And Then There Were TEN

My SIL, Margie, and I had been talking about me making Christmas stockings for her house. 

 I re-visited this a few weeks before Christmas with her. 

 I am totally in love with Swell Christmas and

thought this line would make crazy adorable stockings.  

I texted her that I found the perfect fabric if she was still interested. 

 I kind of wanted to work quickly, before the fabric went up in price on the secondary market as there were 10 stockings that needed to be made.  

I also told her there was no way they would be done for this Christmas.  

Then the fabric arrived. 

Combine this with the fact that I had all my shopping, wrapping, decorating and cooking done and I could not help myself. 

 I thought, "Oh, I'll just do the kids stockings". 

 So that was the plan (secretly of course).  

I used one of the Maywood patterns I had, the one I used for the twins stockings.  

This meant fussy cutting 9 Santa faces for each of the 4 stockings and then making that stocking.  

It took me 11 hours from start to finish to make those 4 stockings.

This is how they turned out.  I LOVE them so much!

I used the green Santas with the red candy canes and the pink plaid for the girls.

I used the Moda Bella Betty's Red for the lettering

I used the red Santas with the green candy canes and the red plaid for the boys.

I used Moda Bella Peppermint for the lettering of their stockings.

I used Kona Snow for the cuff and the inside lining for all the stockings.

So...there was still 2 days until Christmas...you know I did. 

I just did 2.5" squares for the adult stockings. 

 I got those all finished with only the lettering to add on the 23rd. 

 I got up on the 23rd and put the names on the stockings and voila, they were done too.

 I was SO excited to gift those to my SIL. 

 She did not expect they would be finished so that made it all the better!  

She is one of the few who cherishes the things I make.  

I know that whatever I make her will be loved and valued.

 Here they are before adding the names.  Fronts

Backs,  I made them in pairs so the green Santa went with the green pointsetta etc.

First are the grandparents (my SIL and BIL), fronts and 

Backs

This is their first born and his wife, fronts

and backs

This is for their youngest son and his wife, fronts 

and backs

If you paid close attention you will see that I used the same pink plaid on all the adult women and the red plaid on all the adult men's stockings to match the kids. 

My SIL took a pic of all of them at her house.  

I bet they looked pretty sweet hanging up at their house on Christmas Eve too!  

I hope Santa filled them with a lot of great things.

PHEW!  That one was a labor of love.  

As a disclaimer, I have to say that she is paying me for them, but still a labor of love.  

Guess what?  I am getting pretty quick with these now too.  

I am happy that I am done with stockings for awhile now though!

Sadly the Maywood pattern is no longer available on their website.

I did download it and am so thankful that I did.

If you find a free pattern you love, download it to your computer.

I recently had someone ask me for a pattern I had downloaded YEARS ago.

I went back to find it and the link is gone.

Luckily I had written a tutorial about how I made my blocks so was able to print it for them.

Just a PSA for all my friends regarding free patterns.

~XOP~

Happy New Year and Welcome Back

Hey there, long time no see!  

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and break from work! 

I was able to be off for a couple of weeks and it was glorious.  

I certainly recharged my batteries as I know I was feeling a little bit run down.  

Ah now to catch you up. 

 I gifted some things over the holidays that I was not able to talk about previously

 so will start with those.

My SIL, Ann, has asked me for a quilt for a LONG time.  

I kept asking her if she had a baby or got married but sadly, she did not.  

She did, however turn 50 in October. 

Eventually, I would like to make quilts for all of my husband's siblings.  

I have now finished 3 out of 6 (not counting us). 

 I am not rushing to do this it is just whenever it happens to work in my schedule 

and the timing is right.

So, Ann's favorite color is purple. 

 Her house is not decorated in purple but I decided to make her a violently purple quilt. 

I even used royal purple minky for the back of this quilt.  

Do you remember the shooting stars quilt I was working on?  

Well, that one was for Ann.

You can see the backing up close in this photo.

My husband's family gets together on Christmas eve so 

I brought it with me on Christmas eve to give to her.  I think her face says it all.

We had so much fun on Christmas Eve. 

 It is super fun when BIG families get together.

My family grew by one this year.  

Not pictured are my eldest daughter and husband.

First Christmas together

MANY Christmas seasons together, LOL

 We have many great nieces and nephews.  

Not all of them were present (and the 2 bigger girls are actually nieces)

This is *most* of our nieces and nephews and spouses.  

I have more to share about Christmas but so many photos with that one

that I will make a separate post so stay tuned!

Thank you to Mark and Jackie for hosting another wonderful Christmas eve for our family!

~XOP~

Huckleberry Railroad and Crossroads Village

Last Friday hubby and I went up to Crossroads Village and 

rode the Huckleberry Railroad Christmas train.  

The village wasn't open when we arrived but we got a few photos on the train depot. 

The train ride lasted about 40 minutes and went by lots of light displays.  

There was a conductor to punch our tickets (like on Polar Express) as we boarded the train too.  

A live Santa waved to us about halfway down the track.  

As we passed the houses on the train I said that I would not like to live by the train tracks 

and hubby said oh he would love it.  

He would be out waving at every train that went by! 

 LOL, and he would too.

We walked around the village waiting to board the train. I took this of us in front of the candy shop.

We asked one of the conductors to take this of us on the caboose.

 Patiently waiting to board the train.

All of the buildings were decorated for Christmas

 Look who I ran into when walking around the village!

 Caboose!

This was the train station.

My grandpa used to work for the Pere Marquette railroad.  

It merged with the Cheaspeake and Ohio (C & O).  I have always loved the Chessie cat!

We got to see Santa too!

I thought this was cool.  Looking down the track you could see a gigantic snowman.

After the train came back the entire village was lit up.  It was so beautiful.  

This is the "Tree of Lights". 

 They told us that they begin putting lights on it right after Halloween and 

it takes that long to get them all up!

There were several of these pine trees all lit up too.

Of course, I could not pass up the patchwork snowman.

I tried to get photos of the lights while the train was moving but they are just a blurry mess.

We went to the Christmas buffet after the train ride and walked around the village.  

It was almost like being in our own Hallmark movie (almost)!

~XOP~

Christmas Stockings

I know I said I wouldn't be back but I wanted to share the Christmas stockings I made this year.  

My daughter's best friend had twin girls and this will be their first Christmas. 

 I made stockings for their mom and dad when they got married (my shower gift)

 and I bought enough fabric to make stockings for future kids. 

 I really loved doing this and did the same for a few other close friends and family.  

While stockings are not my favorite thing to make I have it down pretty well now! 

 Here are the ones I made for the mom and dad of the twins.

Here are the ones I made for the girls.

It was my first time making the one with the Santa faces and the pinwheels. 

 I LOVE these Santa faces.

These pinwheels are NOT for the faint of heart!

I really love how it turned out though.

Amy was kind enough to send photos of the girls with their stockings.  Here is little Brooke.

Cuteness overload right here.  

Here is little Audrey.  They both have red hair too.  

She looks like she is going to climb right inside!

I have to say that Amy writes some of the best thank you notes I have ever received.  

I am not sure anyone makes me feel so glad to sew for them as Amy does.  

She always lets me know how much she loves whatever I have made her throughout the years. 

 I love her like one of my own. 

 I wish they didn't live so far away.  I am hoping to get to see her 

(maybe the girls too)

 over the holiday as they are going to be in town.

I made one more stocking but can't show it just yet.  I am not sure it has been gifted yet.

Stay tuned.  I will be posting a few more times before the new year too.

~XOP~