Mini Christmas Stockings, the Three Year Project

I love Christmas, maybe it is because of the song blurb "happiest time of the year". So it is not a big stretch to believe that Christmas stockings are my favorite craft EVER. A few years ago I got ambitious and thought I would make cross-stitch mini stockings for each of my co-workers. When I say ambitious I mean it - there were 60 co-workers...LOL!

I was dedicated. All the supplies were bought, patterns picked out and all of the stitching got completed. Next step was to get fabric for the back, tops and toe. Got that done, now how to assemble? At that time I did not own a sewing machine. For my birthday which was a month away Pam bought me a new sewing machine -a Brother LS590. That year the stockings did not get finished, mostly because I started the project in October. Although the stitiching was completed by Halloween that only left 6 weeks to cut and sew 60 stockings. About 10 got done, those were given to my closest friends/colleagues. The next year I finished 12 more - those went to my mangers, boss and friends. Last year I finished enough to give to my new departments supervisors, manager and director. During those couple years I did more stitching which leaves over 40 cross-stitched pieces, this year I decided this is it - stockings are all stitched, time to get them sewn up and give to my new co-workers.

Got an early start this year, right now 20 stockings are sewn and ready to go. 10 more have been cut and next step is to sew them up. That only leaves 10 more to cut and sew. Woo hooo this project (UFO) will be finally finished after three years.

The stockings were the biggest UFO (UnFinished Object). Now to tackle some of the others - my sister's 2011 birthday quilt. The saga continues :-)

Will post instructions and tutorial for the mini Christmas stockings on a later post.