Tuesday is a Great Day for Needle-Turn Applique!

Oh my gosh, you guys -- I had the BEST time at my needle-turn applique workshop on Saturday!  Not only was it a healthy slice of heaven just to relax and sew with no distractions for an entire day, but I also went to lunch with some wonderful, funny, and incredibly talented quilters who invited me to join their quilting bee.  Their monthly get-together was yesterday, which gave me another three hours to relax and continue working on my applique block with other women who share my love of quilting.  I am floating on a cloud of sunshine, sparkle dust, and happiness -- making new quilting friends is the perfect antidote to the Post-Holiday Blahs!

Here's my workshop block so far:

My 12" Needle-Turn Applique Workshop Block In Progress

My Fabric Picks: Some Kaffe Fassett, Tula Pink Snails, and Random Stash Discoveries

I did end up swapping the Kaffe print with the Tula Pink print once I got to class due to the size of the circles involved and the scale of the prints.  I opted for the No Fabric kit for this class because, although I love the soft, vintage charm of instructor Christa Smith's fabrics, I felt like it was too similar to my Frankenwhiggish Rose needle-turn project that has been dragging along for several years, and I wanted a change.

With Fabric Kit Had Fabrics Similar to This Class Sample

Also, I wanted to be able to USE the workshop block without having to create an entirely new project (UFO!) around it.  No more orphan blocks!  I had thought about mixing in some applique blocks with the 6" pieced sampler blocks I've been making off and on as breaks/rewards between other projects.  Remember my Farmer's Wife, Farmer's Wife 1930s, Vintage Block QAL blocks, and random other 6" blocks that were living on my design wall for awhile?

Assorted 6" Sampler Blocks.  My 12 inch Workshop Block Might Join These...

So the new (tentative) plan is that I could mix in some 12" blocks with the 6" ones and this could be one of those larger blocks.  And if that doesn't work out, I know that I can work this brightly-colored block into a baby quilt.  In any case, it felt good to work with totally different colors and fabrics from the Magnum Opus/Magnum Onus that my Frankenwhiggish Rose is turning out to be:

Meanwhile, I'm Still Working On the Eight Remaining Blocks Like This One...

I love the look of antique Whig Rose quilts, but I'm finding it tedious to work on the same block over and over.  Good for improving needle-turn applique skills, maybe, but difficult from a motivation standpoint!  At this point I have all of the stems and stacked center "rose" petals appliqued to all of the blocks as well as the double circle centers, and I'm working on needle-turning all of the leaves.  Next will be all of those stinker tulips with the revers applique centers and deep, tight inside and outside curves, and then all of the stuffed berries, and all of the broderie perse rosebuds that I'm cutting out of leftover drapery fabric (with a distinct possibility that I might have to cut rosebuds out of one of my actual drapery PANELS, if there aren't enough rosebuds in the fabric scraps!).  Once I've finished my workshop applique block, I'll switch back to the Frankenwhiggish Rose project for my portable hand sewing.

I'm really glad I gave myself a break from my major WIPS and gave myself permission to go off on a workshop tangent.  I definitely got enough out of the workshop to make it worthwhile.  I learned a different way of using the Clover bias maker gadget to make quick stems, and I learned some methods for streamlining the prep work for applique to get to the stitching part faster.  Who knew you could glue baste for needle-turn applique instead of pinning?!  I might not have the courage to do it that way for a really intricate Baltimore Album block, but there are a lot of less complex applique patterns that this would work for.  You all know I'm dying to start a new applique project, like Esther's Queen's Garden pattern:

70 x 70 Queen's Garden by Esther Aliu, Pattern Available here

Or -- gasp! -- dare I even say it? -- Sarah Fielke's Down the Rabbit Hole pattern:

96 x 96 Down the Rabbit Hole by Sarah Fielke, pattern available here

But there are LOTS of other quilts that need to get finished before I can start either of these.  There's a new baby who was born last month whose quilt isn't even started yet (need Jingle off the design wall before I can get into that one) and the high school graduation "Quillow Sunday" service at our church is exactly 5 months from tomorrow.  That gives me exactly 152 days to complete Lars's graduation quilt from start to finish, except that I'm not even ready to get started on it yet...  So I haven't started the Queen's Garden even though I have the pattern and have purchased my fabrics for it, and I've not ordered the pattern for Down the Rabbit Hole.  Instead, I got my rabbit fix by ordering these adorable 4" embroidery scissors last night from The French Needle:

Hare Scissors by Jean-Marie Roulot

I ordered the Antique finish shown in the middle.  They are handmade in France and even cuter than the Sajou hare scissors I was lusting after previously -- even the screw at the pivot point is decorative on the Roulot scissors -- yet they were significantly less expensive.  A penny saved is another penny to spend on fabric, right?  

