Woodland Animals Christmas Advent Calendar and Kid’s Quilt

It’s holiday sewing time, and I found this super cute fabric for creating an easy advent calendar and coordinating quilt. This set is perfect for kiddos to enjoy the magic of Christmas!

I found this fabric called “Bearly Christmas” from Northcott Fabrics. It’s filled with cute little woodland animals like bears, raccoons, and foxes, opening presents and playing in the snow. I bought two panels – an advent calendar and woodland scene blocks.

http://www.northcott.com/product-detail.aspx?fbid=1&colid=2395&colorid=3180

The best part about the advent calendar is the unique way it can be put together. Instead of cutting, ironing the seam allowances, and sewing on each square, this panel is just folded at each pocket row, and sewn up the sides! It’s so clever and a huge timesaver.

For my calendar, I used a cute red polka dot fabric backing, and shadow quilting around the woodland animal scene at the top.

I couldn’t resist getting the quilt blocks and try sewing a little quilt for cozy Christmas nights. For the quilt design, I picked 3 coordinating fabrics in red, green and white – 1/2 yard each. I cut squares the same size as the small animal squares, and arranged them, mixing the colors evenly. The larger panel squares fit well, but I had to shorten the long rectangle height a little to fit. For the border, I cut random lengths of fabric, one of each color on each side. I chose the lengths to contrast with the colors along the edge.

I added the cute animal snow angels fabric backing and quilted with a freehand snowflakes and meandering loops. The snowflakes were new for me, but I’m determined to try new ideas even if they’re not perfect. Plus no two snowflakes are alike, right?

To bind the quilt, I used the method of bringing the backing around to the front, pressing and sewing it down with mitered corners. The finished size is about 36 x 50 inches.

I had a lot of fun making these two pieces, and I know they will spread Christmas magic this year! Enjoy!