Thanksgiving Tree

I haven't sewed since my 8th grade HomeEc class, but when I saw this Thanksgiving Tree on Pinterest I knew I wanted to start sewing again.

I took ideas from several other crafters and came up with this tree.

It's made out of felt, and it's about 4 feet wide and 5 feet high. I hung it with a wooden dowel above our staircase. Every day in November we will write something we are thankful for on a leaf (which are velcroed on), and move the leaf to the bottom so it looks like the leaves (aka blessings) are falling on us.There are more than 30 leaves, so the tree won't be completely bare when Nov. 30 rolls around. Here's how I made it:

Bought felt fabric in various autumn colors at JoAnn's Fabrics.

 Used my son's sidewalk chalk to freehand a tree trunk and branches on our living room floor. 

(Later cut off the branch on bottom right b/c it looked kinda weird.)

 Cut out leaves in various colors and shapes. 

Stitched and/or glued differing colors together to add variety and dimension.

 

 Pinned and stitched the tree to a lighter color fabric. 

This was one of the hardest parts b/c of the thickness of the fabric 

and trying to squeeze it all into my machine. 

(Any recommendations from you expert sewers for future projects?)

 By the way, this is my new Brother CS-6000i machine. I highly recommend it!

Using a extra-fine Sharpee, wrote things we are thankful for. 

Writing on the felt material was not my favorite part.

Voila! A Thanksgiving Tree hung in our entryway staircase.

(We had to borrow a ladder to put it up!)

Happy Month of Giving Thanks!

Luann

PS: My favorite part of the tree is on the tree trunk. :)