Cuffing a Christmas stocking

I know I promised more about the Houston show in my last blog post but I'm on to other things right now and am excited about a tutorial from Jenny Doan of the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  I've been making Christmas stockings out of silk scraps from a project my former quilting buddy and I made eight years ago.

 
I've been embroidering them in the style of Victorian crazy quilts and embellishing with sparkly clear glass beads.

Orange crazy quilt stocking - the cuff will be solid range.

The first two have antique lace as the cuffs but the one I am currently working on is more masculine and I didn't want to put lace on it. The tutorial above showed me how to easily attach a cuff.

stitching detail

This is my second foray into Christmas stockings this year - I made a magic one for our new granddaughter during the summer. It is six inches long but when Santa fills it on Christmas eve it magically grows to hold all the gifts.

Magic stocking - Santa brought us a new grandchild!

You may be wondering why I need so many stockings. Our young man and his parents have them and the new baby has one, the Big Guy and I have them. So here's the deal: our Church, St. Basil's Greek Orthodox Christian Church, along with all the other churches in our archdiocese, have a Christmas luncheon which uses the proceeds to support and help pay off our seminarian's school loans upon graduation.  This year the luncheon is here at St. Basil's and I am helping the chair stock the boutique.

The sachet will look like this without the beak and comb!f

So I will donate these to the Boutique at the luncheon along with some home grown, pesticide free, oregano and some lavender sachets our youngest daughter taught me how to make.  The sachets will be made from orphan blocks. The shape of the sachets is from the chicken pincushion tutorial from the Missouri Star Quilt Co.'s tutorial sans beak, comb and tail feathers!

The boutique is being set up on Friday the 5th of December. If you have any items you would like to donate contact me for the address.

I MESSED WITH TEXAS!

I am sitting in Hobby airport in Houston waiting for my flight home after spending the past five days with my Texas cousin and attending the International Quilt Festival.  I was also lucky enough to connect with another cousin on my dad's side of the family. The two cousins and I went out to lunch and spent a good part of the afternoon together. The trip was a gift from my daughter artquiltmaker who also came with her college roommate.

Part of the Ruby Exhibit celebrating 40 years of IQ Festivals

My mom's side cousin invited the three of us to stay in her very lovely home in The Woodlands, north of Houston. The stay turned into a big slumber party. We were a super compatible group.

Lunch with the cousins was Thursday (I totally pigged out at the Cheesecake Factory. They have a great gluten free menu, including 'Godiva' cheesecake).

My 'Carroll' cousin

Friday cousin V came with us to the IQ Festival with the attitude "I have no interest in quilting". We walked around looking at quilts for the morning, had lunch at Papasitos Cantina in the Hilton (Gluten free menu, didn't like the rice or refried beans - Tex/Mex doesn't please my California palate) then visited the vendors. About half an hour in V decided she was going to do the "Learn to Quilt" session with West Houston Quilt Guild. She's hooked! Bought fabric, ruler, rotary cutter, and mat (not all at the show - more later).

Our newest quilter!

We stayed at the show from open at 10 a.m. til close at 7 p.m. and we probably only saw one quarter of it!

Enough for now. I have places to go and things to do. Will continue in a couple of days.