Meanwhile...Back at the Ranch

(This page is a compilation of several posts I have been saving to publish after Dianne has seen her Advent Calendar.  She has seen it now, so I can publish these posts.  I just put them all in one post, in chronological order, so they might seem out of order, since the first post was from last Feb.!)

February 26, 2013  (Today just happens to be Dianne's birthday!  Happy 29+, Dianne! )

My Painted Lady quilt has been put on hold until the backing fabric arrives.
So, in the meanwhile ... I am working on Dianne's Advent Calender.  Since this is for Dianne, and since she reads this blog on occasion (when I tell her I put up something new), I obviously can't post this til after she receives the calender.  But I wanted to keep a log of how it's coming along, and then put it into the blog afterwards.

Last December, Dianne and I talked about making an Advent Calendar.  It was something I already had in mind to do, so I downplayed it to her.  I had found an Advent Calender fabric panel but didn't want to make it like that panel. I bought the panel anyway because it had Christmas-y numbers and I had something in mind for it.

Original Design

 I had found this wall hanging of a Christmas tree, and I wanted to combine both these projects into an Advent Calender similar to something my family had used when Dianne was a little girl.  You know me, I can't just do a project the way the directions say!  I gotta "fancy it up!"

I have been working on the tree for about a week, and I have all the half-triangles sewn into horizontal rows now.  I ditched that big clunky star for something a little more delicate.  I am using squares for the white background instead of half triangles as the directions say.  My "white" background fabric for this project is an off-white fabric with gold glitter.  Perhaps "glitter" is not the right word, but there is gold sparkles in the fabric, or perhaps sprayed on.  If you rub your fingers across the glitter, you can get gold sparkles on your fingers.  It reminds me of that lotion that leaves a gold shimmer on your skin.  Very pretty, but I have to be very careful when I iron!  The shimmer can disappear and all I have left is an ivory fabric!  The glitter must melt or something.  It doesn't stick to the iron, it just disappears.  I have had to redo several squares because of this oddity.  So, here are a couple of pics of MY project so far!

My Star

The Numbers going around the tree will be covered by doors.  When you open the door, there will be an ornament that you can put on the tree to decorate.  24 doors.  Start on Dec. 1, and by the time the trees is decorated, Santa will be here!  Anyway, that's my idea.  We'll see how it goes!

September 15, 2013

One of the projects I am working on while my sewing machine is being fixed is Dianne's Christmas Calender.  I broke out my old rattletrap Walmart Brother sewing machine.  Nice to have a backup, but oh!  what a difference.  Like going from a Cadillac to a Volkswagen.  Anyway, I have about half of the doors finished with their pockets and velcro sewed on, and now ready to attach to the calender.  One thing about sewing through velcro..  Be sure to buy the NON-STICK type.  After every three or four doors, I had to remove the needle and clean the gluey gunk off the needle and scissors with Goo-Gone. When I am done with the velcro sewing, I will throw this needle away.  It can't be sharp anymore!  I still have to sew the "hooks"  half of the velcro to the tree, but I don't want to do that till after I quilt it.  Anyway... progress!  And it's looking good!

October 20, 2013

I have this project finished now! I had such fun making the ornaments!  I gave up sewing that damn stick-on velcro on with the sewing machine.  I did a few squares of the stuff with hand sewing, but you definitely need a thimble to push the needle through all these layers.  My poor finger looks like it petted (pet?) a porcupine from not using a thimble!  I found one, but it didn't work very well.  It was metal and didn't stay on my finger, and had a tendency to roll sideways.  SO!  I went out and bought some NON_STICK velcro!  What a life saver!  All the velcro on the tree is sewed now.  So much nicer to use sew-on velcro!  A few of the ornaments have the stick on velcro yet, I am hoping it will stay stuck!  I used some of those foam sheets to make some of the ornaments, and you can't sew through those, it tears.  So maybe the stick on velcro is the better choice for those.  In any case, here is the finished wall hanging Advent Calendar for Dianne and her family.  I will send it out to her in early November.  I know she will love it.  It is very similar to one we had when she was a little girl, but I had made that one out of  felt.