twenty-four years...

 i had to wait twenty-four years, but i finally got my way...

the story actually begins two years before that, on september 25 to be precise

when our son was born

fast forward to december 23 and i had finally run out of time to make the beautiful christmas stocking i had planned in my head

i rummaged and found a christmassy piece of pre-quilted fabric and in a few minutes i had run up a simple stocking on my sewing machine, knowing there would be a whole year ahead to make a better one

that second year flew by as quickly as the first and another christmas came and went; the same stocking was hung for doug, with the same thought as previously... a whole year ahead to make the new one...

and then came year three, and as i gathered fabrics and bits and pieces a furor arose that would rival any clashing and prancing of hoofs on the roof

seems he quite liked "his" stocking, and didn't want another

and i was stopped in my tracks by one of the greatest forces i've ever encountered... thwarted by a combination of a two-year old's alligator tears and a temper tantrum

this year i finally got my way though - the stocking was nowhere to be found, lost somewhere between home, condos, apartments and a van

the same old issue of not a lot time presented itself, but i work faster now, and the general idea had had many years to percolate... an appliqued old-world style santa was what i had always envisioned

i decided to use some of the aberfeldy tweed i bought in scotland this past october as the base fabric...

lovely sage green with threads of red and blue

the old-world santa is an adaptation of a cross-stitch pattern designed by shepherd's bush, purchased in california while visiting family

(oddly enough, the name stitched on the cross-stitch design is "robert", my brother, doug's uncle's name)

 three of the applique fabrics are scraps from favourites purchased in the yukon when we lived there, many years ago

and plenty of snow at the toe and the cuff, complete with embroidered snowflakes

 doug loved it, i love it, but laura is not even remotely tempted by it - seems she's also quite happy to keep using her very own, beloved, pre-quilted fabric stocking

 i am nothing if not consistent!