Although early stockings were for my family members, as time went on, I began to branch out and make them for other folks too. But as some of these offerings were intended for adults, who presumeably either a) would not be crushingly disappointed without a stocking and b) already had one anyway, I could, and (you knew this was coming) did procrastinate horribly.

As with this piece. The recipient is a singer, specializing in choral music, and her xmas tree theme is angels. What better choice, then, than an angel choir member? It turned out to be a great choice for me too, because the shapes were very simple, leaving relatively large blocks open to fill in with bits of color and texture however I wished.

Angel stocking. Completed 2007, and started...perhaps 1997? or 2002? Who knows! Felt, sequins, beads (including amethyst, picture jasper, and amber), kumi braid of handpainted cotton, tassels, jingle bells.

And use them I did, tacking down little scraps for the first time. This would evolve to become a favored working technique, which you can see also in the cardinal and poinsetta stockings. As time went on, I began to incorporate machine satin-stitch edging, which you can see a bit in the temari stocking, though not nearly as much as I'd like, because the tensioning on my sewing machine was giving me fits.

the body of the angel was actually finished several years ago, but then I decided the background was a bit too stark, and added the white sequins for a sort of celestial snow. And then decided the name needed some gold ones too. This year's contribution was to cut out the felt backings, sew it together, find a cord and tassels, and put those on. The purple and blue jingle bells I'd casually picked up several years ago were almost gone, so I went on the hunt for more, discovering to my dismay that none could be found. So to make up I spent an absurd amount of money on flat opaque red, pine green and white jingle bells; a jumbo collection of 75 gold jingle bells; emerald green and turquoise jingle bells; matte and shiny lacquered red jingle bells; matte and shiny silver jingle bells...and finally, after I'd given up, a packet of miniature purple and blue jingle bells.

Needless to say, after picking up some 200-300 assorted jingle bells (at retail prices, ugh) I will never ever have to buy them again. But it does mean I can be profligate with them, putting several on a single tassel.

Strictly speaking, the bottom edge of the flap still isn't really finished. It needs some gold braid, or something...but xmas was coming, I wanted and needed to finish, and so I called it done.

And it remains one of my very favorites, even after years since it was started. Stocking completed dec07, photo taken 20081224, file created 06jan08.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.