More Stockings

 As a new quilter living in San Antonio during the 1990s...annual treks to the International Quilt Festival in Houston became another source of enabling my stocking stash. I found a pattern for little stockings...about 10 inches tall. It took me years to complete all of these little stockings. I did all the blanket stitching by hand around all the fusible web fabric pieces.

I used to have a personal goal to finish making patterns I bought at the Houston show before attending the next year’s show.

 Hysterical...LOL...HA!

 I dropped that little goal a long time ago.

 Now those patterns I’ve bought at the show and never make, are like souvenirs of my fantastic trip.

Back to the important topic of more Christmas stockings in my collection.

There was a wonderful booklet from Nancy Halvorsen...okay...there was more than one...but...

There was one booklet by Nancy Halvorsen with six large stockings based on, “The Night Before Christmas.” Before I became a batik-a-holic...I collected all things designed by Nancy Halvorsen.

The appliqué pieces were fused in place. I top stitched and quilted each appliqué piece at the same time...on my domestic sewing machine. No longarm in my studio at that time. 

I hand-stitched the wording.

Joining this display of the, “The Night Before Christmas,” is a set of cross stitch Santa’s designed by Pat Thode called, “The Twelve Days of Santa.”

I discovered the cross stitch Santa series while on a hockey team trip for one of my sons to Colorado Springs. My son was in 6th or 7th grade so players still roomed with parents but during the day he was busy with team activities. Sweet! I took off in my rental car and visited two fantastic quilt shops. One of the quilt shops had a huge needlework section and I discovered several of the Santa charts....but not all....grrrr. I think I googled needlework shops and saw there was one in Colorado Springs. 

The owner was so great. I told her about trying to find the other Santa charts and she had them. She also gathered all the fabric...a different piece for every chart. I totally trusted her. I had never stitched on anything but Aida cloth at that point but these were all different colors and thread counts, 28 and 32 count linens and evenweaves.

The shop owner suggested I stitch one a month...it was a good goal...I’m sure it took longer than a year for me to finish all the Santas.

I did all the finishing myself...though it is a bit vague in my memory. I got some help via internet searches. There weren’t YouTube videos to watch but there were bloggers who shared their finishing techniques. I remember making tons of the cording....twisting it all by hand. I spent days working on them, stitching the front and back pieces of covered cardboard together. I hand stitched all the cording around the outer edges. Every year I marvel at what a great job I did. I love the variety of quilt designs in the coats of the Santas. 

That needlework shop was such an inspiration to me! Sadly, it closed soon after that visit, as a year or two later when I was back in Colorado Springs...it was completely gone. 

Stay tuned for more stocking stories!