Week #39 - Quilty Stocking

You have already been warned that the Christmas embargo has been lifted! So make way for a perfectly Christmassy craft with my quilted stocking tutorial. (this particular stocking will also be auctioned off this week for Macmillan Cancer Support).

I'm publishing Part 1 of the tutorial (the patchwork) today, and Part 2 later this week.  This tutorial is a little more advanced than my usual ones... so it might be a bit more of a challenge for a beginner. If you have experience with patchwork and quilting it will be a breeze, but if using a quilter's square, rotary cutter and cutting mat are new to you expect that this will take a bit of time to get right.

Now I like this stocking because its got a touch of that cheesy-twee-crafty Christmassy goodness that we all hate to love and love to hate, but I've tried to combine the pattern I've made with modern fabrics so that its a little more muted... you can of course go as Christmassy as you like and use whatever fabrics you wish.

You'll Need:

Materials

- 4 Fat Quarters of Printed Cottons (this will be enough for two stockings actually)

- Plain Calico or any other fabric suitable for the lining

- wadding/batting

Equipment

- Quilters Square

- Rotary Cutter

- Cutting Mat 

- Fabric Pen (washable)

- Sewing Machine and Kit

Let's get started. 

1. Cut your Squares.

You'll need to cut squares out for both sides of the stocking and lay them into sets.  If it helps cut for your fat quarters into strips before cutting them to get the following number of squares:

3" squares - 12 in each colour (48 in total)

2.5" squares - 12 in each colour (48 in total)

Set your 2.5" squares aside, and separate your 3" squares into piles of 12 with 3 of each colour in each pile. (Ie. you'll end up with 4 piles of 12 squares)

2. Lay out your squares and prep.

 For each of your piles of 12 squares do the following.

Lay all squares out face up, and then lay squares right side together so that each colour is paired with another colour. The easiest way to do this, without getting mixed up is like this (follow the instructions).

Lay squares right side up in four columns of three

Lay colour 1 (three squares), face down on colours 2, 3, and 4

Lay colour 2 (two squares left) down on 3, and 4

Lay remaining colour 3 (one square left) on square 4 

Do this for all your squares, then prep them by drawing a diagonal line down each one using a fabric pen and your quilter's square. (This will serve as our seam allowance line when we piece our triangles)

At this point you will have your original 48 squares, now in pairs of 24 face together, with lines drawn down the diagonal. For simplicity's sake, try to keep the squares in their stacks of six throughout the piecing process so that they don't get too shuffled up.

3. Piece it up!

Sew a scant 1/4 inch seam on either side of your diagonal line, on all your 24 pairs of squares. 

If you do 6 at a time you can keep them in the groups they started out with, sewing down one side of the line then down the other making a daisy chain of pieces.

Check your seams and then cut along the diagonal line you used as a seam guidance.

 Ta dah!

Press each piece open! When you started you had 48 squares, now you'll have 48 squares again each made up of two triangles.

4. Trim em' down.

Using your quilter's square, rotary cutter and mat, trim these squares down to 2.5 inches, so they will fit with your other squares. Using the diagonal on the quilters square to make sure your diagonal lines up.

See?

5. Shining Stars

Each set of six pairs of squares will now be a set of 12 squares. Each of these sets, can be laid out to create a star with 8 points. Play around with your pieces to make a star.

Create a second star, and then using your plain squares fill the gaps to create a 'boot' like layout for your stocking. 

This boot will be made up 48 squares total, that is 9 squares tall, and 7 wide (with a gap for the boot shape). Use the photos to help you plot your boots. (I broke up one of my stars a bit on this side, but you can keep them as-is if you prefer).

6. Piece and press and piece and press and piece.

Starting with pairs of squares next to one another, begin to piece your stocking making sure you keep things in order so you don't mix up your layout.

Here is a string of squares pieced together in pairs, which I then press open, layout, and piece into larger pieces of four squares.

Here is the stocking pieced into slightly bigger sets of squares

Keep piecing until you have a full stocking shape.

Finally, repeat for your other side of the stocking, but make sure you create two opposite shapes: One like an "L' and another backwards (see below)

7. Draw, shape and trim

Now that you have stocking shapes, round the edges to make a stocking shape. You can draw with your erasable fabric pen on one piece and then cut it to a stocking shape...

Then use this piece to help trace and cut out the other piece so that both pieces match and fit together when laid out right side to right side.

and ta-dah! your patchwork is complete.

Stay tuned for the second half of the blog post coming this week, where I'll show you the incredibly simple way I quilted and assembled the stocking.

Meanwhile, get started on your own project and let me know how it turns out...

and of course, if you don't have the time for this you are welcome to bid on the stocking which will go up for auction starting tonight (Sunday Nov. 4th) with 100% of the sale going to Macmillan Cancer Support.  The auction will appear below as it goes live tonight.

*** Update *** The second part of the tutorial is now posted, and you can find it here: Quilty Stocking - Part 2.