Fun Christmas Projects with a Jelly Roll

A couple years before I discovered quilting, I decided it was time to upgrade my Dollarama Christmas tree skirt (red felt with gold sparkles glued to it) with something a bit more grown-up. My search took me to Etsy, because everything else was satin/velvet and looked far too posh for my living room, where I discovered that quilted tree skirts were a thing. I seriously considered buying one, but also began to wonder how hard it would be to make one. In the end, I decided I’d put quilted tree skirt on my (ever growing) list of “someday projects”.

I started quilting around the beginning of 2020 (and had a lot of time to level up my skills during the year+ of lockdown that ensued), so by the time the holidays rolled around, I was feeling ready to attempt a tree skirt. I was thrilled to find a pattern and tutorial available on Craftsy.

Some things I like about this pattern:

• It’s designed to use precut fabric (a jelly roll of 2 ½ inch strips, to be precise), which means less prep-time cutting fabric (of course, you could also use scraps or yardage).
• It’s quilt-as-you-go, so very little basting is needed.
• You don’t need to bind it! Instead you sew the batting and quilt-top (which are already attached, because that’s the quilt-as-you go part) to the backing with right sides together, and leave a small opening to turn the whole thing right side out.
• You sew the strips together before cutting the “panels” of the skirt, which generally means simpler seams.
• Because the panels are cut at an angle (see image above), and the colours alternate, if the strips don’t line up perfectly between the panels, it won’t be too obvious.

I skipped the embroidery thread tassels because I didn’t have any embroidery thread and they seemed likely to become cat toys.

After I finished the tree skirt, I had some leftovers from the sewn-together strip sets that seemed a shame to throw out, but as I didn’t have any current plans for them, they got stashed in my scraps cubby, awaiting a future project. This season, I figured out what to make with them:

Bonus Christmas stockings!

It turns out that a jelly roll (42 2 ½ inch strips) gives exactly enough fabric to make one tree skirt, and two Christmas stockings from the leftovers (one in each colour scheme if you’ve opted for alternating panels in your tree skirt).

I used SuzyQuilts’ free Christmas Stocking pattern (and template) to make the stockings, but quilted them horizontally (along the seams of the strips) instead of vertically. The stockings also involve some inside-out magic (you sew the outside and lining separately, and the magic comes when you attach them together — the tutorial at the link gives a good explanation).

I was pleasantly surprised by how easily the stockings came together, and how stocking-shaped they were considering I don’t sew curves very often. I have a couple more seasonal jelly rolls slated to become tree skirts as gifts, and will definitely be making more stockings with the leftovers.