In Germany we have such a thing, which is not so well known in US: an Adventskalender. I guess you will call it advent countdown, xmas Calendar or also advent Calendar. It's a fun traditional habit: We use 24 little pockets or similar and fill it with little treats: Could be sweets, or heartfelt quotes, little mini gifts like a pencil, a lip gloss, a favorite flavored tea bag - there are endless possibilities. You can do it very simple with some chocolate and candies or very thoughtful and find all kind of special somethings for someone's hobby or special interest. We do this advent calendar to show our love for someone, for our inpatient kids as an anticipation for the long awaited Christmas Day. Different from USA we celebrate Christmas on the 24th of December. So we have usually 24 pockets.

I thought you might enjoy this fun idea of showing a special one some love too. So I created a panel print within my fabric collection WHITE CHRISTMAS. The panel print comes in White, Eggshell and Black. It contains 24 little marked fields/pieces with all kind of beautiful graphic expressions for the numbers from 1 to 24. The style is modern, graphic, a bit Scandinavian. It is very easy to use this panels and make an advent countdown Calendar. I'll show you how in the tutorial below.

What about filling such a sewn advent countdown Calendar for a quilting friend? You can put all the needed ingredients for a project in the little pockets: Fat quarters, spools of thread, pages of the sewing instructions, new rotary cutter blade, a special ruler, seam ripper (hehe), and so on. So that each day reveals a bit of the project and the friend can start and unpack new fabric on her way. I guess I will do that for my daughter with a cloth sewing project... psst, don't tell her! She doesn't read my blog posts... :-)

How to sew a modern advent Calendar (a step-by-step Adventskalender tutorial)

To see all the single steps, click through the pictures in the slider above.

1. First thing you will do is cutting out all the single pieces of the fabric panel, along the indicated lines for the seam allowance.

2. To make the pockets fold the pieces in half, right sides together, give it a good crease and sew together sides and bottom of each piece with 1/4" seam. Leave an opening of about 1 1/2" on the bottom of the rectangle.

3. Trim seam allowances at the corners off to avoid too much bulk, but be careful not to cut into the seam.

4. Turn the pockets around, so that the right sides are now outside and show. Press pockets.

5. For the background of the advent Calendar use a 3/4 yard of a matching fabric, for mine I used an Off White (Bella Solid 9900 97). Spread all the pockets over the background fabric to your pleasing. I changed direction, used horizontal and vertical placing of the pockets, left a border of about 3" at the sides and bottom blank. I just eyeballed how I would like to have the pockets arranged and when I was happy with the look I pinned them onto the background. You can do also a grid arrangement or whatever you like.

6. With a stitch length of 3.0 and the top stitch foot of my sewing machine I stitched on the pockets (their side and bottom edges).

7. For the hem on the side and bottom edges of the background fabric I folded the fabric back 1/2" two times and hemmed it with a top stitch.

8. To hang the finished advent Calendar I will use a fine white pole which goes through a hanging sleeve on the back. Therefore I made the sleeve by folding back 1/2" and then 1 1/2" for the tunnel, which I then stitched on with a top stitch (see last picture). Now I can just use a twine and tie it up onto the rope to hang my panel.

Now to the fun part: packing all the little gift parcels, buying some sweets, fill everything into the pockets and enhance the complete advent Calendar with a bit of greenery like leaves of a mistletoe or some twigs of a fir-tree.

UPDATE: The advent calendar panel is meanwhile sold out

And now up to the new block of our project Blockheads:

FREE QUILT ALONG BLOCKHEADS 2018
BLOCK 13
PATCHWORK FLOWER

Last week's block #12 was a very intricate one. 48 little pieces on a 6" block. The block of this week is also very detailed. It is an innovative new idea: a patchwork flower, which you can piece without any paper piecing. The block of this week is hosted by Corey Yoder from Coriander Quilts.
Corey makes wonderful romantic flowery fabric collections which smell like summer. For our block 6 of Blockheads (the appliquéd pineapple), she developed an alternative pieced version.
Corey is our host for  Block #13 in our  Moda Blockheads 2018 (Round 2) quilt along.

Block 13, Patchwork Flower

Look at this new idea! What about a pillow out of the block? Frame it with a border and have something for your garden bench!

Don't miss the other blockheads involved in this project:

Betsy Chutchian
Corey Yoder of Coriander Quilt
Jan Patek
Jo Morton
Laurie Simpson
Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings
Lynne Hagmeier of Kansas Troubles
Me & My Sister Designs
Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life
Stacy Iest Hsu
Vanessa Goertzen of Lella Boutique
Carrie Nelson