The Stocking Project - Bucilla Obsessed

As I have mentioned before, a 100 or so times I think, I became a grandmother in Nov 2013 to a beautiful baby girl. Her first Christmas sent me searching for the perfect "Baby's First Christmas" stocking, and while I was searching, I stumbled upon Bucilla Stocking Kits. I have never seen these before. How is that possible? They are the cutest, most blingy, shiney, sparkly things I have ever seen -I was instantly obsessed! The kits are pretty intricate - they come with these huge fold out sheets of instructions and consist of 100+ parts that must be carefully cut out and sequined, embroidered, and sewn according to the instructions. There are stockings, tree skirts, advent kits, wall hangings, table top decorations, wreaths - the cute-ness almost made my head explode. My wallet certainly did, although at an average of $20 per stocking it was not so bad. I bought my first stocking kit for Tori - and went on to buy seven more stockings, 2 tree skirts and an advent calander. I have completed 2 stockings, the one for Tori and one for my husband, and have a third on the bench for my daughter's best friends daughter. I have no idea how many I will manage to finish this year, but I sure am enjoying making them - here they are: ------------------------------- Tori - As you can see, organization is a key part of being successful with these kits. The first thing I did was make a wallet to hold my pins and needles. I just used some heavy cardboard, cut into three pieces, and made a sleeve to go over it. Cotton on the outside, it has felt inside that works very nicely - a pocket for a scissor and a seam ripper, a snap on the outside, and viola! Organized and ready to go!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Joe - my husband Joe loves birds, and feeds them regularly from feeders in our backyard. A favorite of his are the cardinals, who seem to be personal friends of his. When the feeder is empty, the males will come to the back steps and scold him to get out there and fill the feeder, and he is always happy to oblige. Needless to say, we have more than one cardinal themed item around the house. Salt and pepper shakers for the Christmas table, pot holders, Christmas ornamants - cardinals are very welcome around here. So, when I came across this Bucilla design, how coudl I resist? This one took about a month to finish, and believe it or not, it was the snowflakes that did me in - cutting them and sewing them turned out to be a bit of a tough task, but I got it done and here it is.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As I finish the others, I will add them here. I really am loving these, I love making them and I love how they come out. Its a lovely way to spend some time that doesn't require much thinking or planning on my part - like paint by numbers for sewing. I have a box of Bucilla now, and I can't wait till it's empty and ready for another wave of projects.