Quilted Christmas Tree Skirt

Our Christmas tree is up, finally! The Great East Coast Snow Storm of 2009 put a crimp in our plans and we did not buy the tree until last night. By then, our usual place (local volunteer fire company) was sold out. We went to another local retailer and found this one. It's the right height for our 10' high ceilings but has a major bare spot I did not notice in the near darkness last night. Fortunately, we can turn the bare spot to the corner where no one will see it.

Reggie is being Vanna White in this picture and showing off my tree skirt. This was an early project, made shortly after I took up quilting. Each heart is a mini crazy quilt, quilted and bound, then all eight were sewn to the skirt base. You can hardly see it under the tree because all the wrapped packages cover it up, but the skirt covers up the old plastic shower curtain we use to protect the rug under the tree.

Here's a close-up of one of the hearts. The seams are covered with a variety of embroidery stitches, which I did by hand, not having a "fancy" sewing machine at the time. If I was to make another one, I'd probably use some of the fun stitches on my Bernina.