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I had decided that the grandsons would have Santa stockings. John’s had the toe of the stocking pointing to the left. The boys’ parents’ stockings have the toe pointing right, so I had to find a canvas with the toe pointing to the left for Tommy’s stocking. After a lot of looking, I found Rebecca Wood Designs and ordered the canvas.

When I looked at this piece some of the stitches jumped out at me immediately. For example, the fur on Santa’s robe needed to be Turkey work, the tree on Santa’s arm needed to be long and short in order to show the evergreen needles, and the decorations on the tree needed to be very dimensional.  I wanted the snow to sparkle, so I used a thread that I had in my stash along with Pebbly Perle and adapted a stitch I found in one of my stitch books. Some of the painted lines provided enough color to give a shadow under the stitching. I had a hard time finding a thread color for the toy bag, but finally came up with an overdyed thread that I laid horizontally in a satin stitch.  I then couched a metallic thread to make the vertical lines on the bag. The night sky is done with two strands of Floche. Some parts of the stocking I was able to do quickly; others I seemed to agonize over for a long time, picking threads and stitches.

There didn’t seem to be anyplace to put my initials and the date on the front of the piece. After a suggestion by a friend, I backstitched a piece of linen that says, “Stitched especially for Thomas Lennon Boswinkle by his grandmother Penny McMahan Boswinkle - 2001.” My finisher attached it to the inside of the stocking.

I never intended to enter this piece in the ANG Exhibit, but as the stitching progressed I was encouraged to enter it by Guild members and friends. I am really pleased that they encouraged me to show the piece. When Tommy is older, I hope that he will be proud of and pleased with his Christmas stocking.