Welcome to New Every Morning Patchwork & Quilting. My name is Allison and this blog has been my social media home for just over 11 years. In this post I’ll be:

• Sharing the latest updates to my Christmas Tree Skirt pattern (with links to the FREE download).
• Sharing a bit about what’s been going on in and out of my sewing studio through 2025.
• Sharing my first thoughts on how to take my love of teaching and learning patchwork-quilting skills into 2026.

The Octagonal Tree Skirt

I first wrote this pattern in 2022 when my son requested a rather last minute gift for his future wife. I searched around on the internet and found an old Missouri Star Quilting tutorial that I could adapt to our more modest sized homes and trees! As well as changing the size I put my quilt layers together using the ‘bagging method’ to cut down on the amount of fabric and time needed for binding. You are very welcome to download the Octagonal Tree Skirt pattern. You can read my blog post tutorial here.

This time last year I made a couple more of the tree skirts (one requested by my now D-I-L for her Mum and one to sell at a Christmas market). This year I had no thought to make tree skirts until I received a lovely message from Jane saying how pleased she was to have found the pattern and my blog tutorial just in time to make a tree skirt for her sister. That message came at a good time for me, providing the encouragement I needed to take my patchwork tools off the shelf and remove the dustcover from my sewing machine. I sorted through my drawer of Christmas fabrics, bought a couple of extra pieces of fabric and then set to work. My colleagues at Purple Stitches are enjoying using their creativity to dress the shop in honour of the festive season. I thought my contribution could be a tree skirt made from fabrics off the shelves. I knew the shop tree would be small so I down-sized my pattern to keep the skirt in proportion (I forgot to take a photo of the tree skirt under the shop tree – I will try and remember to do this next Monday!).

The small tree skirt made with 3.5″ squares and one border measures 24″ across.

Seeing as my Christmas fabric drawer seemed as full as ever (funny how our stash never shrinks) I decided to make a second skirt – this time a medium size. This one is listed in my Folksy shop.

Medium Tree Skirt made with 3.5″ squares and three borders measures 30″ across.

A quick overview of the cutting requirements for these alternative sized tree skirts:

• For both the small and medium tree skirts cut (37) 3½” squares for the centre of the skirt and (2) 5½” squares for the setting triangles.
• For the small skirt cut 1¾” strips for the border.
• For the medium skirt cut 1¾” strips for the inner and outer borders and 2¼” strips for the middle border.

What’s been going on in my little world in 2025?

Well! To call 2025 an ’emotional rollercoaster’ would be to underplay the depth of the emotions my family has been through over the past 11 months. My Mum was taken ill in January, she came out of hospital with a terminal diagnosis and we muddled through trying to provide the best for her and Dad whilst negotiating a myriad of agencies and organisations – some NHS hospital/community based, some charitable, some privately funded. It was at times extremely frustrating and always, always exhausting. Thankfully alongside the emotional stresses came some blessings including the visit of our Daughter and her family from overseas and the knowledge that our local son and D-I-L were expecting their first baby.

Sadly Mum died in September – thankfully receiving expert care in the calm surroundings of a local hospice for her final days.

We are now straightening out the muddle of on-going care for Dad while we all move through an emotionally charged time, grieving Mum and also celebrating the safe arrival of our beautiful Grandson.

Way back in April I wrote about how giving time to simple creative tasks provided a way to rest my over-charged mind in the midst of the daily unknowns and anxieties. That remained true throughout the months of caring for Mum. Mainly cross stitch, but also some patchwork quilting, even some soft pastel painting. Following Mum’s death it took a while to pick up the creative thread. The Dementia UK November Knitting Challenge sparked my creativity back into action. Throughout the month of November I’ve been participating in the Challenge. I picked up a piece of ‘modular knitting’ I had begun way-back-when and have stitched between one and eleven squares every day since 1st November. Kind friends have contributed to the Dementia UK fund raiser and that’s been a good incentive to keep me going. I won’t finish this blanket by the end of the month as I’d like to add a few more rows of squares before finding out how to make a border. Once it is completed I plan to donate the blanket to the hospice – Mum’s bed had a lovely crochet blanket (I discovered that had been made by a teacher I knew from my children’s school!).

Plans for 2026

The unpredictable nature of caring responsibilities has lead me to accept I won’t be able to resume in-person classes anytime soon. I really miss sharing patchwork quilting skills, seeing workshop participants growing in confidence and developing friendships over their sewing machines and around the ironing boards. So I’m forming an idea to create an online learning community, a membership with tutorials, patterns and projects combined with an opportunity for members to share their progress, tips and questions. I’m sure we could all enjoy learning from one another. I know an online group can’t replicate the atmosphere of an in-person workshop but I hope the advantages of being able to work at skills and projects at your own pace will be a plus for everyone – especially those who can’t commit to a set time workshop due to the limitations of their own health, location or caring responsibilities. I hope you can tell I’m excited about this! I’m thinking of calling the group ‘The Patchwork Hub @ Home’ and I’ll be sharing more about this and asking for input from readers of this blog, my emails (subscribe using the sign up box at the bottom of this page) and my New Every Morning Facebook page.

Happy Stitching and Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating!

Allison