Felt Calendar

This year my son asked me for a felt calendar for his birthday.  I should explain, his birthday is the 21st of December and for years people combine his birthday and Christmas gift together.  

So this calendar goes just until his birthday.  

I used this tutorial for the basic idea but changed it up a little.  Pockets and numbers are the same.  I have made a couple of Advent Calendars over the years and I enjoy making them.  You can see them here, and here.

These calendars would be so fun to make for a child's birthday.

Step 3 Is Here!

Step 3 is here and I'm still on step 2!

But, I do feel good about what I have gotten done.  

All my flying geese are cut out and grouped together so I can sew them up.

The interesting thing I noted while cutting up my fabrics was that a number of them have this little corner piece cut out.  I know that is from the days of crafting and craft fairs.  Not sure what I made that I needed such a little piece.

Another golden oldie from the stash.  I get such a good feeling from using those now.  It reminds me of when I was a little girl about 5 or 6.  In the days before air conditioning in the summer time. (yes, I'm that old) I would take my crayons and coloring books out on the front porch and color.  One summer my goal was to color all the pages in my coloring books.  I did color all the pages in 2 books that summer.  And I would get such a feeling of accomplishment as I colored each page, getting closer and closer to my goal.  Amazing to get that same feeling now and have it bring back that memory.

And a finish to the week!  I gave my co-worker the Advent Calendar I made for her.  She will start using it next year.  This year she is giving her daughter a Christmas book each night before Christmas.  Next year she can add a note to the mittens as to which book they will read on that day.  What a great idea!

Introduction:  Gather fabrics.  (done).

Step One: 194 four-patch blocks. (done)

Step Two: Cut 128 quarter square triangles (done)

                 Cut 256 triangles for the wings (done)

                 Make 128 Flying geese units (0)

Step Three: Cut 64 two inch squares (0)

                  Cut 128 triangles for the wings (0)

                  Cut 64 larger half-square triangles (0)

                  Make 64 shaded 4 patches (0)

Lots to Share

I have lots to share with you!  First, these are my fabrics for Bonnie K Hunter's new mystery quilt "Easy Street".

I decided to go with Autumn colors as I have wanted to make an Autumn quilt for some time.  I've been collecting fabrics and I decided that this is the pattern I'm going to do it in.  I love the color choices Bonnie used, but I just don't have that in my stash.  And as much as I would love to go buy new fabric, I decided I wanted to make the Autumn quilt now.  I want a new quilt for my bed by next Thanksgiving.

My other project that I've been working on is an Advent Calendar.  This one is for a co-worker.  I'm loving how it's coming along.  I don't have a pattern, but have seen some on Pinterest that are similar.  The first few numbers:

I'm off now to stitch some more numbers and to cut strips for the first clue of the mystery quilt, "Easy Street."

Finished!

I finished the Advent Calendar this morning.  It feels so good to have it done, but now I need to get to the Post Office on Monday and mail it out.  I am very happy with the numbers considering how much I stressed over them.

Pinned

I have all the squares pinned onto the backing.  Lots of measuring to be sure everything was lining up like I wanted.  Now for the sewing.  I'm worried about shifting....

Tonight I'll be off to pick up a dowel and some ribbon to use for hanging the calendar.

Hi!

Hi!  I'm getting into the swing of the sewing again.  I finished stitching the numbers for the Advent Calendar.  See?

And I pinned all the red squares to the off white wool and started sewing them down.  I'm doing that on the machine.  I love hand sewing this wool, but it's a bit faster doing it on the sewing machine.

It's coming along nicely.  I just am kind of sad that it's not going to be done as soon as I had hoped.  But the grandchildren will have it this year, just a few days late.  Do things like that ever happen to you?

More Numbers

I finished some more numbers on the Advent Calendar.

 And an update on Sophie, she was acting more like herself yesterday and the swelling in her eye is going down.  But her mother and her brother now have pinkeye and the illness that goes with it.  Fever, etc.  Hope that they are all feeling better soon!

More Numbers

I have some more numbers done!

It's Coming Along Nicely.

My Advent Calendar is coming along nicely.  These are the numbers I finished Tuesday night at Quilt Guild.

Last night, Wednesday I finished 8 and 9.  Didn't have time to do much more than my 15 minutes of sewing last night.

And check out all these wonderful quilts!  Aren't they an amazing group of women?

Great Day!

Tuesday was a GREAT day!

First Sandy of Stitches and etc. sent me an email letting me know that I won My Memories software to use for making digital scrapbook pages.  I'm so excited!  I can hardly wait to play with the it and my pictures.  Sandy had made the most beautiful pages of her garden flowers.  Just think of the fun!  Thanks Sandy!

Second:  We got half of our skylights put in.  I'm not sure if the person putting them in had every worked with skylights before, but he put in only the dome.  He forgot to put the flat piece in.  But at least we don't have tarps blowing in the wind.  When he was installing the window, my husband asked him about that and he said it didn't come like that.  So my husband was reviewing the bill last night and the bill does show that the flat piece is part of the package and so now we have to call him and have him come back.


Third, I finally figured out my numbers.  I did freehand them and I am stitching the number with Perle cotton. I took a picture, but my camera battery died.  I'm heading to the grocery store tonight, so will pick up the new battery than.   I stitched the numbers on 1 through 7 and half of 8 last night while I was at Quilt Guild.

Fourth, Quilt Guild was amazing.  There are so many talented women in that group.  I know I have said that every time I go, but it's true.  I get blown away by the talent every time.  As I have in the past, I will post the link to the Guild blog when the pictures are up.

Have a great day!

Advent Calendar

My DIL asked me to make an Advent Calendar for my grandson and granddaughter, and of course I said "YES!".  The pattern is based loosely on this one at The Purl Bee .  I played with squares on my cutting mat to decide the size, I'm not going as narrow as shown.  And I'm placing 4 squares across.   So I got it all cut it out on Saturday night.

Then I got stumped.  I was trying to decide on how to do the numbers.  I really didn't want to embroider the numbers and making little numbers out of wool felt seemed like it may take longer than the week and half I have to get it done.  As I was getting ready for church, I remembered a technique I learned last year at Prairie Star Quilts.  You use narrow pieces of the wool felt and couch the wool down.  It makes wonderful curves.  So that's how I'm going to do the numbers.

Saturday was Quilt day and again I spent my time cutting out 8 inch squares and 2.5 inch strips of Christmas fabric.  (Jeanine gave me a HUGH bin of Christmas fabric.)  There were some larger pieces in the bin that I'm saving for backings.  I hope to have some kits together for the December meeting.

And the Butterfinger bars were a success.  I'll be making those again, only with creamy peanut butter.  I think I would like that better, although the crunchy peanut butter was OK.