Kelly's tree skirt

Behold my very first Christmas tree skirt.

This one is a gift, as we are Jewish and this is WAY too big for the menorah.

We help our friend Kelly put up her tree every year, and for the past few I've been wanting to upgrade her skirt. I got the idea to do a "mega Dresden" from Red Pepper Quilts, who did something similar on a large appliqué quilt.

My trusty Dresden ruler wasn't long enough for the 24" blades I wanted, so I used it and some blue masking tape to fashion a cutting guide on my mat.   The blades were made up of 12 2.5" strips of bright scrap fabric, ranging in length from about 2" to 14" wide.

The bottom edge of the tape guide was later used to cut additional fake blade end points, which I fit behind the 16 main Dresden blades junctions to add more interest.

For assembly, I first cut a circle of leftover zigzag upholstery fabric.  Then, I basted the circle to scrap batting.  

Once trimmed, I pre-bound this "half sandwich" circle in a bright acid green.  Then, I flipped the batting up and layered on the dresden, with the additional points spaced in between.

It's quilted in an all-over swirl.  

After much debate amongst a group of my Christmas-tree-having guild friends, I cut a circle about 9" in diameter in the center for the tree trunk, and sliced open the Dresden along one side to create the skirt opening.   

The exposed raw edges were bound in zippy red dots.

Recently, Caro Sheridan presented at our guild meeting.   Caro is an exceptional photographer, who gave us a boatload of funny tips for staging our work for photos.   When I finished the skirt, I tried her "pose it with a couch" concept.  Um, maybe I'll keep trying.

PS - did you know tree skirts double as kick-ass ponchos?  Here, my daughter works the look, Noodlehead style, ie, eyes away from the photographer.  (I love you, Noodlehead, but why so coy?)