How to turn a Quilted Wallhanging into an Advent Calendar

For years, Sweetie has been on the hunt for a crafty/DIY Advent Calendar.  And been thwarted every time.  But not this year!

Charlotte, the long-needled Southern pine (flocked, for modesty)

This year, as we took out the holiday decorations, and put up our gaudy Christmas tree (aka Charlotte), she happened to mention an "advent calendar" that I apparently had put away last year.

I was perplexed.  I had no such advent calendar.

Ah, but I did have a neglected small holiday wallhanging.  Made from scrap fabrics, it was inspired by a project Barbara shared over on her Cat Patches blog.  In 2015 this was a class at the shop, teaching all the different techniques I know for making half-square triangles.  (How many techniques do you know?)  But it had languished in our house since then, not even getting a hanging sleeve put on.

 

So, how does one turn a quilted wallhanging into an Advent calendar?  I quickly rejected the idea of creating pockets, since the wallhanging was quilted and bound and finished.  I settled on buttons.  Twenty-five buttons, nicely spaced, that would hold small "somethings".  (What exactly was to be hung from the buttons was not mine to decide.  Sweetie is excellent at internet research.)

 In addition to a robust fabric stash, I have a surprisingly large button stash as well.  I found 16 identical green buttons, and filled in with red and silver/metal buttons, all from stash.  In order to be able to hang things from the buttons, they needed to be shank style.  Unfortunately, only the metal buttons came with shanks.  So I sewed each red and green button on over an object in order to make a thread shank after the fact.  Do you recognize said object?

It's a bobbin-holder.  I have used a toothpick for this task in the past, but I wanted to raise these buttons pretty far off the surface of the wallhanging.  This gave me uniformity from button to button, and worked like a charm.

Other note: my thread here was YLI Jeans Stitch, a high-quality 30-weight polyester thread that is strong and remarkably lovely to stitch with.  Its heavier weight meant that the shank built up nicely with fewer individual stitches.

Button with thread shank: a thing of beauty

And what, you may ask, is adorning this Advent Calendar?

Umm, would you believe Lego ornaments?  Sweetie managed to find a kit to construct Lego Friends countdown calendar ornaments--make one each day, then hang it on the tree.  And, because Sweetie is secretly still 8 years old (falling easily in the 6-12 age range suggested on the Lego package), this seemed like the perfect thing to make 25 little "somethings" to hang from the buttons.


My favorite ornament so far?  The microscope.  This is in honor of my parents, who were both scientists.  And my brothers, who are both engineers.

I can tell you're jealous.

And thus, after several years of longing, we have our crafty/DIY Advent Calendar.  Turns out, it was (almost) here all along.

Anything you would do differently?  I welcome helpful comments and suggestions.