We're not having any stress over here, in case you're wondering.  Just stitching away happily, thinking about bunny rabbit scissors.  

I'm linking up with:

• ·       To-Do Tuesday at Stitch ALL the Things: http://stitchallthethings.com
• ·       Midweek Makers at www.quiltfabrication.com/
• ·       WOW WIP on Wednesday at www.estheraliu.blogspot.com
• ·       Needle and Thread Thursday at http://www.myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com/  

Hand-Stitched Favorites from the 2013 North Carolina Quilt Symposium

Detail of a Quilt by Anne Francis

Anne Francis had some beautiful work in the North Carolina Quilt Symposium show, last weekend in Fayetteville,  including the penguin quilt shown here.  This quilt is covered with hundreds and hundreds of hand stitched French knot "snowflakes" that also secure the three layers of the quilt in lieu of traditional quilting stitches.    Spectacular!  I'm afraid I could not find a label near this one, so I don't know the title.


Another of Anne Francis's quilts that I enjoyed was A Harry Potter Story, made with the author's permission.  I made sure to get lots of pictures of this one for my Harry Potter aficionado sons. 


A Harry Potter Story, by Anne Francis

Look at the detail on Harry, with his embroidered lightning bolt scar, "Nimbus 2000" inscribed on his broomstick, and the fancifully hand embroidered Golden Snitch!

Detail of A Harry Potter Story, Entirely Handmade by Anne Francis

Harry Potter, Voldemort, Dumbledore, Hagrid, and the Hogwarts Castle were all carefully rendered by hand in applique and embroidery on this hand-pieced quilt.  Not a single machine stitch in the entire quilt. 

Dumbledore Detail from A Harry Potter Story, by Anne Francis

Isn't that amazing?  I was surprised to see so much hand work in this show, since most of the classes offered at this year's Symposium were geared toward machine quilting.  On the show floor, I saw quilt after quilt that had been hand pieced, appliqued, and hand quilted, in every style from traditional to contemporary to whimsical.  It's so interesting to see how artists working in the same medium (textiles and thread) and using the same techniques can create such completely different quilts.  I suppose I was mostly drawn to the appliqued quilts this time around since I'm immersed in my own first applique project. 



Detail of Papa's Album, by Sandra Russell

Look at the detail of hand applique with hand embroidered details and thousands of tiny, perfect hand quilting stitches in the Baltimore Album quilt pictured at left, which won first place for Best Hand Quilting.  Just marking the straight, parallel lines for the diagonal grid quilting would have been a challenge for me!

Papa's Album, by Sandra Russell

There were some beautiful machine quilts as well, and I'll show those to you tomorrow.  Or the next day.  Or when I get around to it...  ;-)

Only SEVEN more days of school before summer vacation!



Ready-to-Wear Inspiration: Decorative Machine Stitches at Lucky Brand and Quilt Block Bodices at Anthropologie

Riley Schiffli Shorts from Lucky Brand, $79.50

A couple of catalogs caught my eye yesterday as I was tossing them into the recycle bin.  You know all those decorative stitches programmed into our sewing machines -- hundreds and hundreds of them?  What to my wondering eyes should appear, but cutoff jean shorts at Lucky Brand Jeans that have been decorated with decorative machine stitches along the cut edge to look like eyelet.  How cute is that? 

Hmmm..  Somewhere I have a pair of beloved jeans with a ripped knee that I couldn't bear to throw away.  Maybe I'll try to create a longer version of these shorts?  The only thing that I haven't worked out in my head is that bulky double-felled side seam.  I might have to completely open up that seam to do the embroidery stitches, then resew it with matching jeans thread, because I can't imagine decorative stitches would form properly if I tried to stitch them across that thick seam.



