UFO Sunday

It's a jammies-and-slippers kind of day at my house. My sewing buddy left this morning early and instead of going back to bed (my first choice), I decided to just go into the sewing room and spend some quality time working on projects. With the iTunes cranked up on my Eric Clapton playlist and the window open, I was ready to go to work. It's not really raining here in Emporia, but it's damp and breezy, so a good day to stay in.

After reading Leah Day's UFO Sunday post about finishing a sweater for her son, I looked at the piles of projects in the corner and decided to pull out the baggy with the Advent Calendar panel I had purchased at least three years ago. A month or so ago I used Heat-n-Bond to fuse the cookies to the stiff craft felt I had purchased with the kit and got them cut out. There are 24 cookies that tuck into a bowl and each day you move one a numbered pocket until all are gone, and then, like magic, it's Christmas! I just love the variety of cookie shapes and all decorated with frosting designs.

When I looked at the main panel, it was totally skewed from being folded up for so long. It took a lot of steam, spray sizing, and pins on the ironing board to get it squared up. Finally, I think it's ready to put together!

 

The bottom was the most stretched section, so I worked on it first. Each row had to be folded up to a fold line marked in the margin so that the frosting squiggles match up between each numbered block. I got them all folded, pinned and steamed, and then basted the pocket rows closed with a long stitch that I can easily remove later. This way they will stay in the right shape until I get it assembled and quilted, making the individual pockets permanent.

There is another bowl that gets turned into the pocket and appliqued onto the bowl on the top of the printed panel. I went ahead and backed it with muslin and a piece of batting to give it body, and sewed it together, turned it, and hand stitched it closed. Then I decided I wanted to free-motion quilt the ribs on the bowl to give it more definition. It's now ready to applique on after I get the main body backed and quilted.

And it's ready to quilt. It's small enough to fit on my sewing table, so I taped the backing down, layered it with the batting and top, and it's all pinned and ready to go. I'm not sure I'll get much farther with it today, but at least it's ready to go.

It's going to look so cute next December hanging in my home! And by then Jacob will be 1-1/2, so he'll be big enough to help me move the cookies and count the days to Christmas.

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz