Talk about the eleventh hour!

At about 9:00 pm last night, we had a knock our door. An odd time to be knocking, indeed. But understandable when you realize it was a sweet little grandma coming to pick up the advent calendars she'd ordered for her grandkids a few days earlier. I literally finished them just moments before she arrived [now you see where the title of this post comes in.]

So how did I come to be making advent calendars the night before advent starts?

This woman had gone looking for advent calendars at a few craft sales but hadn't managed to find just the right one yet. A vendor at one of the sales mentioned seeing advent somethingorothers at my booth at an earlier sale so she suggested she look me up. Which she did...finding her way to my Facebook page...where she read that my products are now carried at Groovy Mama...so, she called Groovy Mama to see if they had any of my advent bags...which they didn't...so back to the Facebook page she went and posted a comment asking I had any advent calendars...which led to a bit of electronic back and forth and an eventual meeting in a coffee shop in downtown Regina.

A few days later and several hours of sewing, these are what she picked up:

I used the same linen as my coasters and mug rugs and used some Christmas fabric I had kicking around for the binding.

After toying around with the idea of stitching on buttons in the shape of a tree as decoration, I opted to trim the calendars in red and green patchwork instead. Since these were going to university-aged grandkids, I didn't want to do something too cutesy. My take is that using non-holiday fabrics in very traditional Christmas colours will give it a classic look that will hold up for years to come.

Every single number was cut by hand from stiffened felt and machine stitched on. If anyone ever spots pre-cut stiffened felt numbers, please let me know. I don't know that I would do it by hand again...actually, it wasn't the cutting that was difficult, it was guiding my machine along those teeny little numbers [they're only about 1.25" tall.]

The pockets, loops and backing were done in red Old Navy twill.

In other advent-related news...

Thank you to everyone who has had taken the time to check out my advent activity cards printable. I never expected it to be this popular! I would love to see some of the activities that readers and their families get up to with the advent cards, so feel free to send in photos. Either put a link here in the comments, or email heymilkybeer [at] gmail [dot] com. Be sure to let me know if I can post your pics on the Facebook page!

Of course, we are getting our own advent activities going today. First up - "Make a Christmas card for someone you love."