Christmas "Kiss" Advent Calendar

I remember as a kid pushing out the nasty, cardboard chocolates that you would get from the advent calendars from the store.  I didn't want my own child to go through that experience! So when a friend of mine found a cute idea for an advent calendar for different holidays from Infarrantly Creative using Chocolate Kisses, I was excited to make a Christmas one for our family. 

My friend's husband cut all the holes for the chocolate kisses.  After some light sanding, I painted my board a Country Tan. Now that it has sat around for a few days I think I'm going to use some antiquing glaze on the edges.  

I used a Silhouette Machine to cut out the tree, stars, and words from cardstock.  Vinyl would have been better but I didn't have it in the colors that I wanted.  I used mod podge to put the pieces on the board and then I did another layer of it on top.

 

Finally, I laminated red circle numbers for the back of the Chocolate Kisses.  My son gets so excited every time he gets to have another Christmas Chocolate! 

I want to make one for Halloween but I think I'll make room for the numbers in vinyl above each hole instead of keeping track of little circles.  

Infarrantly Creative: Advent Calendar Tutorial

Baby Girl Quilt

We just welcomed a new niece to the family so I decided to make a cute but super simple quilt.  With my brother's first kid they didn't know for sure if she was going to be a girl or not so everything they got was greens and yellows.  This time they knew for sure so I was able to go with bright, girly colors.  

 I followed The Road Trip Quilt tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew.  I did add two more fabrics to my quilt to make it a little longer.  Instead of having 1/4 yard of 10 different fabrics, I used 1/4 yard of 12 different fabrics.  

After I had pieced the top of my quilt, I used a quilt frame to put the three layers together.  I find that using the frame helps keep my fabric from getting bunched when I pin the three layers together.  

 I used two yards of fabric for the back that also worked as my binding.  I used the Back to Front Binding method.  Here is a Back to Front Binding tutorial by Prudent Baby that I found that is close to how I did mine.  

I also used a walking foot to machine quilt the blanket.  I did one line down the seam and 1/4 inch on each side of the seam.  

I also did a boy version of this quilt for my new nephew.  Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures because my camera was in the land of the lost (aka a secret hidden pocket in my purse!)