Count Down to Christmas

Saturday, I delivered a filled 'Wonky' Houses (my name for this pattern) Advent Calendar, to my granddaughter, Gale. Needless to say, most of the gifts didn't fit into the house pockets but that didn't matter. I wrote notes for those and put them in the pockets. A bag full of numbered presents to match the house numbers accompanied the wall hanging. Of course, the gift bag was put in her mom's studio to prevent peeking!!! Gale was very excited.



See more posts of this pattern HERE, HERE, & HERE



Enjoy!!

$ Shop Finds

I often visit the $ Shops to see what 'treasures' can be found. It is the best (cheapest) place for gift bags, tissue paper, Christmas tags and cards. I've often found great plastic containers for use in my studio. The covered ice cube tray was a great find for my sewing machine bobbins.

My latest $ Shop Finds include a ball of yarn and alphabet beads. The yarn will be used in the making of some 'fantasy fabric'.

My sister had number beads on her Advent Calendar Wall Hanging. I didn't see any of those but I did find these alphabet beads. Who knows, they might come in handy for some future project.

Let The Countdown Begin . . .

My sister just sent me photos of her finished Advent Calendar Quilt. The numbers on this one are tiny beads that she found and the stars in the sky are buttons. Nice job, Joan! Check Sunday's post HERE for more Advent 'stuff'. If you wish to purchase this pattern, the information is HERE or go directly HERE to Satin Moon Quilted Garden in British Columbia, Canada.

Enjoy!

Count Down To Christmas

Let the countdown begin - TUESDAY! Today, you search, among all the Christmas decorations, for that special piece to hang on December 1st. Well, maybe it's not a quilted piece but a special candle or whatever. In any case, I found a few interesting sites about this with some historical and religious context, as well as fun.

• British Christmas Traditions  / Advent Calendars  (this site has lots of information just click on the links to the left)
• Free Printable Christmas Calendar (this is a cute one) 
• Wikipedia on Advent Calendar
• All Free Christmas Crafts - calendars to make
• Advent Calendars on Pinterest and another HERE
• Christmas Countdown 
• Why Christmas - Traditional 
• Make Your Own
• Sew Main Street  
• Tip Junkie tutorials

Here's my Granddaughter's Wonky Houses Countdown to Christmas!

Several of my readers were working on their own Wonky Houses. I wonder if you ever got them done? My sister, Joan, has been working on one this past week. Maybe she will share it with me when it's done then I'll share it with you.

Enjoy!

Wonky Houses Countdown

Fiber Lilly - Fabrics

Fiber Lilly had their first year anniversary this summer. I dropped by a couple of days ago to check things out as I've been gone since mid June. Nine new shelves of quilting fabric have been added! Apparently lots more fabric is on the way.

I'm not affiliated in any way with this store. However, I do like to promote and shop locally. If you are in town, please check them out. They do have lots of other supplies including yarns, notions and sewing machines.

Enjoy!

Christmas and winter

Christmas

Reds!

Summer colours. Stunning!

Lots of fat quarters!

Christmas organza to the left!

So soft for a cuddle quilt.

The Advent Calendar is now finished. When I was there it wasn't quite done.
This is a very easy one to do and looks wonderful. I saw it on face book.

Wonky Houses - It's Finished

I hope everyone has a great Labour Day weekend! We will be exploring the Cabot Trail here in Nova Scotia so I hope to get some great photos.

As promised, here is the finished "Wonky Houses" Advent Calendar wall hanging I made for my granddaughter who lives in Chicago. I waited until I got to Chicago to finish the piece with her. She had fun with all the buttons and then showed me where to sew them. We have a video of that so she can see us working on it when she's a big girl. One thing I forgot to do was put gold lame behind the candles on the tree. Guess it won't get done this year. Maybe sometime in the future but it really doesn't matter, she likes it as it is!

Enjoy!

Wonky Houses Advent Wall Hanging

Well, my Wonky Houses Advent Wall Hanging is almost finished! YAH!! It was a lot more work than I thought when I started it. However, I'm pleased with the result.  I still have to sew on some embellishments (decorative buttons & beads) but they won't get done until I do it with my three year old granddaughter in Chicago. She will help me sew on the stuff! At least she will indicate where to put the cats, and other things that you see in the buttons photo below. It should be interesting and fun! I'll post a final photo when that's completed. This is not an original design. The pattern comes all the way from British Columbia, Canada!

Here it is:

Quick Quilted Summer Project!

Just a quick post to share this Quilt As You Go Zipper Pouch from Becky at Patchwork Posse. Sometimes we just need to make a small project and this one seems like a nice one to start with. Check out the other tutorials while visiting this site.



My today's project is to work on the Wonky (my term for this) Advent Calendar wall hanging for my granddaughter. I am stitching on the houses. All the chimneys are stitched with satin stitch. Once the houses are attached, I have to free motion the snow along the ground. Still lots left to do. I didn't realize what I was getting myself into when I started this (GRIN)!!! At the moment, all other projects are on the back burner so I can get the sewing machine stitching completed.

Little Houses

The Advent Calendar, that I started last year, is about half done. I have stitched beads around the roof edges to imitate Christmas lights. That was very time consuming! Now I have to do satin stitching around the windows and doors, add chimneys, and embroider the numbers from 1 to 24 on each building before stitching them to the background. I have mini buttons for door knobs and interesting Christmas buttons to decorate on and around my wonky houses. I wasn't concerned with straight edges. Here's a peek!

Christmas Count Down

I was listening to the radio today and the announcer said there were just 15 shopping days left until Christmas! Where did the time go? My tree and decorations are still in boxes downstairs. My Charlie Brown Christmas Tree (I call it that as it is a skinny one just right for a corner in my kitchen) stands undecorated in my kitchen. I still have a few gifts to purchase and some to stitch. A light Christmas Fruitcake was just put into the oven. Our family loves fruitcake.

My advent wall hanging will not get finished for this Christmas. I still have lots of work to do on it. Hopefully it will go to Chicago this summer - finished!

I did find a few interesting Advent Calendars to quilt or stitch. Maybe there is one you would like to try and make for next year. Have a look.

Enjoy!

• AdventCalendar Quilt 
• Advent Tree 
• Advent Calendar (some embroidery) 
• Stocking Advent Calendar
• Advent Calendar
• Tutorial Advent Calendar
• Advent Angels Wall Quilt
• Advent Calendar Wall Hanging
• Santa Claus