Never too early for holiday quilts

Time flies – it’s a cliche, but seems so true as we turn the calendar to summer, then back-to-school and Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas arrive in the blink of an eye. Which means that it’s Never Too Early for holiday projects. Get started now by sewing a holiday quilt!

Design Decisions

When Island Batik asked the Ambassadors to plan a holiday project in the middle of summer, I toyed with the idea of a wall-hanging but quickly changed my mind to dive in to a bucket list quilt – Lori Holt’s Vintage Christmas. Have you made any of her samplers, such as the Farm Girl quilts? I love the mix of traditional-looking pieced blocks with fun, recognizable objects.

Since I have plenty of bed quilts, I decided to make a tree skirt. A simple layout of blocks framing a plain center seemed the best option. I collected a variety of Island Batik fabrics in holiday colors and chose Rice as my background. See the full line of Island Batik Foundations here and use the store locator to find a shop near you.

Disclaimer: I used materials provided by Island Batik, Aurifil, Schmetz, and Hobbs Batting. This post includes affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you decide to purchase. Full details available here.

Quilting a Tree Skirt

With 42 blocks to choose from in the Vintage Christmas pattern, I settled on stars and a few holiday elements such as an ornament, lights, and candy canes.

Piecing with Schmetz needles and Aurifil thread is a dream!

I quilted the tree skirt with Hobbs Natural Cotton batting and my favorite “Dancing Snowflakes” pantograph from Willow Leaf Studio.

How to make binding for non-square corners

Then it was time to cut a hole in the quilt. What a terrifying thought! But, necessary for the tree skirt to actually fit around a Christmas Tree. A few deep breaths and I was on my way.

Since I made an octagon quilt, with a hole in the center, I needed some new skills to finish the project. First, a curved project needs bias binding. The stretch of the bias made it easier to go around the circle I just cut in the center of the tree skirt. Luckily my friend Kimmee, at On Williams Street, just posted a tutorial about bias binding! Thanks for the help. And with the non-square corners of my octagon, I used the Creative Grids Angle Finder to mark the pivot points for my mitered corners.

All done! Now we just need to wait 150-some days until Christmas! (Get the official countdown here…)