Christmas in October?

Hi Quilting Friends,

We know. Christmas is just a little more than two months away. Trust us. We don’t want to rush the season, and skip past all of the wonderful traditions that Halloween and Thanksgiving have to offer. However, “handmade” takes time and it really isn’t too early to begin creating those special, one-of-a-kind gifts and decorations! We’re pretty excited about today’s new designs, and we hope that you’ll like them too.

Susan here today!

Who doesn’t love a Christmas stocking? Here at Ms P, we’re firm supporters of the idea that if you don’t believe in Santa, you’ll get underwear or socks for Christmas. (Sure, they are useful items, but not a lot of FUN!) Everyone should have a special Christmas stocking to hang, and celebrate the season.

I’m SEW excited to introduce a group of Christmas stockings that I made for my daughter, Ashley, and her family.  Ashley saw the stockings that I was making for my great nieces and graciously offered to “store” some stockings at her house.  My home is woefully tiny, and all the quilts that I’ve made for the shop are shoved here, there and everywhere!  Long story short, I’m running out of storage room! 

Oh, but I needed to put their names on the stockings, and let her help me decide the theme for each stocking, and make certain that she could hang them on the mantle at Christmas. (Stockings need to come out of storage for at least one month every winter to “air out”, you know.)  In writing this post, I’m wondering if she manipulated me???

The first stocking that I made was for my daughter.  Each year in December, our whole Houston family (Sharon, me, our kids, and my grandkids) has a “cookie day”. Everyone who lives in the area comes together to decorate Christmas cookies right before Christmas.  With this in mind, my daughter’s stocking has Mrs. Claus making ginger kids in her kitchen. Rudolph is dying to come inside to sample her workmanship.

The second stocking was for my son-in-law, Martin.  I picture Santa, busy in his workshop, getting all the presents ready to be delivered on Christmas Eve.  Santa is assisted by his elves, who love to help build toys and wrap gifts. Of course, all work and no play makes Elmer the elf a very dull boy.  Elmer!!! Get down from there!  You’ll hurt yourself!

Normally, my stockings are always more Christmas-y colors (red, green, white), but my granddaughter LOVES pink, and I do want her to like me best (wink, wink), so this stocking was designed especially for my sweet girl. Candy the elf is in charge of preparing sweet treats for all of the good little girls and boys.

Since Mom and Dad have Santa and Mrs. Claus on their stockings, and big sister has an elf, my grandson also got an elf!  This little guy is indeed Santa’s best helper.  Just look at the size of the present that he is carrying to the sleigh!  Thank goodness Rudolph was there to help stabilize the load.  The other reindeer were hiding and not helping at all, so they certainly will NOT go down in history!

I had SEW much fun adding the embellishments (sequins, beads, etc.) to these stockings, but I especially love the jingle bells on the elf hats as well as on the cuff and toe trim on the Santa stocking. It is easy and fun to personalize the stockings to make unique decorations for your own family’s Christmas traditions!

If you prefer fabric applique, you can add a seam allowance to the stocking’s outer edges, use raw-edge applique for the designs, embellish to your heart’s content, and add a lining to give them some “body”. I made these cute fabric stockings for my nephew Nathan (Sharon’s son) and his girlfriend.

All four of the Christmas stocking patterns from today’s post are available in Ms. P’s Christmas Stocking Shop, and they’re really fun to make!

I hope that you’ve enjoyed seeing my projects! Stay tuned; I’ve been merrily stitching up stockings for more of the family.

Happy quilting,

Susan

Coming in December!

Ready for some Christmas cheer? We’re ready to make merry with our “12 Days of Christmas” countdown!