Creative Christmas Stocking

November Island Batik challenge was to make a stocking:

I am dreaming of somewhere tropical as we are under a winter storm watch today.

It is the same size as my old OLD stockings, so maybe this is the first of a family set. The old ones are plaid and country colors. Those are NOT my choice of colors anymore.

My daughter picked out the thread colors to create this palm tree embroidery design.

I bought the design from Embroidery Library. Click on the green link to go straight to the fabulous design.

I embroider on a Janome 500e. I love the quality of my embroidery on this machine.

I chose 2 foundation fabrics from Island Batik for my stocking. I went all out tropics for my dreamy stocking. For quite a few years, we went to Maui in December for a little island life before the dreary winter in Washington.

The design took about 75 minutes to stitch. As long as you use really good stabilizer, it will stitch well. I use a fusible batting along with 2 layers of hooped stabilizer. It came out perfect.

I used more tropical colors for the decorations on the palm tree: hot pink, purple and bright yellow instead of the traditional colors.

I chose a lime green foundation for the ruffle on the top edge of the stocking.

It may have been some border cuts from another project. I love using up some precut strips!

This was a really quick project, maybe 3 hours or so, including the embroidery. I would say it took more time to choose thread (daughter did that) and clean up than it took to actually make the stocking!

I will say that I finished the stocking before I realized that I forgot to quilt the stocking. Wow! That was unintended. It did not need to be quilted, but I love the look of quilted items.

It will look fabulous next to the dreary stockings I already have. It is also a tiny bit bigger. When we have extra people at my house during the holidays, we will have a stocking for them. We LOVE filling stockings. All of our stocking are chosen each year, and I think I will choose this one. Maybe someone will fill it a bit more since it is a bit bigger. LOLOL

Disclosure: The products featured here were provided to me free of charge by Island Batik and Hobbs Batting.

Visit all the Island Batik Ambassadors for inspiration.

• Brenda Alburl ~ Songbird Designs

• Megan Best ~ Bestquilter

• Pamela Boatright ~ Pamelaquilts

• Elizabeth DeCroos ~ Epida Studio

• Jennifer Fulton ~ Inquiring Quilter

• Mania Hatziioannidi ~ Mania for quilts

• Jane Hauprich ~ Stitch By Stitch Custom Quilting

• Reed Johnson ~ Blue Bear Quilts

• Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs

• Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood

• Denise Looney ~ For The Love Of Geese

• Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights

• Maryellen McAuliffe ~ Mary Mack Made Mine

• Anorina Morris – sameliasmum.com

• Lisa Pickering ~ Lisa’s Quilting Passion

• Claudia Porter ~ Create with Claudia

• Gail Renna ~ Quilt Haven Threads

• Brianna Roberts ~ Sew Cute And Quirky

• Michelle Roberts ~ Creative Blonde

• Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail

• Andi Stanfield ~ True Blue Quilts

• Sandra Starley ~ Textile Time Travels

• Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations

• Suzy Webster ~ Websterquilt