Back in May, when Carole Lake and her team were going through those amazing convulsions to try and accommodate everyone who wanted to attend the '98 seminar, it was announced that Jean Hilton was going to teach her Visions of Sugar Plums stocking, which was done in the Puzzle style. Vicki loves Jean's designs and she really wanted to take that class. Unfortunately (for her) she had taken advantage of the partial registration for seminar since she knew she wasn't going to be able to stay the whole week. So she couldn't sign up for Jean's class.

But Vicki thought that the idea of a Puzzle style stocking was just a wonderful idea. So she got Jean Hilton's Puzzle Purse book out and started planning. There were certain stitches that she knew she wanted to include, so she put those on the list first. She ended up with a list of stitches and how big their designated areas needed to be. Then she started laying it all out. This was actually a lot of fun. Vicki tried all sorts of layouts until she came up with something that she really liked.

The biggest challenge, for Vicki at least, was stitching the outline of the stocking, especially the toe. She had a terrible time getting it to curve correctly - she doesn't even want to remember how many times she ripped the toe out, but she finally got it to the point where she was satisfied with it. And once the toe was in, the rest of the stitching was pure enjoyment.

Vicki ended up with some oddly shaped areas around the heel and the toe and all she can say is thank goodness for crescent stitches.

Vicki had a lot of fun doing this stocking and she is so happy with the way it turned out. And basically this stocking was the result of intense frustration over not being able to take a class she really wanted to take. Vicki took all of that frustration and turned it into something that she is really proud of.