This has been one of those projects that lingers around for years. Much like most of the projects in my sidebar. I’ve got all kinds of new year’s goals for those, but we’ll get to that after the holidays. Anyhoo, I’ve been working on this tree skirt for about six years now.
I bought about a million miles of red wool back in like 2000 or so because I decided I was going to get into rughooking and make a rug for our living room that was red and black and white. But then I realized that it was going to be a lot of work for little pay off (based on the design I was working on, not the craft of rughooking itself, which I still want to take up) and I’ve been dragging around yards and yards of red and black wool ever since.
In looking for ways to use up all this fabric, I knew a tree skirt would be a perfect application.
I did all the beading over the years of my illness. Prolonged bedrest is great for long, involved, excessively detailed projects. It took years, but eventually I finished hand beading the trees and little showdrift.
At this stage of progression it stalled for years and years. I had plans of backing it and doing some kind of a trim, but there was always some other thing that needed to get finished so I put it off and off and off.
When I put Christmas away last year I took all the unfinished Christmas projects, gathered them together, and put them in a big tupperware in my studio. Having this enormous box of projects in my way all the time really forced me to get on with it and finish things already.
I picked up some white corduroy at my favorite fabric store, and then a few weeks ago I got this great Moda ribbon candy fabric at my favorite local quilt store. For all the time I put this off, it really took no time at all to whip up.
Of course, I still need to finish the handbinding, but if I wasn’t putting something off, it just wouldn’t be me.
That is so beautiful that it is a shame to put presents on top of it!