December 1, 2016

This was many years in the making. When my children were young, my Mum made them an advent calendar from felt. The Christmas after my first grandchild, Madison, was born I purchased this kit at a Boxing Day sale at Michaels. I don’t remember when I started it, but probably right away because in my mind it would be ready for the next Christmas. That didn’t work out as planned – Madison is 15 years old now, and soon to be 16!

I enjoyed seeing the toys emerge as I stitched them. I worked the top in quadrants and used a highlighter (on photocopied sheets) to keep track of where I was in the pattern. I knew the back stitching would take some time, but it took much longer than I anticipated. The stitching for the calendar numbers went quickly so I guess that made up for it.

The charms, although small, were fun and I could often get more than three done in a day; three was the magic number I needed to finish each day in order to have it finished for this year.

I wondered how I would be able to attach the charms to the calendar but a member of one of my Facebook groups had done the kit and she used buttons. I bought buttons in Houston (we searched and searched for them on our last day) but several of them were too large. I took out my button box and found some that were about the right size.

Attaching the charms to the calendar isn’t easy so maybe it is a good thing that Elizabeth’s kids are older!