Christmas In July (Then & Now) Blog Hop

Published on by Bumbleberry Stitches

Hello lovely friends! It’s time for another Blog Hop! Christmas in July. I love this time of year. Stores like Hobby Lobby begin to bring out their Christmas decor and Holiday fabric begins to arrive at the quilt shops. It’s a time to start making Holiday plans an we all need this time cause the Holidays are expensive.

The theme ‘Then and Now’ is a good one. When making plans you should look back in order to decide the later. Looking over my Christmas projects I’ve realized I come up short. I don’t have much. It got me to thinking about why that is and how to fix it.

Make more stuff!

If you’ve been around long you know Bumbleberry Stitches is not strictly a quilting blog, thus the name Stitches. I’m all about the stitches from crochet to machine sewing. So I’d like to look back at the then and show some examples of that from previous blog hops.

So, this last photo of this cross stitch stocking that was never finished as a stocking brings me to the now. I have 2 more that I stitched and 1 that needs to be started. I’m such a slow pokey. lol

The pattern for these came from Cross Stitch and Country Crafts magazine as far back as the 1980’s & 1990’s. I didn’t stitch them till the early 2000’s. It’s way over time to get them finished as a stocking.

As you can see from the above photo I added upholstery trim to the outer edges. I hand sewn that down so it would be exactly where I wanted it to be. The hand stitches also give me a machine sewing guide when I added the backing.

For the lining I choose a fabric by Laura Berringer called Semi Solid from Marcus fabrics. The color is so close to the blue stitched in all the stockings.

I found some blue velvet upholstery fabric that almost exact to the blue threads.

The construction of the stockings was no different then what most tutorials online show so I’m not going to go through all of the steps. I am going to show you a couple of things I do that I picked up from my prim doll making days.

After I trace the template I cut it out using pinking shears. I find this to be helpful when dealing with the curves.

The second thing I do is I always use a 1/2″ seam or more. I save the 1/4″ for quilts. 🙂 To do this I use an open toe foot and move the needle to the far left. I line the fabric with the edge of the foot and sew. If I have to make pattern adjustments I will. I like a wider seam and on the curves I sew twice. I want to put a lot of stress on the stitches and not have it rip.

So there they are and I just love them.

The back of the stockings.

I have one more stocking to stitch. My oldest son didn’t like his. It was to kiddy and it had a mauve colored dresser. I give that one away and now I’m going to stitch another from this same collection. It’s okay. I stitched his first and finished it but didn’t like the finishing. These are better. So if he wants a new one, well, I’ll stitch it.

Here’s a picture of the pattern.

This one is from 1986

He wants me to leave the teddy bear out. lol

I hope your having a good day blog hopping. Thanks so much for stopping by.

Thanks to Carol of Just Let Me Quilt for being such a great host.

Today’s Blogger’s

MooseStashQuilting

Beaquilter

Day Brook Designs

Seams To Be Sew

Little Penguin Quilts

Bumbleberry Stitches

Samelia’s Mum

Canyon Rim Quilting

55 thoughts on “Christmas In July (Then & Now) Blog Hop”

  2. Your cross stitch Christmas stockings are terrific! I gave up cross stitch long ago – so hard to see such tiny stitches. Your post reminded me too that I have made Christmas stockings and forgot about them when it was time to post my Then and Now Christmas projects.

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  3. Those stockings are amazing. World class heirlooms right there. I have that crocheted Santa! and I have Mrs too! Thanks for sharing your lovely work with us.

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  4. Cross Stitch has always been my nemesis. I would love to learn to do it properly, although time has made it’s unwelcome welcome now and I just can’t do it with my wrists anymore. I had to stop hand embroidering for the same reason. I really do admire cross stitch tho. It’s such a beautiful craft to create wonderful patterns. I love the stockings you created and am amazed at the patience it must have taken just to finish them. I liked your other projects tho and it was fun to see them. You really have a knack for getting a good picture… It blows me away. I’m so dull in comparison… like -3 to your 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. 🙂

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    1. Ahh..thank you Marian. I bet I could show you how. It’s not so hard once you get the hang of it. I have to take several photos to get the good ones. lol

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  8. Your cross stitched stockings are beautiful. I REALLY like the one you are going to stitch for your son. The fireplace is beautiful in it! Thanks so much for sharing your finishes! Great job!

