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!