I had grand intentions of getting a nice new artificial tree this year, but I didn't get myself into gear in time. So, I brought up the little pre-lit one my Mom had given us years ago, and set it on a little table that she had used as a little girl to keep it out of toddler/cats/dogs reach. It ended up looking quite cute, but I needed a tree skirt. Oooh! An opportunity to get some yummy fabric! I decided on a Moda jelly roll - Kate Spain's 12 Days of Christmas - super cute and lots of fun colors!
I more or less winged the design - since I was working with 2 1/2" strips, I figured a hexagon would work out best. Here's a quickie tute on what I did:
- Making sure to use strips without a directional design, piece two sets of seven strips together and then use the 60 degree angle on a quilt ruler against the bottom or top edge to end up with six triangular pieces. This was for a pretty small tree/table, so you'll have to adjust if you're making a larger tree skirt.
- Piece the six triangles together, leaving one edge unattached as the opening.
- Layer backing (a leftover piece of twill from Arden's halloween chef costume), batting (stash), and the quilt top.
- Pin.
- Quilt. I used a patchwork stitch with red thread and stitched in the ditch. You could freehand quilt this, or use a straight stitch to stitch in the ditch.
- For binding, attach enough strips together to go around all the edges. Iron in half lengthwise with wrong sides together. With raw edges meeting on the pieced side of the quilt, stitch all the way around.
- Trim all the excess batting and backing.
- Turn binding to the backside, and stitch with a hidden stitch. I normally machine my bindings, but on small projects, I like the nicer look of a hand-sewn binding. This one especially with all the angles was a better candidate for hand-sewing.
Tada!
Since this was a jelly roll, I still have quite a bit of fabric left over with some other projects in mind. I used the scraps of this for one project, and I'm thinking some pillows would be cute.
Linking to parties in my linky party directory, and to:
Visiting you from a linky party. This is a beautiful tree skirt!
ReplyDeleteLovely! The fabric is gorgeous! I bet you hate to pack that away with the Christmas stuff not to be seen until next year. :)
ReplyDeleteI know - I'm planning to keep it up for a little longer, and if I get the pillows made, I'll keep those out through February or so.
ReplyDeleteVery nice! Love the colours and stitching details!
ReplyDeleteSo cute! I made a Christmas Dress in for my daughter using the 12 Days of Christmas fabric. I loved it. Found you through Sew Much Ado...I am participating in PTR too! I can't wait to get started! It should be fun.
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking on the 52 weeks post. This tree skirt is so cute!
ReplyDeleteI just LOVE this! Faublous job!
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking up to Making It With Allie! I can't wait to see what you have for next week!
AllieMakes.Blogspot.com
Just swinging back to tell you I'm featuring this as one of the Making It With Allie Features this week! Come on by and grab a button!
ReplyDeleteAllieMakes.Blogspot.com
LOVE this tree skirt. Adorable.
ReplyDeleteThis is a beautiful tree skirt! What a treasure!
ReplyDeletewhat are the dimensions of the final product? Also, how much backing should I buy?
ReplyDeleteThe skirt is about 30" at the widest part (across the points). You'd need a little less than a yard to back it; I used scraps from another project and pieced them together since nobody's going to see the back. It's really a small tree, so it works great and we've used it both years since.
ReplyDelete