tree quilt pattern:

1. Create a quilt sandwich with batting and backing fabric.

2. Quilt your project with any of the quilting ideas shared above or with your favorite machine quilting designs.

3. Trim the edges of your quilt straight and square.

4. Finish the edges with quilt binding. Click Here to find a tutorial on binding by machine.

I hope you have enjoyed this fun wonky Christmas tree quilt pattern. Stitch out of your comfort zone with improv quilting and let this project help you go with the flow this holiday season.

I hope you'll enjoy using this quilting tutorial to make many beautiful quilts quilts. Please share this free wonky Christmas tree quilt pattern with you quilting friends so they can make it too!

Let's go quilt,

Leah Day