Saturday, January 5, 2013

Christmas Stockings

Before I put all the Christmas things away, I thought I'd show off my stockings.

 I love seeing these over the fireplace. My stocking is the red plush from my childhood. Most are from felt embroidery kits.



Michal's stocking is the oldest dating from 1988. Kaitlyn's is next oldest, dating from 1990. Kaitlyn's looks a bit ragged because she loved her stocking and refused to let me put it away one year. Leigh's was made in 1996.




Timothy's stocking was made in 1998 and Alfred's in 1991. Most years I hang them in story order: Santa in his workshop (Leigh), Santa in his sleigh (Kaitlyn), Santa on the roof (Michal), and Santa in the house (Alfred). Tim's big Santa and my red plush went in some random place.
 


  When my daughter Michal got engaged to Jonathan in 2009 I decided to make him a stocking too. I wanted to do a cross stitch stocking and he chose this design "Bad Landing" from the book "A Cross Stitch Christmas/Season of Joy." It was my first all-over cross stitch.

The quality of this stocking is so much more than the felt ones that I toyed with the idea of making everybody a new stocking. I've decided that I won't do that after all. Each stocking represents where my skill level was at the time and really, each is done very well. They hold such sweet memories, too, of my children's excitement on so many Christmas mornings.

But I really should make a stocking for me.






For needleworkers Christmas is all year long. I've decided to start the Country Cottage Needleworks Santa's Village, a monthly mystery series. I also picked up some of The Victoria Sampler Gingerbread series charts at the Needlepoints Ltd. after-Christmas sale. Cute, cute, cute!

3 comments:

  1. I love your stockings and am with you on people keeping the stocking they grew up with!

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  2. Yes, it's time for Ruth to stitch a new stocking for herself! It's fun how you put the stockings up in story order, instead of age order!

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  3. 16 years ago I made a stocking for my son like the one pictured above, 2nd from the left, labeled Leigh. On May 20th the tornado that hit Moore, OK took my son's stocking, along with the rest of my Christmas decorations. Although my son is now 20 he would like to have his childhood stocking. Since then I have been searching for a kit to remake it but have not been able to find one. If you know where I can find one I would appreciate you sharing that information with me. Thank you so much and have a Merry Christmas.

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