A Little Holiday Creativity...

We had a lovely Thanksgiving at my parents farm. Even though the spouse and I were sick most of the time, we were able to get out and enjoy some of the fall color.




And we discovered a quince tree on the farm! Who knew!!! Apparently Dad did, but we never used the quince for anything while we were growing up. So my sister and I trekked down to the quince tree one morning and picked a bucket full... and then spent the rest of the day turning it into quince paste... YUM! Unfortunately we left the whole batch at the farm (and it's a large batch), so Mom is putting into freezer cartons and will bring it down in a few weeks. I'll have to post the paste in another post.

Last year (or maybe the year before) a blogger had posted her idea of an advent calendar made of 24 stockings... or was actually working on the stockings... I can't remember. So this idea has been kicking around in my head for awhile. I didn't get it made last year and have been thinking about what fabrics to use, combinations, colors and couldn't make up my mind. Meanwhile I have been compelled to collect wool plaid fabrics....

I have amassed quite a stack courtesy of my mother-in-law's cleaning out of her sewing room and various finds at flea markets, rummage sales and what have you. I have no idea why I bought all of these, but they look really cool all together.



And then it hit me Sunday night, that my little stocking advent calendar needs to be mis-matched wool stockings! Genius!! Sometimes things do come together...





So I have been stitching away in the basement and falling farther and farther behind. I am heat transferring the cool numbers onto cotton broadcloth. My sister found this awesome site for free clip art, fonts, etc. The timing couldn't have been better! Unfortunately my little labels are curling... I will have to figure that out later. The good news is you can hole punch through the heat transfer medium and the cloth!



I managed to get the first 3 up today, so Miss E and Mister e got to empty 3 stockings all at once.. Jackpot! I have got to get the rest up today. I can't have them emptying multiple stockings at once!