Remember When. . . their story was written in the stars?

9/9/2021

The Couple

Young smiling couple standing in front of tall grasses.

I was pleased when Ashley and James accepted my offer to make a tree skirt as a wedding gift. James is the grandson of one of my best friends, Mary Lou Ellsworth, and although I have heard stories about him all his life, we have only met once. Other than wanting it to have a Moravian star, the couple gave me complete creative freedom. Ashley told me they were more traditional with their Christmas colors and decorations. I knew that all six of Mary Lou's children display Moravian stars each year to have some Pennsylvania in their holiday. I was good to go.

The Design

Patchwork nautical star with 16 points in black blue purple and green.

So began the search for a patchwork pattern of a star. I settled on this one by Jinny Beyer called Sea of Crisis. At first, the name did not seem Christmassy, but the design was perfect - so perfect that I did not look at how complicated it was to make. Those two thoughts converged for me as I worked on this piece.

The Complication

Patchwork pattern made of triangles and squared to resemble a wind mill.

#1 - Summer Winds - Easy

Putting this star together took persistence and resiliency. That continued once it was together, as it did not lay flat, so I had to ease into a curved piece. The more trouble I had, the more I thought about the star and the journey Mary and Joseph had to make: 90 miles at least five days through desert on a donkey eight months pregnant I never really thought about the crisis Mary and Joseph were in. That made the name of the pattern very fitting. It also seemed appropriate that I have to perceive a little to create such a meaningful Christmas symbol.

#2 Sea of Crisis - Challenging

Here are two Jinny Beyer designs.

Summer Winds - easy - squares and isosceles triangles (two of the sides are the same.) It is easy to see how they go together, and it is hard to get them together wrong.
Sea of Crisis - challenging - every pattern is cut out right side up and upside down as well as each background triangle has no two sides the same. There is only one way the pieces will go together.

The Crisis

Patchwork star of yellow fabrics on a black background. The square finished piece did not lay flat so it is pinned down to the circular piece to make it lay flat.

Yellow star on black background, bordered with red piping and holly fabric.

Putting this star together took persistence and resiliency. That continued once it was together, as it did not lay flat, so I had to ease into a curved piece. The more trouble I had, the more I thought about the star and the journey Mary and Joseph had to make:

90 miles
at least five days
through desert
on a donkey
eight months pregnant

I never really thought about how Mary and Joseph were in crisis. That made the name of the pattern very fitting. It also seemed appropriate that creating such a meaningful Christmas symbol involved a bit of struggle.

Let it shine!

Tree skirt folded in half showing 3 of the 5 stars.

The five stars were fitted into the skirt, bordered with thin red pipping. The edge and center was made from a beautiful holly fabric with gold accents. The skirt was finished with simple quilting.

A Little Note

Back of the tree skirt folded over to display a holly bordered labeled pocket. In the pocket is a booklet with a note to the couple.

A pocket was sewn to the back to hold a note to the happy couple. May this skirt grace their tree for all their Christmases to come.

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