Are you planning any Christmas sewing this year? I decided to start early and join the Sunny Stocking SAL hosted by Sunny Day Supply. However, I didn’t feel like cutting out all of the diamonds by hand. If you’re like me, I have the perfect solution! You can use your Accuquilt Go! Cutter to quickly and accurately cut all of the diamonds you need for the Sunny Stocking!
Materials:
- Scraps for stocking front, I used fabrics from the Santa Claus Lane collection by Riley Blake Designs, along with some Riley Blake basics
- 1/3 yd fabric for backing
- 1/3 yd fabric for stocking lining
- 2.5″ x 18″ piece for top binding
- 2″ x 4″ for stocking loop
- Sunny Stocking Template
- Accuquilt Go! Cutter
- Accuquilt 2.5″ strip die
Instructions:
- Print and cut the Sunny Stocking Template at 100% percent. For my stocking, I chose to use the 2.5″ strip die, but you could play around with the size of your diamonds. The closest fit to the original tutorial’s diamond size is to use the 3″ strip die. If you feel like making less diamonds, you can use the 3.5″ strip die. I’m planning my next one with the 3.5″ die. The sky is the limit! For this tutorial I’ll assume you’re also using the 2.5″ strip die and will give measurements coordinating to this die.
- Start by cutting strips of fabric. The 2.5″ die will be able to cut 3 diamonds at once and will need a 14″ long strip. I chose to do 3 diamonds out of every one of my fabrics to get a scrappy look. The total number of diamonds you’ll need is 39.
3. Once you’ve cut your strips, place them diagonally on the strip cutter using the 45 degree line as your guide. Make sure that your fabric extends all the way past the first and last blades. Remember, you can cut up to 6 layers at once, so feel free to stack them all up!
4. The Accuquilt Strip Cutter will cut perfect diamonds for you!
5. I used my Accuquilt to cut out all of my non-directional fabrics. Then, I used one of my already cut diamonds to create a template to fussy cut the adorable Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Cutting your diamonds with Accuquilt is best for non-directional fabrics.
6. Once you have all of your fabrics cut, lay them out in the order you want and sew them together. In my example below, I only used 34 diamonds, and it definitely was too tight. I ended up adding a couple of scraps to get to the required width. See the mock-up diagram below for the correct layout using 39 diamonds.
7. Make sure your stocking template fits over your sewn panel, then baste and quilt your pieces. I like to baste and quilt my backing as well. Be sure when tracing and cutting your backing that you flip your template over!!
8. Continue with the tutorial on the Sunny Day blog to finish your stocking. I chose to add a piece of binding to the top of mine instead of the method detailed on the Sunny Day blog. To do this, sew together your front and back pieces, right sides together, and flip right side out. Sew together the two lining fabrics, and stuff it inside your exterior stocking. The only raw seam you should have showing is the top seam. Baste the lining and the exterior together with a 1/8″ seam allowance, add your loop, then use the 2.5″ x 18″ piece of fabric to bind all the layers together.
