Tuesday, October 4

The stockings were hung.....

A while ago I posted about how unfair our Christmas stockings were: Mine is HUGE, the others are not. My mom did needlepoint Christmas stockings for all of us, and with the progression of time the stockings became smaller. The manufacturers just started making the stocking kits, smaller and smaller, my sister's is HALF the size of mine, Matt's is about the same as that, and Ave's is even smaller.

It took me almost 2 years to make Matt's stocking (I enjoy needlepoint, but it's tedious and time consuming), it took me over a year to make Ave's stocking....see where we're going. With needing 3 more stockings, I could not spend the next 6 years working on Christmas stockings (not to mention I don't think I'll have the time).

I decided to scrap the needlepoint stockings and do quilted stockings. While certainly easier and less time consuming, it is not easy and not NOT time consuming, just less. So far I've gotten the top part of Matt's stocking done, and 1 other one (I'm not sure which kid is getting which yet).

The tops have come together pretty easy, it's the rest of it that has me worried. I found this great tutorial (and new blog) that shows how to do what needs to be done, but I'm still confused. Of course it doesn't help that I want to use Matt's grandmother's embroidery machine to put the names on the cuffs, which creates a whole other level of complexity.

Here's what I got so far, but I flubbed (does anyone else use that word? Flubbed? "To botch or mangle"). I used my stocking as a template, made a paper copy and added a bit around the whole thing for a seam allowance. On the first stocking (Matt's) I added even a bit more when I cut it out...I forgot I had done that when I cut the second stocking...Yea.

Notice how the "neck" (where your leg would go) of the second stocking is a lot smaller...that would be the problem. It's still big, but it's definitely messed up. I don't know what I want to do; I can either trash it, go with it, make the others the same, or ignore the mess-up and make the others like the first (CORRECT) one.

Needless to say, for the mean time this one has been put aside. I have a feeling I'll probably do what I usually do....start over, but only if I can find the right fabric, or have enough left of the fabric I used, because I love it! The green fabric is beautiful with bows of branches, swirls, and tiny peppermints. We shall see....

1 comment:

Amanda said...

Don't put too much pressure on yourself to get these finished by a certain time. Take your time and make what you won't mind looking at for the next 20 years.

My secretary was one of 14 kids. Her mother did not have time to make a quilt for each of them when they were growing up. But after they got out of the house she made a quilt for every one of them and I'm sure none of them care that it came years later than she intended, they were just glad to have it.

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