12, 13, 14… Advent Calendar = Check!

OH MY! That only took two weeks longer than it was supposed to! Finally finished on Day 14…

I checked out all sorts of Advent calendars and designed one made of 4 or 5 different houses… Well, I made one and hated it. I just really disliked it.  Here is Plan A:

So, Plan B. Technically I didn’t have a plan B, but I was determined that I was making an Advent calendar this year! So, Plan B actually included coming up with a new design…. I didn’t really have a clue what Plan B was going to be and I was already behind schedule…

I came up with the idea of all the pocket being presents. Maybe under a tree?  Maybe just presents? Or another house theme?? Then I started following this awesome blog, oohmoon. Katie, from oohmoon is making an art piece everyday and then giving it away for free for 24 hours. (If you haven’t already seen this, you should.) She was working on a series of animals and I had fallen in love with the owl. Then she made the owl in the tree with the fox. When I saw that, the design just popped into my head instantly!!

That was the design process. Then I made all the present pockets, positioned the tree pieces and Katie’s art, sewed on the pockets, layered the quilt pieces, appliqued the tree pieces, finished the edges and wah lah…

There is one other thing I have planned for this quilted advent calendar. I have a bunch of pearl beads that fell of the pearl fabric I used for the stockings. I want to stitch those to the quilt for a little snow effect. Cool? Leave it alone? Let me know…

As I was making this, almost done, probably about the 10th of December, my husband asks, ‘Is this something he’ll use every year?’  My answer was basically a look of shock, of course he will! Until he’s about 40 years old…