Making the tree skirt

I shared this project with you Sunday but thought I'd add some information about how I turned this mandala into a tree skirt. I wish I had a photo of it under the tree but, I'm sorry, I'm way too lazy to set up a tree in October! I'll show it in December once the tree is set up for the holiday.

First, let's talk about the quilting. I used Superior Metallic threads because I hope that the thread will shimmer under the lights of the tree. It works great in my DSM and on the longarm. Sometimes I add a line of Sewer's Aid to the spool of thread. Sewer's Aid is a silicome lubricant and it works great. It doesn't stain fabric or gunk up the machine. I use it any time I have a thread that's giving me a hard time.

I started by stitching "straight" line along the tie lines if the mandala. I didn't do much up near the center because part of that will get cut out and the rest will not be visible!

For the quilting I wanted something simple so I did that loopy motif in the pargest diamond and the medium diamond. Then I quilted a poinsettia motif in between.

On the outer edge I did a loop (like dangling tree lights) in the light green using metallic thread and dark green polyester thread in a neander in the dark green. I don't want that area to show.

Next I trimmed the dark green connecting the star points. This will make it an octagon shape. Then I found the side with the worst quilting and that's where I cut the slit. I cut out the center jsut big enough for my tree pole. You can see that I did some quilting there but it was primarily to hold it all together and stabilize it for cutting.

Next is the boring part, the binding and ties. I"m not going to tell you how to make binding, you know that already! For the binding around the center circle, make bias binding. The rest can be straight. For the ties you can may your own or use cord or yarn. I made mine about 14" long. I cut fabric 1" wide and pressed using my bias binding maker which folds the 2 edges to the center. Fold that together so that the raw edges are folded inside the strip. Topstitch it close to the edge and you have a 1/4" wide tie. I cut them to 14", tied a knot in one end to prefent fraying and added a drop of Fray Check to the raw edge.

Stitch the binding to the circle first. Stretch the bias as you sew it. It will cup like this but that will make it easier to press into shape.

Fold the binding to the back and steam press it to shape. To finish it I topstitch from the right side and then I cut off the excess flus with the edge.

Finally I pinned the ties in place and added the binding in the same way that I bind a quilt. If I had not spent so much time thinking aobut the quilting I could have easily made this in a day.

If you want to make one for yourself I have created a kit that includes the mandala and 3/4 yard of Pine fabric for the binding. You can fid the kit and all of the other fabrics in the palette are here.