Journal Notes

Mom started this tree skirt. I have no idea when. For some reason she put it aside and didn’t finish. My guess is she ran out of a certain fabric and, being a perfectionist, didn’t know what to do next. Either that or she didn’t finish it in time for Christmas and so she moved on to something else. April 2025: I finished the piecing quickly. I even bought flannel for batting and a backing before JoAnn’s closed for good. But then it sat for months while I worked up the courage to start machine quilting. First I couldn’t decide on a thread color. I finally choose red for the red back and a metallic gold for the front. Then I had to choose a pattern. My mother’s perfectionism came through like a firestorm. Dec 2025: I finally just started three weeks before Christmas. The metallic thread was not the best idea for my first attempt. Somehow it is getting caught in the tension disks and “snaps” back into place every so often. By going very slowly and releasing the tension disks every so often, I am seeing success without any breaks in the thread. Saturday, October 10 2026: I finished it! I ended up buying a different gold thread. It worked better but still gave me problems. I don’t plan to use metallic thread for a long time. I the binding around a circle was scary. But I learned how to bake bias binding. It was actually quite easy. This tree skirt was started with love by my mom. It was finished with love by me six years after her death, with much less skill but the same portion of love.