Friday, November 25, 2016

I’m finished; I’m done; I’ve already packed it in a tin!

I finished the Advent Calendar this afternoon. I didn’t get all the buttons sewn on yesterday so I started with those this morning. I thought I was going to have to cover the corners with buttons (a couple were a bit wonky) but I was able to get them adjusted. So next up was cutting out the charms and getting them ready for hanging.

That didn’t take as long as I expected because I didn’t cut around all of the stitching on each of the charms. For most, I cut a straight line around them so it was a lot less fiddly than cutting around each bit of stitching. The few that I hung as a trial seem to hang just fine in spite of my alteration. Tying the hangers into the charms took time but that too went faster than expected. At that point I thought I was done.

But no, I needed to figure out some way to hang the piece. The ladies at the Guild told me I had to put a sleeve on the back for hanging but I tried desperately to figure out some other way. I didn’t have any luck on that score so I got a sleeve attached. I found a small dowel to put through the sleeve; Trevor was here working I asked him to cut it down to size for me. It was quite a sight to see him with a big circular saw cutting a quarter inch dowel!. I added some red ribbon to hang the piece with and found a small container for the charms. So now I was done.

But no, as I was packing the pieces into a kit for mailing I decided I ought to put a label on it. It took almost 15 years to get it done so hopefully it will last at least 15 years and maybe someone at that time will want to remember who made it!

So now I really am done. I’m ready to figure out the “goodies” for the three Advent Calendars.