Monday, December 29, 2014

Christmas Tree Skirt

My sons Christmas list to Santa this year included one tree skirt.  They wanted it big, with a middle circumference of which would be large enough to fit over their stand for easy watering.  The middle opening was some 40 “, and the entire skirt measured 80” in diameter.  I made a pattern out of 5- 80+ inch sheets of freezer paper taped together. I moved all the furniture out of my living room and using a string marked at the correct radius marked the two circles, then cut it larger than needed, folded the paper to make the scallops for the edges, drew a cardboard template to better trace the edges evenly,   Divided the circle into the largest equilateral triangle possible, then center the three “Merry Christmas” to be stem stitched by hand.  Stippled quilted the entire thing, I used over 2,000 yards of thread.  On the paper pattern, I arranged trial holy leaves out of newspaper until I had the correct size and number to be appliqued after the quilting was complete.   After many headaches, I actually finished it.  Not bad if I do say so myself.  This is how it looked in my son’


s front room.