Gifts for our siblings...

I worked until the wee hours of the morning (well, at least until after 10pm, which is super late for me), but I finished the advent calendars I was making for our siblings! I bought the fabric last January, started working on them in July, and finally finished them this last week of November! In my defense, if Henry wouldn't have gone and swallowed those 2 pennies back in October (thus wreaking havoc on his already very fragile nap & nighttime sleeping schedule) I could have easily finished them much earlier. Oh well, they are done, and they are fantastic!

So fantastic, in fact, that after I completed the first calendar, I knew I had to make one for myself too. I loved it that much :) The tutorial can be found here.

Notes on the calendars:

• I made 2 calendars using random number placement, and 2 calendars in number order. I had intended to make all of them using the random placement (because I thought it seemed kind of fun and different) but after making the first 2 that way, I realized that my brain just doesn't think randomly! I had to double and triple check all of my pockets before I was able to sew them together because I was never confident that everything would come together right. Keeping things in number order allowed me to work a little faster.
• I used a white ikea sheet for all of the white sashing. I used 2 sheets for the 4 calendars. At $5 a piece it was a big money saver. (Not that you aren't worth the extra expense siblings...I just had to pinch a few pennies where I could :)
• Grandma Net sewed down ALL of my binding for me. She said she liked having handwork to do in the evenings...who was I to stand in the way of her evening entertainment?
  
• This year the advent calendar came empty, but I think our siblings have agreed that from here on out I can stuff the calendars with goodies (like crafts, family activities, scripture, etc.) as a family Christmas gift. (At least I think everyone agreed to this :) I'm really excited about the idea of stuffing these calendars in the future. I hope they become a fun and memorable part of our siblings' families Christmas traditions. I know I'm looking forward to filling ours!
  

Enough talk...here are the pictures:

Denise & Andrew's calendar:





Jay & Jill's calendar:




I don't have pictures of Ben & Kelly's calendar or mine, but I'll try and post those later.