Maureen NJ

I have been studying the pattern you want to make your tree skirt out of and it is like this McCalls pattern except that it does not have the corners. If you add a 1/4" seam allowance beyond one half of the outermost diamonds (number 7 below) and cut the rest off, it looks like you have the octagon shape. I took a Luminous Star Craftsy class and it was very helpful. They Had you piece strips, staggering them as you piece them, and then cut out the whole row at a 45 degree angle. The sides of the strips are two opposite sides of the diamond. If you look at your picture, it appears that the skirt is made up of seven colors with eight sections around (repeats). Note: you can tell where the section starts and stops as the direction changes. Color one at the center is repeated as it is later cut for the circle. In EACH SECTION, you would strip the following rows:11234567,1234567,234567,34567,4567,567,67,7. the McCalls week one class gave amounts of fabric needed but I don't think it gave the size of the diamonds. You will cut your strip width according to the size of the diamond. I will follow their weekly free lesson. Thanks for posting the picture. It will be on my to do list (along with a zillion others)! I hope this made sense. If not, PM me.