christmas is coming... advent calendar

I'm back today to share an advent calendar that I made last year.  I didn't get it finished until about December 5th last year & then of course, with the busy holiday season, I never got around to taking pictures of it or blogging about it.

I knew I wanted an advent calendar of some sort to hang in our home, mostly just to cut down on the "When is it going to be Christmas" whining.  After looking around on ones to buy, I decided to make one instead.  I used a charm pack of Basic Grey's Blitzen and 2/3 yd of background fabric, which is a Basic Grey grunge.  I didn't take many pictures along the way & the ones I took were all blurry, so here is a brief synopsis of what I did....

1. Cut (24) 5" squares for the pockets (I used charm squares)
2. Iron the edges under on all sides (I didn't want raw edges, but you could leave them raw to save time, especially since the charm square edges are pinked)
3. Cut 24 squares of interfacing at 4.25"
4. Iron interfacing to the wrong side of the charm square (to give the pocket some structure)
5. "Stamp" the number on the charm square using fabric paint and a stencil (I used Martha Stewart paint, stencil, and "stampers" from Michael's)
6. Mark where you want to place the charm squares on the background fabric (I did a 4x6 configuration, with 1" between each charm.)
7.  Layer the backing fabric, batting, and background fabric
8. Pin the charm square onto the "quilt sandwich", making sure the square will not twist
9. Sew the charm square 1/4" from the edge on 3 sides (not the top, or you won't be able to open the pocket)
10. Remove pins, square up the quilt
11. Bind quilt

To hang my advent calendar, I sewed loops into the binding on the back.  I just used white ribbon to make my loops.  They are visible when I hang the calendar, but I think it looks cute that way.  I'm sure there are a ton of different options for hanging, so use whatever way you prefer!

That's all there was to it! Hope you enjoyed this short tutorial!

Thanks for reading!
Valerie

honeysweet fabric scrap winner!

I used Random.Org to decide my winner for the Honeysweet scrap giveaway.....

 and number 8 is Stephanie, who said :

8. AnonymousNovember 14, 2015 at 9:50 AM

   This is beautiful! I am currently working on a coin quilt for my Nana with a Fig Tree & Co. jelly roll in Mirabelle. They really have beautiful, vintage-y looking fabrics, don't they? I'm pretty sure I just invented a word there...vintage-y! :) Anyway, very nice job on your quilt and have a great Thanksgiving!
   
   Stephanie
   barefootcontessajunkie@hotmail.com

   
   

   
   

   
   

   Thank you all for reading & commenting!  Stephanie, I will be emailing you soon to get your mailing address!

   Valerie

clovers & jam

Oh man, I did not intend to take such a long hiatus!  I don’t have a good excuse other than that my last post was last November (a full year ago!) and I think I probably got busy with the holiday season & after that I jumped right into making a full size bed quilt for my daughter’s 4^th birthday.  And I’ll show you that quilt soon(ish), but first before Fall is completely over, I want to share this quilt I made LAST FALL!

I pre-ordered this quilt as a kit directly from Fig Tree & Co in the spring of 2013! I loved the fabrics (Honeysweet by Fig Tree & Co for Moda) & the pattern (Clovers & Jam, also by Fig Tree & Co) and I was really looking forward to making this quilt in the fall of 2013.  Easton was born September 23^rd, 2013 and for some reason I had thought I would be able to find the time to work on the quilt after he was born. Not so much. So I pushed it off and finally got around to working on it in September of 2014.  I finally got it pieced & sent out to be long arm quilted in November of 2014.  And then it sat for another 6+ months before I finally put the binding on!  

But anyway, it is finally finished & we are putting it to good use now that we are starting to have some cooler fall weather.  (This fall has just been unreal with 60-70 degree temps up until this week, which is very unseasonably warm for Northwest Iowa.)

As much as I like this quilt, I learned that making a quilt from a kit is maybe just not for me.  For me, a huge part of the enjoyment of making a quilt is not knowing quite how it is going to turn out.  I love the surprise of seeing the final product and how it came together in real life versus how I thought it would look “in my head”.  

As a thank you for reading this blog post after my long hiatus, I'd like to giveaway the leftover fabric from making this quilt.  To enter, please leave a comment on this post about ANYTHING!  Your favorite Thanksgiving dish, favorite thing about Fall, favorite color, favorite quilting tool or technique, literally anything you want!  Please make sure you are not a No-Reply commenter, or if you are, please leave your email address so I can contact you.  (Open to US only please since I am paying shipping.) I will leave the giveaway open until next Friday morning at 8 am CST.  Giveaway now closed.

Quilt Stats:
Fabric: Honeysweet by Fig Tree & Co for Moda

Pattern: Clovers & Jam by Fig Tree & Co
Dimensions: 71” x 71”
Started: September 2014  
Finished: November 2014
Quilted by: Abby Latimer of Latimer Lane Quilting 

Thanks for reading!
-V

Linking to:
NTT @ My Quilt Infatuation
TGIFF @ Quilt Matters 
Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts
Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Link a Finish Friday @ Richard & Tanya Quilts