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    1. Thank you so much! I’m so glad you stopped by. I tried to leave a comment on your blog but it wouldn’t post. I loved your owls, so cute. 🙂

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  9. I am not a fan of cross stitch but love the looks of it. The stockings are quite lovely. I loved that table runner! Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Thank you so much. The table runner I designed for the Ho Ho Ho Blog Hop back in 2013. Never released as a pattern but have thought about it. I’m so glad you stopped by today.

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  11. Oh My GOODNESS!!!! Amazing. I love to cross-stitch and I know how much work and love went into these. Your stockings finished so perfectly. Love that Santa too, he is super cute.

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    1. Thanks Carla. I am so loving those stockings. They turned out better than I thought they would. It feels so good to finally have them completed and ready for Christmas.

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  13. The stockings are gorgeous, hung from either side, and XS takes a lot of time. I think you did really well for the hop. Best of luck on the 4th one.

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    1. Thanks. I love both sides to. I wanted them to be pretty from both sides in case I wanted to change it up. I’m so glad you stopped by today.

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  14. The Christmas stocking are brilliant, I use to cross stitch at lot but haven’t done any for a long time, This makes me want to pull out one of my unfinished cross stitch projects and do some.

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    1. Your welcome! How fun to make a stocking for your grandson. One day I hope to be able to do that. Thanks so much for visiting.

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    1. Thank you! I don’t always have patience either. After the excitement of starting I can’t wait to be done. lol I like starting things but not finishing.

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    1. I loved these stockings before I even had kids. I saved the magazine back when I was single hoping for the day I would have kids. Thank you for visiting today.

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  20. You do such beautiful work! Your stockings are just stunning! (Sons can be so picky!) Loved seeing all your past projects, too. You did an amazing job on all of them!

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  21. Hi Michelle! I used to own a cross stitch shop and I know how much work went into making these! TONS of time and effort and all of that hard work is reflected in the beautiful end result. Really nice job. I have a cross-stitched stocking for myself that I rarely take out any more, but you are inspiring me to make sure to use it this year! ~smile~ Roseanne

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  23. Beautiful finishes! You are obviously an expert cross stitcher, will you replace the teddy bear or just redraw the pattern and leave the red chair empty? I haven’t done these stockings, but a friend has! They are awesome! Thanks for the construction tips! I have a factory made stocking front that was in my MIL’s things. It has one of her grandson’s name on it. I need to finish it for him….he’s 40 something! 😊

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    1. Never to late. Not sure yet if I will just leave the chair empty or what. I tend to figure things out as I go. lol I’ll definitely blog about it though. Thanks so much for visiting.

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  25. Oh my gosh, those stockings are incredibly beautiful, actually gorgeous…I love them! I’d call them more of an heirloom Christmas stocking as they should be passed on from generation to generation. You did an amazing job. Thank you so much for sharing your then and now with us! xo

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    1. Thank you Carol. Your so sweet. I hope they get passed down. How wonderful that would be. Thanks so much for being a great hostess.

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  26. wow those stockings are just fabulous. thanks for inspiring. i have a few christmas stitching that i can do at this time so it is done for Christmas. thanks.

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  28. Holy smokes…those are incredible. Oh the time it takes to do all that cross stitching. You are just amazing. I just took a big box of those old cross stitch magazines to Goodwill recently. I sure hope I don’t live to regret it! Especially after seeing your post now. LOL!!

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    1. 😀 Oh, Joan I think you are amazing. Wish I had known about those magazines. I’d took them off your hands. lol Thanks so much for stopping by.

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  29. These stockings are absolutely beautiful, and I love how you finished them! I haven’t cross stitched since I started quilting–I used to do a lot of it. Maybe I need to pick it up again. Thanks for sharing!

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