Just in Time for Santa

It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself.

~Charles Dickens

As I've written before, there are many finishing steps to these stockings but the whole thing went together more quickly than it has in the past. Is it because I had a few ornaments prepared and the stockings themselves cut? Perhaps.

Velveteen Christmas stocking, 2020

I found several special glass beads a few years ago. The little glass penguin is a marker for each member of this family group. 

Camel and mitten decals on Christmas stocking

The celestial event is the Perseverance rover heading to Mars. Yes. That lavender thing that looks like a train engine is my interpretation of the rover. {As an artist, I'm a pretty good geologist.} It won't land till early next year but it's on its way.

Mars and Perseverance rover

I'm still not shopping in stores so finding jingle bells was a challenge. There were two sizes online: too small and too large. I chose the large ones and mentioned to DH that they could be changed next year. He told me not to bother. According to him, younger brothers will be delighted their bells are larger than their siblings. Hmm. Is that the correct spirit of the season? ;-)

Previous posts:

1. History of velveteen stockings

2. Stockings for G1 and G2

3. Stocking for G3

Reading

Since a friend suggested Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, I've been a fan of this author. I read both of her reimagined fairy tales when they came out and was eagerly awaiting A Deadly Education. Scholomance is a school for magic, but not like Hogwarts. There are no teachers. Magically gifted students are transported here as freshmen and dumped into dorm rooms. Once they choose an area of study, the school assigns their classes and presents lectures and homework. Students are responsible for avoiding prowling monsters. Galandriel must build alliances in order to run the final gauntlet of monsters that await all students at graduation. 

I enjoyed the book and found the situation between privileged and independent students timely and pertinent. Now I'm waiting for the next book in this series - due in June.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Beading a New Christmas Stocking

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

~Aldous Huxley

How could I forget? The new grandchild needs a stocking. Soon! Fortunately some parts are pre-cut. Ready and waiting you might say. There are four velveteen stocking shapes cut - front and back plus bright green lining fabric. I decided to cut all the lining now since it will store more easily. It can rest under the finished stockings and the Chief Airhead {me} will know where to find them. 

To make sure that fancy fabric doesn't unravel, I sewed the linings together and stay-stitched the tops. 

Now where are all the beads and sequins? They are packed in one clear box; I just need to find it. The joy of {previously} cleaning and clearing out is that it was {more}easily located.

In addition to a white felt cuff and lots of jingle bells, each stocking I've made has a Christmas tree. I try to vary the ornaments but also reprise a few for continuity. And also because my skill set is limited when ideas are interpreted in sequins. The mitten is a repeat but the camel and dove are new. Not bad.

Beading a Christmas stocking

There's been loads to do around the house so this is all the sewing I finished in a week.

Enjoy the day, Ann

The Newest Christmas Stocking

Merry Christmas, y'all!

The year began with the intention of finishing a Christmas stocking for G3 {the newest grandchild} by summer. That plan quickly dropped by the wayside. I finally finished it mid-December, working almost to the wire. It's the cutest one yet - if you like gaudy and loud.

The white rectangle covers the recipient's name for privacy but it's written in green sequins for extra bling. 'Cause Texans can never have enough!

G3 Christmas stocking

All the stockings I've made have a Christmas tree

Christmas tree and mitten on velveteen stocking

and an event from space that occurred in their birth year. This one is the Juno satellite circumnavigating Jupiter's poles. Juno is still actively exploring Jupiter. In fact, NASA posts photos regularly on its feed and social media. 

Juno satellite circumnavigating Jupiter,
beaded Christmas stocking

Then it's open season on ornaments. My mother's stocking had pink bells which reprised on her namesake's. That was fun.

Beaded Christmas bells on a stocking

DH suggested holly when I ran out of ideas. Well, I didn't run out of ideas but many don't work out given my limited artistic ability and use of sequins. A tiny manger was one charming idea that was never realized {Who'd believe sequins and mangers don't go together?} although there is hope I might fashion a sheep one day...

Holly and berries beaded on a Christmas stocking

Most stockings have six or seven felt-and-sequin ornaments. Any remaining space is filled with shiny snowflakes, stars, and random buttons and beads. The deer and bird buttons were special finds at a quilt show. They are plastic with a shank on the back. Very easy to add and non-toxic. The bird fit perfectly on the Christmas tree. How lucky is that?

The felt ornaments crowded the bottom this time leaving a bare spot at the top. {Someone didn't arrange them properly.} Hmm. Searching the internet, I found special glass beads that filled it perfectly. Success and a new idea. 

I'll be upgrading all the stockings as I see them. Each branch of the family tree will get the same bead. G3 and her parents have penguins. Daddy dibs-ed them first. {Is that even a word? We said it in the past tense but there's no way to write it.} There are enough beads for a few future siblings, too. Sounds like a fun task to me but hey, we all know I'm uniquely wired.

While the stockings aren't washable and dry cleaning will take the color off the sequins, they can be gently brushed or vacuumed and carefully stored in bins. There are other ways to make them last. For instance: Each seam is sewed twice and zigzagged around the edges. The lining doesn't extend to the toes. It only goes to the ankle so gifts won't put pressure on that angle when an orange nestles at the bottom.

Sewing the stocking after all beading is attached

This stocking is hung by the chimney with care. G3 loves the way it jingles and I love sharing this heritage with another generation.

Previous stockings with construction pointers:

1. Mine and my offspring's
2. G1 and G2 stockings in progress
3. More progress
4. G1 and G2 stockings completed

Mel Beach emailed me last week that she pulled my name for a set of Lyric Kinard's Start Your Art cards. Then Lyric mailed not one, but two, sets.