Sunburst Maxi Dress from Anthropologie, $228

The other interesting piece I saw was in an Anthropologie catalog.  At first glance, I thought the bodice of this summer maxi dress was made from a paper-pieced quilt block.  Closer inspection indicates that the starburst design is embroidered and beaded, but still -- why NOT make a dress bodice out of quilt blocks?  I'm not sure I like the bib-like shape of this dress, but there's no reason any pattern for a woven fabric couldn't be cut from quilt blocks that were made just a bit larger than the pattern pieces.  I think I'd line the bodice to make sure the raw edges of the seam allowances don't unravel and come apart as the dress was washed. 

Well, I'm in dire and desperate need of a haircut and my appointment is at noon.  I have several errands to run beforehand, so I'd best step away from the computer and get on with the day.  Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Monogram Magic: Playing with Embroidery Software

My New Monogram: Destined for my Sewing Machine Dust Covers

Since I had nothing better to do this afternoon (shh!), I've been playing in my Bernina embroidery software, and this is what I've come up with to decorate a dust cover for my new sewbaby.  Isn't that fun?  It's big; the design measures approximately 7 1/2" wide by 8 1/2" tall, and it has over 50,000 stitches.  It will be the first embroidery design that I stitch out with the Jumbo Hoop I bought for my B 750 QE sewbaby.


Original Bernina Design for the 830 LE

I didn't digitize this from scratch -- I started with a Bernina embroidery design for the 830 LE machine that you can download here for free, and then I deleted the "830," copied and pasted a few swirlies and deleted a few others, and then combined the Bernina design with an enlarged "R" monogram from Embroidery Arts' Gothic 10 collection, which you can purchase here.  I think this particular late nineteenth century leaf and vine monogram style is perfect, because the little satin-stitched leaves on the inside of the monogram look almost exactly like the little satin-stitched leaves in the upper right section of the Bernina design.  I wanted my new design to look just as seamless as the original, as though the monogram and the swirly background graphics had been digitized together.

Gothic 10 Monogram Collection from Embroidery Arts, here

I used my software to remove overlapping stitches, to change the flower at top right from black to red, and to resequence the order of stitching to my liking, and then I printed out a full-size template of the design that I'll be able to use for placement. 

I have some other sewing that I've committed to finish up by the end of this week, plus I've got the carpool tag mini quilt and Princess Petunia's Dresden Plate quilt vying for my attention, so I won't be starting this new project right away.  At least I've got my design modified and ready to stitch out.

Seriously, I have LOTS that I should be doing right now.  I can't believe it's after 3 o'clock already. 

Enjoy what's left of your weekend!

Bernina Embroidery Software v6: Manual Digitizing Homework

Bernina Embroidery Software Homework Completed!

Ta da!  Behold, my completed manual digitizing homework for my Bernina Artista Embroidery Software v6 class!  We started with this palm tree artwork (seen below) in the background, and built the embroidery design one object at a time, with right-clicks and left-clicks and stitch angles, oh my!  This simple exercize took me several hours to complete, both inside and outside the classroom.  I have new appreciation for the talents and abilities of professional digitizers!

Palm Tree Artwork Used in this Exercize

I am not going to bother with stitching my wonky palm tree out on the machine.  Truth be told, I doubt I would ever go to all the trouble of creating an embroidery design completely from scratch.  The software manual is almost 600 pages long; it's pretty complicated stuff.  I mostly use my embroidery software for combining or editing professional designs, or for embroidering with lettering.  Still, it's good to go through all the classes because you never know where you might pick up a useful morsel of information.  For instance, on the Drunken Dragons quilt that I'm temporarily avoiding, I was planning to use my embroidery module to quilt fancy designs in the center of each pieced circle, but wasn't sure how to handle the half circles on the edges of the quilt.  I learned that I can open the professional quilting design in my embroidery software, convert the embroidery design to vectors, use the eraser tool to erase half of the quilting motif, and then reconvert it to embroidery and save as a new design to use on those half circles.  So that's one hurdle that I can deal with -- if only I can get the free motion quilting down so I can stitch in the ditch on the curved circular seamline!

I should send my kids to the classes and have them learn how to use the software.  They'd be scanning in pictures of Lego Ninjago warrios and filling them in with all kinds of funky stitch patterns!  Speaking of Lars and Anders, they have been busy performers lately.  They were in four performances of Beauty and the Beast Jr. at their school last week, and their piano recital was earlier this afternoon.  They will be performing on their recorder (Anders) and trombone (Lars) with their classes again on Tuesday evening for the school's annual Night of the Arts, and I understand they will each have artwork for sale prior to the concert.  Busy, busy boys!

