Wednesday, November 30, 2022

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

 Or maybe just a little bit around here - I usually don't start decorating until December gets here, but this year our Island Batik Ambassador challenge for November was to make a Christmas stocking, so I did have to get started a little early!  (I received the products used for this challenge as part of the Island batik Ambassador program)

Island Batik Creative Christmas Stocking Challenge

The challenge was to make a creative Christmas stocking with any Island Batik fabric - nontraditional was encouraged.  Well, I had a nice collection of scraps from a previous year in blue and white, and I usually decorate my front room in those colors so that was an easy choice.  I was actually happy to have the excuse to replace the not so wonderful stockings I've been using in there with some nicer ones!

Blue and white batik triangles quilted in a swirl pattern

The scraps of fabric I had were pretty small, so I had my husband help me by cutting them all up into two- and half-inch triangles using the GO! fabric cutter from AccuQuilt that I received several years ago as part of the Ambassador program - he seemed to enjoy it.  I sewed together all the triangles using Rice as my background and had my handy assistant press them all for me, too!  Then I started sewing the triangles together and ended up with two squares about 20 x 20 - enough to make two double sided stockings.

pretty swirl quilting
I used Hobbs Fusible batting to layer these - I'm really getting addicted to the ease of using this batting. It makes the quilting a breeze with no pins to worry about! I added solid gray for the backing, and I used a light blue Aurifil 50 wt thread and a size 12 professional chrome needle from Schmetz for the quilting.  A nice swirl always looks good!

Tracing a Christmas stocking to make a pattern

Next, I traced a pattern from a stocking I made long ago.  These are a nice chunky size, so hold lots of little presents!

cutting out pieces to make blue and white stockings

It was a tight fit, but I could cut two stocking shapes from each quilted panel.  I angled them a bit to get a more interesting look and avoid getting all the seams in the same spots on the edges. The most important thing was to remember to reverse the second two for the back side of the stocking.

cutting bias binding

I wanted to put binding around the edges, so I cut bias binding from a fat quarter of this pretty poinsettia fabric. I'm not sure what collection this was from - Island Batik has a pretty blue and white line in the winter collections most years!  It's nice because they mix and match quite well!  Here is the mini quilt I made a couple years ago from the Glacier View collection:  Winter Mini

adding binding to top of christmas stockings

First, I added binding to the top of each stocking part.  Then I basted them together in pairs and stitched the binding all around - I cut my binding at 2 1/4 inches and it was perfect! I did them just like I do my quilts, machine stitch to the back, then turn to the front and top stitch by machine. I finished by making a loop at the top of each stocking, and now they are ready to use!  

Binding a stocking and adding a loop-

I put up my wreath so you can see how nice these creative Christmas stockings look with my blue decorations!  So pretty!  Perfect for winter!

Creative Christmas Stockings with blue wreath

I think I will hang them below my banister - but now I think I need to look for a swag with blue accents for the top of it!  Or maybe create one - that's what I did with my wreath,
  

Creative blue and white Christmas stockings

Another fun challenge from Island Batik!  Now we are gearing up for the final blog hop of the year!  I'll be announcing that shortly, so keep an eye out - it's going to be fantastic!!  In the meantime, check out the rest of the ambassadors to see what they made for the Creative Christmas Stocking challenge.

Brenda Alburl ~ Songbird Designs

Megan Best ~ Bestquilter

Pamela Boatright ~ Pamelaquilts

Elizabeth DeCroos ~ Epida Studio

Jennifer Fulton ~ Inquiring Quilter

Preeti Harris ~ Sew Preeti Quilts

Mania Hatziioannidi ~ Mania for quilts

Jane Hauprich ~ Stitch By Stitch Custom Quilting

Reed Johnson ~ Blue Bear Quilts

Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs

Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood

Denise Looney ~ For The Love Of Geese

Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights

Maryellen McAuliffe ~ Mary Mack Made Mine

Anorina Morris – sameliasmum.com

Lisa Pickering ~ Lisa’s Quilting Passion

Claudia Porter ~ Create with Claudia

Gail Renna ~ Quilt Haven Threads

Brianna Roberts ~ Sew Cute And Quirky

Michelle Roberts ~ Creative Blonde

Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail

Andi Stanfield ~ True Blue Quilts

Sandra Starley ~ Textile Time Travels

Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations

Suzy Webster ~ Websterquilt


Thanks to these wonderful companies for the products used in the project!









3 comments:

Kathleen said...

Fun when the challenge causes you to replace something you weren't so fond of! I love what you did especially making the perfect stocking pattern from an old stocking. They are quite large - they will be fun to fill!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas said...

I love how fresh your stockings look in the blue and white fabrics! Have a great day!

Brenda @ Songbird Designs said...

These are so cute, Pamela. I love the blue and white fabrics!