Advent Calendar part

This is my first ever blog post for Sizzix, it's about an advent calendar project and I'm a bit worried that posting a Christmas-related project in October is a risky move, I know it's still a long way off so please keep reading! The head start is only to ensure that there's plenty of calm making time before the hectic Christmas season with all of its other commitments starts up in a month or two.

The first stage is the background that the pockets will be sewn onto.

I used the Half-Square Triangles, 4 1/2in Finished Square die to cut 48 white triangles (approximately half a yard) and 48 red printed ones to arrange in diagonal stripes to look like candy-cane stripes.

I used a selection of 6 red printed fabrics, 8 of each different print works out perfectly (approximately a third of a fat quarter for each print) but I just chopped away with my Big Shot as the mood took me (it's easy to carried away) so have more of some than others. Also, a fabric that has a print with a clear 'right way up' like the deer one can't be folded over for cutting but needs to be laid the right way up on the die with the diagonal line dividing the triangles on the die running in the same direction as the pieced stripes will. Otherwise some of the triangles will be cut the wrong way round (I *might* have some leftover wrong-way-round triangles lurking on my cutting table).

Next each red triangle was sewn to a white one, pressed and then laid out in a 6 squares by 8 squares rectangle.

After much tinkering with the layout they were finally sewn into 2 x 2 blocks and then into rows before being joined fully (finished size approximately 24" x 32").

It was so quick to make and I'm so pleased with the result that I think a festive cushion in the same candy stripe pattern may have to be added to my to-do list for later.

Next up is the Square, 4in Finished die and Lollipop Shadow Numbers to make the pockets - which I'll post about next time.