A Rainy Saturday at the Paris Flea Market: Les Puces de Saint-Ouen

Random Cute Strangers at Les Puces de Saint-Ouen

I was looking through photos yesterday and came across all these fabulous pictures from the Paris flea markets in September that I never got around to showing you.  First, a disclaimer: I am by no means any kind of expert on the fleas.  This was my first time going, and since I was in Paris for a trade show and was squeezing in as much sight-seeing as possible, I didn't allow nearly enough time to fully explore all that the Paris flea markets have to offer.  In fact, I was only there a couple of hours and then we raced off to Versailles, which I was determined not to miss out on again.  If you're headed to Paris for some serious shopping, I highly recommend that you download Claudia Strasser of The Paris Apartment's iPhone app "Keys to the Fleas." 

Why had I never been to the flea markets on previous trips to Paris?  Well, for one thing, when I hear "flea market" I instantly think of the Englishtown Auction where I had my very first job in a breakfast stand in the Red Building, serving Canadian bacon and egg sandwiches to the bargain hunters of New Jersey at the crack of dawn.  As my olfactory memory is overcome by greasy breakfast smells, I remember the Englishtown Auction (billed as one of the largest open air flea markets in the United States) as an enormous and overwhelming yard sale full of a mixture of junk and brand-new clothing with tags, recently shoplifted from the nearby malls.  You can get in some interesting people-watching at the Englishtown Auction, but did I really need to go to a giant French yard sale and look through French people's junk while I was in Paris?

The answer is oui, oui, OUI!!   I can tell you most emphatically that the Parisian flea markets are MUCH more elegant than Les Puces de New Jersey! ;-) 

Ventriloquist's Dummy and Vintage, Antique Doll Parts

Another quick disclaimer, before we get started: There are two main flea markets in Paris, Les Puces de Saint-Ouen (where I went) and Clignancourt (where I did not go, although I heard it's more affordable).  Then there are all kinds of smaller, less permanent flea markets going on in different places at different times.  Again, if you're looking for something specific, check out Claudia's Keys to the Fleas before you head out.  My goal was just to get a taste of what the flea markets had to offer in the few hours I was there.  I saw much that I loved but bought nothing -- everything I liked seemed to cost at least 3,000 euros and the exchange rate was lousy.

Françoise Schuler, Marché Vernaison, Saint-Ouen



This was one of my favorite stalls.  This antique textile dealer had the most amazing things, everything from embroidered table linens to silk damask window treatments (I was tempted to buy the valance in the photo above to hang in my office, but she would only sell it as part of a set with several other matching valances and drapery tiebacks that I wouldn't be able to use).  There were also some beautiful 18th century aristocratic garments, embellished with some of the most exquisite hand embroidery I've ever seen in person.

Can't you just imagine Mozart scampering around in this outfit?

Detail of Hand-Embroidered Floral Motif

This vendor also had museum-worthy religious vestments (see above), antique quilts, and tapestries.  I feel terrible for drooling all over her lovely things.

Tapestries from Françoise Schuler

All that was just from one stall no bigger than a two-car garage.  I was beginning to wish I'd alotted more of our day to the flea market at this point!

This was another fun booth.  I think our fearless leader Deb Barrett may have gone back and purchased the vintage Draperies sign later in the day.  The vendor at this stall asked me not to take pictures (after I'd already taken this one -- oops!), but then she relented and gave us permission to photograph a fascinating antique window blind that she'd already sold to another customer:

Antique Window Blind; Love the Metal Cornice!

By the way, in the flea market, as elsewhere in Paris, I found that Parisians were friendly, helpful, and very gracious when we were courteous and attempted to speak a little French.  Most flea market vendors spoke some English, but not as fluently as the sales staff at the Galleries Lafayette or the cafes.  I was happily surprised that I remembered enough French to converse with a couple of vendors in a mixture of French and English that my high school French teacher would have scorned as "franglais!"

Fit for the Queen of the Universe?

This next stall specialized in vintage costume jewelry.  Aren't these crowns fabulous?  In my house, when I ask my children to do something and they start whining about why, I often reply "Because I said so, and I'm the Queen of the Universe."  I got away with this when they were in preschool, but since then they've wised up and now Anders will retort, "Yeah?  If you're the Queen of the Universe, then where's your crown?"  I think the crown at bottom left with the stars would be perfect for the Queen of the Universe, don't you?

The same stall had a great collection of vintage Chanel costume jewelry as well.

