Craft: the Mouseloft Advent Calendar

Back when I first rediscovered cross-stitch and Mouseloft, I had this idea of making my own Advent calendar. I envisaged a lovely wall-hanging, with little pockets I could fill with chocolates or something every year, each one decorated with a festive Mouseloft design.

I began collecting, and stitching. Not all of them ended up being Mouseloft designs – a few were similar-sized Hobbycraft kits. It took me longer than I thought it would, which is to say, for the Christmas after the one I’d begun it for. I used a white fleece for the back-drop, and stitched each pattern onto a little cotton pocket.

It was very haphazard, probably because by the time I got around to assembling it, I’d pretty much lost interest in the whole idea. But I did it, and it didn’t match with my original idea. (And, apparently, I disliked it enough that I don’t have any photos of it, thank goodness!)

So I took it apart again after that Christmas, and now it’s just a timeline, whereby I string up a Christmassy ribbon and then, each day, we pin up the next picture with a little clothes peg.

Maybe one day I’ll manage to make a better Advent calendar – it’s not like I haven’t got a pattern or two (with full instructions on assembling!) from my magazines.