Christmas Cookie Countdown Calendar

   I made this calendar for my kids to count down the days till christmas with! It was so cute I couldn't resist! I remember the fun one my mom had for us as kids with a mouse that moves from day to day and above was Santa sitting in his house. I loved it and looked forward to moving it each day! This one is a little different. You start out with the cookies in each pocket and each day you take a cookie out and put it in the bowl.

     So cute!

    I purchased this pannel from http://www.etsy.com/shop/cjscraftcorner .  She is a very nice and helpful person and has such cute stuff she makes to sell and often has fabric as well.

         These cookies were fun to make! The instructions say to use paper backed fusible web- iron the fabric to felt. I took it a step further and used fusible interfacing to iron onto the fabric, then fusible web to the felt. I then stitched a decorative stitch around the edges and finally used a lighter to get rid of freyed edges. The freyed edges probably wouldn't be there if it weren't for the interfacing, but I like the extra stability it gave them. I think they turned out perfect!

         I wanted to have this hang on my fridge for now and if later we move or have a place on the wall fo rit, I will sew on some plastic loops to hang on the wall with or something. I glued magnets to the inside layer of fabric before I sewed it together. two problems with this method: 1- the magnets stuck to the table and my machine while I tried to quilt the top and I couldn't stitch over certain parts. 2- they don't stick as well to the fridge. I noticed there was a big gap between magnets because I only used  4 on the corners and it was saggy, so after it was finished, I glued 4 more on the back in between the others. now, it works great.

machine quilting around shapes. I also quilted around each day square on the bottom.

         I decided to do the pillowcase method to sew this together rather than the binding. I like the way it turned out! I also used interfacing behind the bowl piece rather than just a single layer of fabric flopping around, and I also put interfacing behind the whole top. I like the stuff and It makes for a longer lasting, more durable item. I look forward to my kids using this each year!!!