Hi there!

We have a fun panel to create an Advent Calendar in the shop, and instead of using the directions printed on the panel, we came up with what we think is a better way to create it!  We want to share our tutorial with you now:

It starts with this panel by Sarah Fredericking for Studio E:

You’ll need a yard of backing fabric.  We used Andover’s Whisper Palette, White Asterisks on Gray.

To finish, you’ll need 1/4 yard of binding fabric.  We used Dear Santa Candy Stripe, which is a coordinate of the panel.

You’ll also need a scrap of batting and some ribbon.

To begin, cut the panel into two halves. Take the right half (the side with no breaks between the numbered sections), and a similarly sized piece of your backing fabric, and put those two ironed pieces of fabric right sides together.  It’s helpful if your backing fabric is light colored, so that it won’t show through, especially on the “13” pocket.

Now, carefully sew 1/4″ inside of each block, leaving a 1.5″ opening for turning on a SIDE of each block.

Once you’ve sewn all of the blocks, carefully cut them apart, and trim the corners to reduce bulk when you turn them right sides out.

Turn each block right sides out, and press them, pressing the open seams in where you turned the block (so that it looks finished).  A Purple Thang is the perfect tool for getting your corners to, well, corner.

We quilted our panel’s “left side” with the batting and other half of the backing fabric before adding the pockets.  We thought it looked nice, and it also made it easier to sew the pockets on, without worrying about puckers or folds in our backing fabric.

Next, line up each pocket on top of its printed location, and sew down the sides and bottom, being sure to back stitch at the top corners to keep your pockets strong. This top-stitching will also close up the hole you used when you turned the pockets right sides out.

We bound our quilt, and as the directions suggested, we finished with two ribbons to hang the calendar quilt.  We hope you enjoy making one as much as we did!