Light-Up Designs! Tutorial

If you are worried that stitches may fray, you can dab on Fray Check
around the openings.

These are the battery packs. There are 10 lights and these black 0-rings to hold them in place from the front. Replacement batteries are also available.  A pocket inside will hold the battery pack. 

The lights will actually be placed after we’ve finished all the sewing but I wanted to show you what you’ll be doing while you can see better.





Feeding lights through – Gently untangle the wires and feed the light through an opening. From the front, slide a black o-ring on to hold  it in place. Slide down and adjust as necessary.

Continue until you have all lights secured in place – this is what it will look like:

To make the wallhanging:

Square your background piece of fabric with tree to 8” square.

Take the four 4” squares, fold in half and press to make a crease. Place all four in the corners on top of your tree fabric facing up and pin in place .

Stitch on crease line for all four corners.

Now we’ll trim the excess and press – when you fold back your corners,
they’ll look like this. You can cut around all edges like this to trim all the unnecessary fabric .

Press from behind pressing seams toward corners.

Flip over to front and square up (should be 8”).

 

 

Next we’ll add our borders.

Pin two 8” x 2-1/2” pieces pretty sides together to top and bottom edges.  I used a ¼” seam – stitch both sides.

 

Now we’ll do the same thing on the sides with the longer 2 x 11-1/2” pieces and square up to 11-1/2” on all sides.

 

Now for our sleeve to hang the wallhanging. This sleeve will hang from a small piece of wood slid through the long opening held in place with thumbtacks on both ends. You could also cut pieces of ribbon and have your wallhanging hang from a piece of ribbon, you would just include ribbon pieces when stitching the layers together.

For our sleeve – we’ll take the 5”x10” strip and press it in half lengthwise.  Tuck the edges on the short end in and press down (so you don’t see raw edges).  Stitch along long edge to close it. Next press the long strip with the seam up in the center so that when you flip it over, you will have a nice clean edge and won’t see the seam.  Place your sleeve on your back fabric piece and stitch across the top and bottom to secure it. Now whatever you hang it from can slide through.

 

On batting piece, layer a small square of batting on top to make a pocket and stitch on three sides leaving top open.

Layering – From the bottom to the top, place batting down first with pocket facing down, backing piece and on top your quilt block facing down.  Stitch around all sides leaving approximately a 6” opening on one side for turning & adding lights.

 

Press from back and front, then along the opening at the edge so it lines up with the rest.

 
 
Press raw edges of opening inside .

 

Now we can add the lights! Follow the instructions above to feed and secure all of the lights  in place. Tuck battery pack into pocket.

 

Carefully place a small piece of velcro on either side of the opening and stitch in place to close the opening.

Slide hanger through opening & hang as desired!

You can feel the light switch through fabric so won’t need to reach in and turn off each time you use it.

You can easily make any applique design a lighted design by creating openings and feeding lights through it. 

This wallhanging would be great decorated with Swarovski crystals to add some holiday glitz.  You can make any design more special by adding crystals randomly too so get creative!  Our Christmas Trees set is digitized to give you many choices & options for fabulous holiday creations no matter which technique you choose!