Christmas Tree Skirt - Finished!!!

I had purchased Cindi Edgerton's Trim the Tree paper pieced Christmas Tree Skirt pattern almost three years ago after having seen a skirt at a local guild quilt show. I began collecting greens, greens with a touch of gold, reds and reds with a touch of gold. For the background I purchased an entire bolt of cream with tiny cream stars. Once I began, it took me over two years to finish this Christmas Tree Skirt. Once it was pieced, it sat for almost six months while I debated how I would quilt it.

It was paper pieced which I generally love to do. The actual pieces while time consuming worked up nicely. Once I got two done, I was inspired to finish the other six.











And, once the eight were complete I was very excited!! It was shaping up nicely but the big question was when it was sewn together would it be flat??







Well it was!!

So as you can see - I thought that I was being smart. This project could have been either a table topper or a tree skirt. I followed the directions for a tree skirt - where you did not add the  small triangle that would have filled in the hole  I also did not sew the skirt into a complete circle ... thinking that it would eliminate cutting the skirt through a seam for the opening, Both of these choices I regret - lol -  as it created another set of problems when I went to quilt it on the longarm. If I were to make any tree skirt again, I would sew it as if it were a topper and then cut out the center and slice up the side!

So now that it was all together my most un-favorite part of paper piecing began. As you can see, the foundation was thin tissue paper. Usually when I paper piece, I use inexpensive copy paper and run either a qtip dipped in water or a Clover Fabric Folding pen filled with warm water down the stitches of the seam. That moisture softens the paper under the stitches and the entire piece easily lifts off. That was not the case with this tissue paper- it just made a mess if the paper. I had to resort to ripping one segment off at a time.

And trust me - I made quite a mess in my sewing room!!














So, in preparation for putting it on the longarm, I did something that I never have done ... I bought some spray baste and spray basted it to the batting.  I usually "float" my top on the batting when I quilt it but if I did that, then the skirt opening would flap open (yup ... bad choice there). This seemed to actually work well and the skirt stayed flat.

I used an Anne Bright design (Snow Crystals) suggested to me by a friend and it was a perfect pick!

And after a day of hand stitching ..... It is finished.