How to Make a Christmas Wall Quilt That Includes a Lighted Christmas Tree

This year I wanted to hang a special quilt on my dining room wall for the Christmas season. I had thought about using a traditional pattern, which would make a lovely quilt, especially if it were made with fabrics depicting the bold, bright colors and prints of the holiday season. However, I wanted this quilt to standout, for friends and family to notice it the moment they entered my dining room. I decided what my quilt needed was Christmas lights. Except, how was I going to get Christmas lights on a wall quilt?

The basic design

First, I decided on a design that included 4 Christmas trees and 10 pre-cut ornaments. I created my Christmas trees using five, four, three, and two-inch triangles. I used a heat bonding material to affix the triangles in a tree pattern and the precut ornaments to a gold dotted piece of red background fabric. I added brown fabric cut in rectangles to the tree bottoms for each tree's trunk. I secured all the pieces with running and blanket stitches. I attached 4-inch Christmas fabric strips to the out edges of the red fabric, to make the quilt larger and to frame the main scene.

Quilting the quilt

I layered my quilt top, quilt batting, and the fabric for the quilt back together and pinned it in place. I used the stitch-in-the-ditch sewing technique on the seams to secure all three layers of the quilt. I then used free-motion quilting, with a random pattern, to quilt all three layers together.

Finishing the quilt and adding the lights

On the raw edges of the quilt, I attached two-inch quilt binding made from strips of red and green striped fabric. I knew regular Christmas lights would not work for this wall quilt because they were too big, so I decided to use necklaces with tiny, lighted Christmas lights. I found these at a dollar store. On the Christmas tree that would be decorated with the lights, I sewed a one-half inch buttonhole at the bottom above the tree trunk. I cut through all three layers of the quilt to open the buttonhole and slipped the lights through the opening from the backside, leaving the switch and battery compartment sticking out from the back. I arranged the lights on the Christmas tree and hand sewed them with just a couple of stitches in specific areas. With my Christmas wall quilt hanging, I only have to reach behind and press the button to turn on the lights.

NOTE: When it is time to wash the quilt, I just need to remove the few stitches that hold the lights in place, slide the lights out the back of the quilt and throw it in the washing machine. After the quilt is cleaned, I can reattach the lights in the same fashion.

Source: Personal Experience