Today I'm Showing Off My Handiwork.

I finished my second advent calendar on Sunday and gave it to my parents and at-home siblings.  Again, I forgot to get a picture before giving it away, but I managed to get some pics yesterday after they'd hung it up and taken some of the gifts out.  But you can still get the general idea.  I will continue working on the last one - ours.  We'll just use it starting next year. 

Here's the simplified instructions for how it was done.  I started out with 4x4 squares of felt and then cut out the shapes I wanted for each picture.  I used a teensy bit of fabric glue to hold the shapes on the squares.  That glue is a pain to get the needle through!  Then I embroidered all over the place!  That was the most enjoyable part.  When the squares were completed, I ironed fusible interfacing on the backs to make sure my stitching lasts a long time.  After that, I laid them out to see which order they looked best, measuring to see how much felt I would need to accommodate them.  Then I cut out a large piece of felt to be the back and hand stitched each square onto that.  I think that was the most difficult part.  It's so hard to make sure they're all straight!  Even with a ruler.  I ordered the felt numbers from Deb, a seller on etsy, and stitched those under each square.  I left a 3" allowance on the top so I could sew a dowel into the top to keep it all hanging nice (though the packages still add weight and bulkiness).  Then you can just hang it on a two-headed hook or screw some hooks into each end of the dowel, through which you can attach cord.  It sounds so simple typed out.  And actually, it really is.  Time-consuming, yes.  But simple.  My decision to make three of these blew simple straight out of the water though.  :D

So much work.  But so much fun!  Thank you so much to Abby, at A Feathered Nest for the inspiration!