Christmas Giveaway of the Cottony Kind

Well it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. We had our first measurable snow on Saturday and it was very well behaved snow-it covered the lawn and the trees but pretty much just melted on the roadways. And since it was Saturday no one in my house had to go out into it to go to work.

I've done a little decorating around the house and I cut out quite a bit of Christmas fabric for the quilt that I really don't have time to be playing with, but I will anyway! I figure that I need 121 5" squares for my quilt but I cut out more than twice that amount - over 250 5" squares! So I would like to share some Christmasy fabric goodness with you.


There are 27 different fabrics here and there are 6 squares of each. I think they'd make a great scrappy Christmas quilt or for you cross stitchers they would be great fabrics for the back of ornaments. I'm following the giveaway model I've seen on other blogs. If you leave a comment on this entry I'll put your name in the hat once, if you are a follower or become a follower I'll put your name in twice and if you mention it on your blog (and let me know) I'll put your name in three times. I'll pick a winner and post it next Sunday. Good luck!

As for stitching and decorating here is the mantle in our family room.



I have a little Debbie Mumm Santa quilt, peppermint candles and our needlepoint stockings. Before cross stitching, before quilting, I was into needlepoint. My first son was born in January and I got a wild hormonal fueled idea that I wanted needlepoint stockings to hang on the mantle for his first Christmas. And not only did I want one for him I wanted one for each of us. Now a more sensible person would have chosen less complex and smaller stockings but sensibility has never been one of my strong points.



This is the first one I stitched. I figured I would try out my ideas on one for my husband. Now these are really BIG stockings. They measure about 10" across the top and they are 22" long on 18count canvas. My mathematically inclined son estimates that there are over 75,000 stitches in each stocking - oh my goodness - I'm glad I didn't know that before I started. I used lots of different fibers and decorative stitches.

This one has blending filament combined with the wool for a sparkly snow effect. The tails on all the rodentia shown here is a 3 dimensional loopy stitch that you shear and contour with your scissors. I'll show another stocking each week until Christmas. The ones I made for the boys are the most elaborate and the one I made for myself is simplest. I stitched these over 20 years ago. They are handpainted canvases from a company called Strictly Christmas. Back then I think I paid about $75 to $80 for each stocking. I have no idea how much investment I had in the fibers but I know it was a sizeable amount. However I checked out these stockings the other day and found out that the handpainted canvas like these goes for $250 to over $350 -OMG - there is no way I could justify needlepoint at those prices. I still have a sizeable stash of hand painted needlepoint canvas from some well known designers. Hmmmmm...maybe I should figure out how to put them on ebay. Oh another job for another day...

Hope your holiday preparations are going well. I still have a tree to get decorated and lots of errands and shopping that need to be done but I am deluding myself that I still have lots of time to get everything done - hey its my reality not true reality.

Happy stitching -

carol fun