Sunday, December 24, 2017

Winter Wonderland and the Tree Skirt is DONE

It snowed most of the morning Saturday--the type of snow that makes great snow-people and clings to whatever it falls upon.  I went outside with my phone to take a few pictures once it stopped snowing.  This is a Worplesdon Sweetgum tree seed with a snowy hat!


The tree below was a bare root twig when my daughter brought it home from a tree farm in Grade One.  It's quite a bit bigger now!


Last Sunday evening, I basted my new Christmas tree skirt and then did the quilting this week---it took three full evenings and some time yesterday to finish the machine quilting and adding the binding by machine.  I sewed a line of quilting along each side of every seam --this resulted in very cool six pointed stars at every intersection.


I used a light grey Aurifil thread for quilting.  At one point, the thread kept breaking.  I investigated why this might be happening...  LINT!  Even though I had cleaned the machine before starting, it was a mess again about 3/4 of the way through the quilting.  After a thorough cleaning, the machine was humming again and no more broken threads.


I still had some yardage of this red and white striped fabric so I decided to use it for the binding.  This is the same fabric I used to bind my recently finished Christmas quilt.  I have been spending every spare moment over the last couple of days hand sewing the binding so that the tree skirt would be ready in time for Christmas.


I used white thread and tried to keep my stitches in the white stripes so they would not be seen very easily.  The backing fabric reminded me of swirling snow.



Part way through the hand stitching this afternoon, the sun came out and our living room was quite bright--perfect for a picture of a completed section of the tree skirt under the tree.  I think that reindeer fabric is my favourite!


After I took this picture, I realized that all three ornaments in this picture were made by my friend, Pat.  The wooden spool with the cross stitch cover was one of three that she made for me this year.  The bird was knitted a few years ago and the "new home" ornament was made when we moved into our house in 1999.

I finished the hand stitching on the binding while watching a Christmas movie with my daughter and MIL tonight.   It is now under the tree and ready for Santa!


 I will be linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning.   Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!








17 comments:

  1. Your tree skirt is wonderful...so glad you got it done in time! A new tree skirt in on my list for the coming year.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lovely tree skirt. Happy Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
  3. beautiful tree skirt it looks lovely with your tree - I need to make a new one and have said that for years, I wonder if I ever well LOL - Merry Christmas

    ReplyDelete
  4. Pretty skirt, that striped binding is perfect. Binding is my favorite hand stitching too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Gorgeous tree skirt,gorgeous tree skirt!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your tree skirt is fabulous... and your tree is amazing! Beautiful!
    I wish you have a very Merry Christmas Gail!

    ReplyDelete
  7. The fabrics in the tree skirt are perfect. Love the picture of the sweetgum snow hat.

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a lovely tree and skirt - such a beautiful addition to your decorations. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Great tree skirt...I too love the deer fabrics :-)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Beautiful tree skirt. I love the color combination. Hope you enjoy it for years to come. I recently purchased some Christmas yardage in white black and red and think I just may incorporate the triangle pattern you used. The results have such classic lines. I recently made a tree skirt for my daughter-in-law in a fast and easy gathered style, until I can make a pieced more heirloom style one like yours. She liked it just fine and does not want another. Here is the link to it the gathered one.
    https://dianeloves2quilt.blogspot.com/2017/11/tree-skirt-in-day.html

    ReplyDelete
  11. What a beautiful happy tree skirt! It's so important to keep our machines lint free...although I forget to do it sometimes! Beautiful snow pictures too!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi! What a lovely tree skirt. It really is a beauty.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Beautiful wonderland pics and your tree skirt is just perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  14. A tree skirt is on my list to make and I love yours. Did you use a pattern?

    ReplyDelete