A Christmas Story
Once upon a time there was a nice (and very sane) Lady who
lived with her Darling Husband, Bo, in a very small town in South Carolina. She was a Registered Nurse by profession but
since a job related accident had left her disabled she spent most of her time
reading or cross stitching. One fall day
while looking through her favorite needlework magazine she noticed all of the
Christmas ideas and she decided to stitch her small family nice, heirloom
quality Christmas stockings. So she
began looking for charts. First she
chose one for her Dear Son, Jason. Even
though he no longer lived at home with her, she continued to hang his stocking
each year. She then found one for her Darling
Husband and then one for herself. The
chart designs complemented each other and were perfect for her family. She began to stitch right away and with each
stitch she placed, she added love. She
stitched night and day until at last she was finished. She was so proud when the last stitches were
put in the final sock.
So off she went to the fabric shop for lining and backing
fabrics. Although she did not really
like to sew she knew she could do a creditable job assembling the
stockings. She chose a beautiful dark
red baby wail corduroy for the stocking backs.
With backing and lining fabrics, interfacings, pins, scissors, and
thread she began her task. Washed and
pressed and ready to go…pin, cut, baste, stitch, rip…rip…rip…baste, stitch,
clip, turn, press. Repeat. Repeat.
As she finished each one a smile of satisfaction crossed her lips. “Not bad” she thought to herself. “Not bad at all.” She could hardly wait to hang them!
She then decided to cross-stitch a Christmas tree skirt to
complement the stockings. As an avid
Santa collector, she decided to stitch one that would also complement her
collection. So she began her search for
the perfect design. Although she looked
through all of her magazines and searched out the local needlework shop (LNS)
she was unable to find one that she liked.
So she began to create one of her own.
Using various Santa, ornament, and border designs, she compiled the
charts she wanted to use. Then she
thought out the size, shape and finishing ideas for the skirt. She had decided to use a scallop design with
the Santas and ornaments centered in each curve. She chose her fabric with care. She had a piece of Aida large enough but she
didn’t want to use Aida. If this was going
to be a work of art then she wanted it done on something worthy of her
efforts. She seemed to remember buying a
large piece of linen for a grouping that she planned to do but she couldn’t
remember the dimensions. She began to
look for it and finally found it in her WIP (Works in Progress) cabinet. She measured it and discovered that it was
indeed large enough. So she began to
graph it out.
She planned a skirt with a 40 inch diameter. She began trying to figure the size of the
scallops and finally determined that the only way to do it was to cut it out
first and “play” with it. She found a
piece of white broadcloth and folded it and cut the circle. Then she cut 6 inch, 7 inch, and 8 inch
circle patterns from card stock. With
the circle folded into quarters she began to play with the patterns until she
found the 8” circles could be made to fit if she removed one “wedge”
section. This would allow for the seam
and make the skirt lay properly around the tree. She cut the linen circle and then the scallops. She stay-stitched around the entire skirt to
prevent fraying as she cross-stitched the designs. Then she lay the linen against the broadcloth
and cut it to use as the lining.
As she planned out each design, she realized that she had a
major problem that she had not foreseen.
Some of the scalloped wedges were off-grain. When she stitched a design it would be
crooked! She had already cut the linen
and she couldn’t afford to buy more so she went back to the drawing board. Suddenly it came to her. She would use designs that did not have a
certain orientation—for instance a wreath, “couching” a bow at the top after it
was stitched. So once again she began
searching for “appropriate” designs.
Finally, she had enough. She
began to stitch and saw the skirt coming to life. The days were flying by and when the last of
them was stitched, she was pleased with the results. She washed the piece and pressed it and hung
it to air dry. Then she searched for the
lace she planned to use to finish it.
She had also purchased some red ribbon to tie for bows at the junction
of each scallop.
The next day found the Lady at her sewing machine once
more. The lining fabric, linen and lace
were pinned together, then basted and stitched.
The skirt was turned and pressed and the final handwork completed. She decided that she would attach the small
ribbon bows with tiny safety pins so that they could be removed for
laundering. When the last one was in
place, she looked at her “masterpiece” and was astonished at how beautiful it
was. It was lovely and definitely one of
a kind. She couldn’t wait to see it
around the Christmas tree.
She decided to do a set of ornaments. They were “antique Santas” finished as
ovals. The Stitcher replaced the red
cording with lace to match the tree skirt, and added gold cording for
hanging. These seemed to complete her
collection.
As the holidays fast approached, the Stitcher began to look
forward to the family gatherings ahead.
First they would celebrate with DH’s family. Her Step-daughter (Wilma), her step-grand daughter (Pam) and
her husband (David), her step-grandson
(Brad) and his wife (Kathy), her
two sisters-in-law (Betty Lou and Mattie Sue), and a brother-in-law (JC) would
be coming to her home to celebrate on the Sunday before Christmas. Then they would go to Mom’s on Christmas Day
to celebrate with her family which included Mom, her brother (David) and SIL
(Erlene), and five nieces. She began to
decorate and make her plans. She loved
Christmas and always used plenty of live greenery and color. When she began to decorate the mantle, she
arranged the boxwood and holly and magnolia leaves with Nandina berries,
candles and ribbon bows. The red and
green was stunning. As she hung the
stockings she thought how well they coordinated with the overall look of the
fireplace. She was pleased with her
accomplishment. She received great
compliments from everyone who saw the stockings. DH’s family really raved about them. An idea began to form in the back of her
mind. She filed it away for further
consideration.
To be continued....
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