Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas. -Peg Bracken

Well it's almost Christmas and I finally finished the tree skirt for my Mum! Quite a number of years back my Mum received a tree skirt cross stitch kit as a gift, but didn't finish it because our cat, Smokey, wasn't de-clawed and she knew he'd tear it up. Smokey was put down last year when he got very ill, and my Mum decided it was finally time to finish up her cross stitch. She finished it just before last Christmas, but she doesn't sew so she asked me if I could turn it into an actual skirt for her (it was just one giant square - about 48x48" or so - of aida) and of course I said yes!

Now, me being me, it would not suffice to finish the skirt the way the directions said; they basically said to cut the aida into a circle, hem it, and throw it under the tree...what?! To me this just seems a little crazy - you spend all that time on the cross stitch and this is how they direct you to finish it? No no, this would not do! So let me present you with a tree skirt finished the "Kaye-way",

Now, isn't that better? I cut the back half of the aida off because let's face it aida is not cheap (especially for that much of it) and it bothered me that the back half of the skirt would just be blank (not cool). I used a brushed cotton plaid and also used a cotton print on the underside. I also bound it because my Mum asked that I finish it "like a quilt" - and my gosh, binding circles is HARD! I had never tried it before and it was a test!

I quilted some snowflakes on the plaid to add a little fun, and sewed in a couple of stay stitches throughout the cross stitch area (only on areas that were blank aida). Here are some close-ups of my Mum's stitching,

Didn't Mum do a fabulous job?! She's a "great stitcher" according to Amanda!

I also wanted to share with you the fact that I'm in a magazine - the issue just came out! I was interviewed for Quilter's Connection magazine in my capacity as President of the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild and they showed a picture of my The Garden Path quilt (actually the same picture twice - once in the table of contents and once in the article).

Yes, please ignore the part where they misspelled my name next to the quilt (grrrrr)! I'm not sure if this magazine is widely available in the States - it's a Canadian publication and relatively new (only on their 6th issue) but I have heard a rumour that it is available at some Joann's stores.

Okay all, I'm off to a Christmas party in a little bit and then Alex and I are heading to my Mum's tomorrow to spend Christmas. I hope you all have a lovely holiday weekend!