Santa Tree Skirt--Post 3 Eighth Finish 2nd Quarter FAL 2020

Clam shell design on the belt

My plan with this project was to use rulers and templates as I quilted so that I could improve my ruler skills. I tried stitching a loop pattern along the belt edge with the Westalee clam shell ruler. It was difficult to hold the ruler in place and move the fabric because of the intersecting seams.

I did stitch the other side of the belt; but, didn't like the results enough to let the stitching stay. I ripped what I had stitched. I've decided for me, ruler work is going to take place in the more open areas of the quilt. It is too hard on my body to manage the ruler,  move the quilt and be satisfied with the stitching.

Close up of belt stipple and beard swirl

In the end, I filled the space with a large stipple. It took me less than five minutes to stitch the belt section and another five minutes to quilt the sleeves of the Santa coat.

For the beard, I stitched a variety of sizes of spirals, some wavy lines and some stippling to give the surface a more beard like appearance. I stitched nothing in the mustache.

Close up of the beard quilting

 Overall, the free motion quilting is a good companion to the straight line ruler quilting. For the background quilting, I thought about stitching free motion stars. In the end, I chose to stitch more spirals interspersed with stippling. When I get stuck on what to add to an area for quilting, I will look at my piece and see if there is a clue.

I will ask myself, is there a print in the fabric that provides me with an idea? In the beard fabric, there is a sort of paisley design that influenced my decision to stitch spirals.

Front/back of quilt and threads used in the process

I also ask myself, is there enough repetition on the elements? I stitched straight lines--some diagonal and some horizontal in at least three places in the project. The straight lines are in the coat body, coat sleeves and hat. That was enough repetition of straight lines!

I continued quilting--stippling in the belt, a spiral and stippling combination in the beard. I needed more repetition with the spirals so I stitched a combination of spirals and stippling in the background to balance the fills.

Quilting should enhance the project. As I looked at the finished quilted blocks and background, I felt that I had met that goal!

Label

The label was from my stash. I figured a Christmas label was perfect for this project! All I needed to do was to figure out what information I wanted to include on the label and then transfer the information to the label! I hope my niece will like this wedding gift and that it will grace their tree for each and every Christmas.

If you missed the previous posts about this project, I've provided the links below:
Post 1
Post 2 

Finished tree skirt

It took me about 62 hours to complete this project. I spent about $95 for materials for this project.

I used 7 yards of fabric from my stash for this project. This brings my total stash usage since the first of the year to 46 1/4 yards of fabric. This is my eighth finish this quarter and goal number 21 on my finish along list. I have posted this finish to Instagram #2020falq2finish