Vintage Chanel Costume Jewelry

Taxidermy Tarantula

Of course there were plenty of odd things for sale at the flea market, like this taxidermied tarantula.  I almost bought this for my son Lars because he would think it was unbelievably cool, but then I considered the potential for customs hassels if I tried to bring a dead spider back to the States in my luggage.  I don't recall there being a box to check on the customs form to declare deceased arachnids specifically, but I decided to let it go anyway. 

Les Perlés d’Antan

Another stall that demanded our attention was Les Perlés d’Antan, where vendor Flora Barlan is selling off the inventory of her family's now defunct trim company. 

 Look at the hand embroidery and beadwork on this piece!  This definitely gives me some ideas.  A little bead bling embellishment (with restraint) added to an embroidered drapery fabric could be amazing on a drapery cornice or pillow.  Pearl beads, small rhinestones and seed beads could also be added to machine embroidered designs to give them a more unique, three-dimensional flair.  The piece in the photo here is an embroidered collar, and Mme. Barlan explained that it would have been used as a sample in a shop where clients could order custom embroidered garments.  What would I do with something like this if I had purchased it?  Well, it would be stunning framed as textile art.  It might be possible to adapt the collar pieces for use as drapery tiebacks, but it would be an absolute shame to destroy any of the embroidery and I would worry about UV damage -- you'd definitely want to invest in UV film for your window before you used a vintage textile for a window treatment.

Embroidered and Beaded Sample Collar

Cutwork and Beaded Sample Collar

Antique Crocheted Lace Trim Samples

By the way, after I returned from Paris, I came across a wonderful idea for these small pieces of antique crocheted lace trims.  Of course, now I can't remember where I saw it -- Pinterest, maybe?  Someone had framed a piece of fabric stretched over a board, with horizontal "stripes" of different laces, and was using it as a place to organize and display her collection of earrings.  These bits of lace would be perfect for a project like that, and they could also be sewn into one of those fabric jewelry travel pouches for the same purpose.

Vintage Crystal Pagoda Chandelier

By the time we came to this lovely courtyard of shops, it was almost time to head back for lunch and our afternoon trip to Versailles.  We really only got a glimpse of the treasures to be found at Les Puces de Saint-Ouen.  Next time I'm in Paris, I plan to spend a whole day at the flea markets, and I'll be bringing back more than memories and pretty pictures!

Trepidation, Terror & Triumph: Test Monogram of the Lee Jofa Cut Velvet Fabric

Even the most seasoned sewists -- a group which does not, by the way, include me -- have occasional stage fright when it comes time to cut into expensive fabric. When my mother made my sisters' wedding gowns, she spread the fabric out on the dining room table and left it there for weeks before she did anything with it. Each day, she'd go into the dining room, circle around the table and just look at the fabric, picking anxiously at her fingers and wondering what on Earth made her think she could tackle a project of such magnitude... But eventually she mustered up the courage to cut into that fabric and sew two beautiful gowns.


I'm not sewing any bridal gowns, but I've been procrastinating a bit on a monogram project for a client. I designed a 20" square monogram pillow as part of a client's custom bedding ensemble, and although I don't typically sew for clients anymore, this particular pillow is a new-and-improved version of one I did for the client a couple of years ago and since I monogrammed the fabric myself last time, I figured I should do it again this time. I still had the Victorian 12 "M" design from Embroidery Arts that I had enlarged and saved in the correct format for my Bernina Artista sewing machine on my hard drive. All I had to do was stitch it out again on the new fabric, with the new thread color. Piece of cake, right?

WRONG! The new fabric, Penzance Velvet in Brass from Lee Jofa, costs close to $400 per yard. I have only one yard to work with, and two 20" pillow squares need to be cut out of that piece of fabric. There's not much room for error. Since I don't have much in the way of extra fabric for experimentation, I decided to practice on the memo sample I checked out of the showroom. Shhh... don't tell anyone! This fabulous, yummy fabric is going to be a challenge to embroider for a couple of reasons. First, it's a velvet -- that means I can't hoop it, or I'll have a permanent oval shaped "hoop burn" indentation in the finished project. Plus, similar to a terry cloth bath towel, the velvet pile is going to have a tendency to want to poke up through my embroidery stitches, particularly since my design uses long satin stitches. I'm also concerned about the uneven surface of this cut velvet fabric, since the flat areas between the velvet pile squiggles are like little valleys in the fabric.

