A Handmade Christmas

For as long as I can remember, I have always valued handmade items. My parents both enjoyed creative pursuits and encouraged my siblings and I with our creativity. With Christmas being the biggest occasion for gift giving, I have always tried to make some of the gifts I give. This helps me remember the reason for the season, the birth of Christ, and stay at least a little bit away from the commercialism of Christmas.

This also applies to decorations, and I try to make some of the things we put up during Advent as well as tree ornaments. I have been working on this Advent quilt for about 4 years.

It has a background quilt with little corner pockets in which you insert mini 4" quilt blocks each day until Christmas. For various reasons it has sat untouched on the shelf for long periods of time. The squares are paper pieced, and some of them are quite detailed, so it has been very time consuming. This year I resolved I would finish it in time to use it. It is now up on the wall and I only have 2 more mini squares to make! The kids are enjoying picking their favourites each day to insert in the quilt. Many of them have fun embellishments like bells, ribbons, beads, buttons and sequins.