Lyric Kinard's Start Your Art cards

They include warm up exercises to help you start making art whenever you feel blocked. I shared one set with my small group. Thank you Lyric and Mel for opening my eyes.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Beading the Christmas Stockings

Our family's stockings are gaudy, loud, and out-of-style but they are the ones we grew up with. Most children like shiny and colorful with jingles; we were no exception. My mother told us not to put them on our feet. Of course we did... and found they didn't fit. It took me years to realize the lining is a simple tube; it doesn't reach to the toe at all, only to the heel. Thank goodness or we'd have ruined them.

Many wonderful patterns for quilted stockings have been published over the years. Almost every family I know has a set of their own. Whatever they look like, it's a joy of the season to group them on the mantel annually. QS made two pair for her in-laws: one to keep at their house and the other pair if they visit hers. Subtle and tasteful.

Christmas stockings for the in-laws

But they aren't "ours." So back to bright and bling-y. Or loud and brash. Whatever.

Decisions for the first stocking include the Bethlehem star, the New Horizon satellite flying by Pluto, a Christmas tree, a butterfly, a sailboat, and his Yorkie. This one should have been finished last year but it's only getting started now. Bad Santa!

Starting the 2016 Christmas stocking

Each object takes me two or three days to bead. I'm not fast... and sometimes I'm not too good either. For example, the mainsail looks okay but I'll be replacing the jib.

Partially beaded Christmas stocking

On the other hand, the bunny is delightful and the tree's ornaments swing freely. I beaded the Yorkie's hair so some of the beads stand up, mimicking his rough coat. Pretty good.

Friends told me to use Nymo thread, made for beading. Check. If there was any doubt, you can tell I'm not a regular beader. That needle was straight just a while ago. Any advice about how I should be holding it would be appreciated.

Nymo thread and a bent beading needle

Two more ornaments to go {plus the jib.} It will be complete once the name is beaded across the top, the parts are sewn together, and bells are added. Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat. I'd better get busy.

Enjoy the day, Ann

What do the Fairmont and my Christmas Stocking Have in Common?

I toured the Fairmont with San Francisco Walking Tours and enjoyed learning the history of this hotel. Sitting atop Nob Hill, the Fairmont has wonderful views of both the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges. Barely finished, the Fairmont burned during the 1906 earthquake but reopened a year later to become a city hub.

Golden Gate and Bay Bridges from Fairmont

The United Nations formed here in 1945; its charter was drafted in the Garden Room. A few years later Dorothy Draper remodelled the hotel using flamboyant colors and luxury fabrics. Her Modern Baroque style was "the opposite of minimalism."

Fairmont lobby 

The Carousel Bar once incorporated a working antique one. That is gone but delightful murals still decorate the walls.

Murals of circus performers decorate the Fairmont's Carousel Bar

Like Dior's New Look, these exotic fabrics and colors celebrated the end of the war and rationing! After the tour I realized my family's Christmas stockings came from this same era. Bright red velveteen with green apple taffeta lining. Beading, sequins, and bells. More is more indeed.

My Christmas stocking

A family friend made the first one. Then my mother {had to} sew others as the rest of us appeared. They always look merry and bright strung along the mantle. For years I never saw these stockings anywhere else. A family from my home state moved to town. Surprise. Their stockings are twins to ours. I wonder if the original pattern was in a local newspaper or magazine.

When it was time to make stockings for my children I wanted to update them somehow. Halley's comet appeared soon after my eldest so that was beaded on her stocking below. {It looks more like a paramecium.} Then I added a rocket for the many shuttle flights. Thus began began the Heavenly Additions.

Daughter and SIL's Christmas stockings

The Voyager 2 flyby of Neptune is commemorated on one; the Ulysses boost past Jupiter on another. Neither SIL nor DIL had a stocking. His (above) highlights Discovery's spacewalk by astronaut Dale Gardner to retrieve the Westar VI satellite. Hers depicts the Rosetta landing on Comet 67P. That's the purple mass on the righthand stocking below... in case you can't tell. Over the years, my abilities have dropped off and it looks as odd as Halley's comet.  Or perhaps I can only bead planets, not comets. {I also cheated a bit; this is the year they married, not the year she was born.}

Christmas stockings celebrating space mission highlights: Ulysses, Voyager2, and Rosetta

DIL's still has a blank spot where I plan to add her wedding bouquet. I'm just a bit chicken about ruining the ribbons. Their names (covered in the photos) are written with beads and sequins across the white felt cuff.

With the arrival of grandchildren I'm busy making more. One should have been finished a year ago. Oops. The new velveteen is cardinal red rather than the former deep blue/red but the lining is still bright green. Although I drafted a paper pattern long ago, now I just use one sample as a guide.

Cutting new Christmas stockings from velveteen

They all need a Christmas tree and then it's time to let loose: snowmen, reindeer, stars, butterflies, bells. Here are the events I'm considering.

• For 2015: Discovery of Kepler-452b (possible Earth 2) by Kepler or New Horizons flyby of Pluto

• For 2017: Total Solar eclipse or Cassini-Huygens satellite entering Saturn's atmosphere

Two yards each of the velveteen and lining will make six stockings. More than enough. I cut all six; they can lay flat at the bottom of the stocking box. The velveteen won't crease and I'll know where to find them... perhaps. {I have become a champion squirrel-er-away.}

Enjoy the day, Ann