Christmas Advent Quilt

I am very excited to see this project completed. Though I feel like it may never actually be all the way done. I'm still searching for a few more perfect embellishments for it, so it may not be fully completed EVER.

This is my Nativity Advent Calendar that I started last fall with my good friend and quilting buddy Jenni. (Who will be moving to AZ soon... sniffle, sniffle.) We used her pattern for the letters and characters and then her sisters layout for the actual quilt / creche.

How did I make this? Well, we started by making our characters. We traced all the pieces onto different scraps of fabric and then using wonder-under (it's like t-shirt iron on material) we were able to put them together like little puzzles. We then ironed our completed people onto black felt.

The quilt took a day to purchase fabric, cut, and piece. (Not bad I'd say!) The quilting of it was the fun part though. I'm learning how to machine quilt and just recently bought a darning foot. Yeah for free-motion! It was very fun to sew in curly Qs and even the words "Silent Night Holy Night" into some of the border.

I hope this will be something my boys will look forward to pulling out each December. All of the people will be hanging from the row of buttons on the bottom (which I sewed on all by hand of course!) Each day we will place a character onto the nativity and on Christmas Eve we will put on the baby Jesus.

We had an advent calendar growing up that I still love to this day and I really wanted something like that for my family. My mom will tell you that this one is a bit more complex and time consuming. I suppose she is right. (She always is!) But, I really have enjoyed this project, every step! It was a great learning experience. I made my first button hole, learned how to applique, and discovered the fabulous-ness of machine quilting! This was a great project!

I'm going to really miss Jenni when she moves. She has been my go to girl for a long time and not just for sewing, though I think she has taught me just about everything I know. She has been an example to me of a wonderful Mom and I really look up to her. I will think of her every Christmas for years to come when I see this quilt on the wall.