I am starting Christmas posts early this year. This year we had my Brother and Sister-in-law. I was excited but had no idea what to do for them. My only goal was to be done by Thanksgiving. My sister-in-law mentioned that she wanted an advent calendar so I went to work finding one that was spectacular enough for their family. While looking my friend Ashley directed me to this beautiful Pottery Barn
Telluride Advent Calendar and well... I fell in LOVE!!!
I let them open it over Thanksgiving so they could use it all Christmas season. This calendar is no longer available but it was $70, which is way to expensive. My friend also directed me to
this blog. She decided to copy the calendar as well so I pulled some of my inspiration from her. So, this will be my first tutorial blog. That's right, I am so excited. I am not sure how well this tutorial will be but I hope it inspires someone. It is definitely to late this Christmas, but keep it in mind for next Christmas. So here we go.
This calendar was done completely out of felt and embroidery floss. I don't think the calendar cost more than $10 so it is cheep but takes a lot of time and energy to finish. So go and buy a lot of different colors of floss and felt. Part of what makes this advent calendar so great is all of the colors. Your next step is to take a small pair of scissors and begin cutting out each of yours squares. My squares were 4" x 3.5" and then I cut out all the small pieces. Be creative! Here are my squares before I started embroidering them.
I used 3 types of embroidery stitches that were all very easy. A back stitch, running stitch, and french knot. Each square took me about 45 minutes. Take your time and add detail, that's what makes it fun to look at. You may want some to just be colorful and easy to embroider to take a break from intricate small stitches. So here are my finished squares.
Poinsettia and Candy Cane
Presents and Stocking
Santa and Snowman
Penguin and a random square
Drum and Jesus in a manger
Santa's Sleigh and Mittens
Gingerbread man and Rudolph
Circles and Holly
Argyle and Partridge in a pear tree (okay, so it's not really a Partridge in a pear tree it is a Swedish Christmas bird but I thought the other description sounded better)
Fireplace and Irish Christmas knot (which I didn't like and didn't end up using)
French Horn and Wreath
Hot Chocolate and Christmas Tree
Ornament and Bell
All of them together
The next step is to protect your stitching and, in turn, all of your hard work. So buy some iron on fusible interfacing (light weight) and cut them the size of your finished squares
Now iron them on to the back of your squares. This protects all of your stitches and will help make it last longer.
Next I cut a Christmas tree out of wrapping paper (because that is the only paper I had that was that big). This was so I could get the Christmas tree just the way I wanted before cutting it out of felt. I bought 1 1/2 yrds (I think I really cant remember) of felt on the bolt and cut out
2 Christmas trees. I laid all the squares down and arranged them just the way I wanted and then embroidered the numbers on them. At first I wanted the numbers directly below the squares but I didn't have room for that. I then pinned the squares down... with 5 pins a piece. When you start stitching them down your don't want them to move.
Back stitched around 3 sides of each one to form a pocket. After doing this for all of them I embroidered the snowflakes on. After all of your finishing touches cut out your truck and pin that (right sides together) to your tree. Put the trees right sides together and use your machine to sew around the tree leaving and opening on the side that is about 12" long. Clip all of your points and turn your tree inside out. Stitch the opening closed and do a running stitch around your finished tree to hold in place. Now cut out your star. Sew around your cut out star but leave a 3" opening. Turn right side out and do a running stitch around the outside. Hand sew to the top of your tree.
VOILA
Now you have a beautiful felt hand made advent calendars that will become a family heirloom. You can but candy in each of the pockets or you can make a felt star to move to each of the days. I really hope Lacey and William liked it. I certainly did. I will be making one for our family next year (or this summer). I just don't have time this year.
So there you have it. My first EVER tutorial. I know I probably didn't explain some things very well so if you have any questions just leave a comment and I will answer it. However I maybe just flattering myself because it is possible that no one will follow this tutorial. ENJOY!
This is Bridgette. She is sleek, beautiful, full of stitches and came with 9 (yes 9) different feet. I had no idea where to start! 
The first step was to get to know her better. I read much of her manual and look over each of her different feet. So the challenge was to find a project to break her in. So I looked over my craft blogs and searched the Internet for a project amazing enough for her maiden voyage. I finally settled on This. 
Rag fabric letters. They are so cute! I got to use so many different stitches and the fabric was free(can it get any better than that). Here is a close up of three of the letters:
I think the best part was how excited Olivia was to play with them.
Isaac loved them too. Really he just liked to chew on them.
Oh Bridgette, My Bridgette, what shall we do next?
