Thanksgiving Countdown Calendar (WIP) - Art Every Day Month - Day 14

One of the things that Sophia and Olivia enjoy are counting down the days until a holiday. In October, we do a Countdown to Halloween for the 13 days prior to the 31st.  In December, we do an activity-based Advent calendar that starts on December 1st and goes until the 24th.

Pieces of fabric cut and ironed for the bunting that I'll be using 

for the Countdown to Thanksgiving.

When I looked at ideas for Thanksgiving, I came across a pin on Pinterest for a 12-day countdown calendar that led to Polka Dot Chair.

The first thing I did was think about the type of things I wanted to include in the pockets for each of the days. There were lots of different ideas online about things that can be done for a countdown. Either I was too indecisive or the ideas all seemed to appeal to me for different reasons.

At any rate, I came up with five different things that we will be doing each day during the Countdown to Thanksgiving:

=> Activity of the Day
=> Recipe of the Day
=> Thanksgiving Fact
=> Gratitude Quote
=> Thanksgiving Joke

The first and second things will take a bit of time, but the last three (the fact, quote, and joke) will be easily read - and hopefully enjoyed - in about five minutes.

I think there will be a nice variety of hands-on activities that will be both meaningful and memorable. 

With the activities planned, it is now time to concentrate on making the countdown calendar. I looked through the Thanksgiving-theme fabric I had on hand. 

Fabric I picked for the countdown. 

Next, I cut out two pieces for a pattern: one for the background and one for the pocket.

The round pocket and the background patterns.

Then I traced the background pattern onto the wrong sides of each of the pieces of fabric. There are:

=> 13 backgrounds of different fabrics (which will be in the center and are for the 12 days of activities plus Thanksgiving), 

=> 2 of an orange fabric (which will be at each end), and 

=> 2 of a Thanksgiving print (which also will be at the end).

Once the backgrounds were cut out, I ironed them again. Now they are ready for sewing.

Later today, I'll begin working on the pockets. They will be cut from a light tan felt and have an embroidered number on the front. 

I will post updates as I continue to work on this. It needs to be done by Saturday morning when the Countdown to Thanksgiving will begin.