Spectacular Stockings

Our Christmas stockings

After yesterday's post it seemed the ideal time to show you a few more details of those fabulous Christmas stockings that Betty made for us so that you can really appreciate the love and details that went into their making.

You might be wondering about the names on the stockings. They are a carryover from when my neice Julia was about 3 years old and wasn't able to say our names fully yet, so 'Charlie and Marie' became 'Tallie and Rie' and they have stuck.

The pattern came from The Thimbleberries Book of Quilts that I have somehow misplaced but I did find the instructions in an online search so that you can see what the original version was like and then compare it to our beauties - scroll down a bit on the page and click on Jingle Socks and it should take you to it.






As is her way, Betty took the basic pattern and enhanced it with rich fabrics, incorporating a band to cross-stitch our names into and adding her own trims and embellishments.

A row of mini light bulbs sets off the name band on my stocking.

Embellishments continue on the back as well with a panel inserted where the name was cross-stiched on the front side.

Slightly different trim options for Tallie...

Similarly, plainer on the back side but still with lovely stitching details.

And both are lined with a lovely ochre print, which makes it fun digging in to see what goodies Santa has left. They are a valued and lovely traditional part of our holiday season and we look forward to hanging them every year. We like them so much that we hang them from the doorknobs to our bedroom closet rather than on the mantle so that we can enjoy them all season long....M