So here's the plan: I hooped a single layer of OESD Clean and Tear stabilizer, which I then sprayed with 505 Temporary Spray Adhesive so I could stick my velvet fabric down without actually hooping it. I then laid a sheet of a pretty thick clear topper (don't know what it is exactly, since the label is missing off the roll and I've had it a long time). It's not a water-soluble stabilizer like Sulky Solvy, though; I need something permanent that will remain beneath the embroidery stitches to keep the velvet pile under control indefinitely. I didn't risk using spray adhesive to secure the clear topper either, because I had a bad experience doing that once with a plush terry pile -- when I tore off the topper after embroidering, little clumps of fuzz were ripped off the towel with it and the poor little towel looked like it had mange.

So I decided to try a basting stitch just inside the hoop to hold down the topper and secure all three layers in the hoop: stabilizer, fabric, and topper, crossing my fingers in hopes that the basting stitch wouldn't leave a line in the fabric once I pulled out the thread.
This is my finished sample. The topper and stabilizer combo worked well, and thankfully, I was able to fluff the velvet pile back into place with my fingernail to "erase" the line from the basting stitches after I pulled them out. I am about 90% satisfied with the way this test stitched out.


...Here's the 10% Room For Improvement factor. Even with the topper trapping the velvet pile, I still don't have a clean enough edge to the embroidered areas. See how it looks a bit feathered up close? So I opened the design up in my embroidery software again, changed the fabric settings, and increased the stitch density of the design. Whereas this test sample had a total of 8052 stitches, the tweaked design is going to have 8559 stitches. Hopefully that will fill the design in better without creating so much thread buildup that I get giant thread nests and broken needles. If the denser design still has sparse areas here and there, I'll thread up a hand needle and fine-tune the embroidery by hand after the machine work is done. Another change I'm making is to increase the basting stitch length from 2.0 mm to 3.0 mm. That should still hold the layers together nicely, but will be easier to pick out after the embroidery is finished.
So now, it's 9:30 PM. I really want to bring this embroidered fabric to my drapery workroom tomorrow morning with a batch of other fabrics I'm dropping off, and I don't want to be up all night. I still have work orders to write, too. Do I stitch another test sample to see how my changes affect the way the design stitches out, or am I going to be a gambling woman and just go for it? Keep in mind that I don't do machine embroidery very often, and I haven't really used my embroidery software at all since I upgraded to the newest version and took the mastery classes. It's entirely possible that I screwed something up (which is why I saved the revised design under a new file name and retained the original). I wonder if I have enough of the real fabric to do one more test and still have enough for the front and back of the pillow? I guess I'll find out when I get upstairs to my studio. Wish me luck!

Christmas Tree Number Two: Woodland Forest Theme

The second tree at our house is sort of a "woodland forest" theme.  It all started with a beautiful wire and glass bead garland I found in a catalog several years ago, pictured as part of a tablescape.  I bought a bunch of them for this Christmas tree, and I think it looks like glittering ice and snow.  Then a snowflake ornament thing started, and then I bought a couple of feathered bird ornaments, which blossomed into a full-blown bird ornament obsession.  I looked at hundreds of tree toppers before choosing this blown glass star topper from Christopher Radko, but I didn't like the way it was made to attach to the tree so Bernie made some custom welding modifications for me, and my sparkly sprays at the top of the tree cover up the wire spiral that secures the star to the tree.

New to the tree this year are the true red poinsettia sprays and the red cranberry sprays.  I had sort of burgundy poinsettias on this tree in previous years and I couldn't stand them another year.  Now that I have more red on this tree, it works with the first Christmas tree skirt I ever made back when Lars was a baby and I was sewing on a Husqvarna Viking Rose sewing machine. 

As you can see, the concept is really similar to the subsequent skirt I made for the kids' tree, but I was much more limited on the other machine when it came to built-in decorative stitches to embellish the patchwork seams.  There's no hand embroidery or beadwork on this skirt, just readymade gold piping trim and machine embroidered poinsettias on every other skirt section.  If you look carefully, you can tell that I had to do some gathering around the center hole at the middle of this first tree skirt, too, because I made the pie slice pattern too wide on the skinny side and I didn't end up with a flat circle when I sewed all the pieces together.  Live and learn!

That's it for today; back to work for me!  I'll show you Bernie's special Christmas tree in a few days.  Happy Advent!