My Special Gifts

We’re all thinking about gift giving at this time of year and it got me to thinking of some of the presents I’ve received from my loved ones. They all know about my passion for quilting and sewing so I’ve gotten some amazing gifts over the years.

When my children were very small they were thrilled to give me presents for my sewing. And…luckily there were things that even they were able to afford and pay for with their own money. I remember a particular Christmas when my son, Alex, who was only about 5 or 6 years old at the time, proudly presented me with a crudely wrapped gift. He was so excited to give me the fat quarter that he bought for me and picked out all by himself. It took me a long time to have the bravery to cut into that orange batik with green frogs on it because it was so important to him!

My friend, Pat, is a very crafty person. She always has some kind of project on the go and makes a lot of her gifts for friends and family. Pre Covid, whenever I went to visit her in Michigan (from Ontario), one of our haunts was to Hobby Lobby for fabric and supplies. Not only does Pat make her own things, but she’s a huge supporter of the local artisans and often buys pottery and other items at her local craft fairs. She gifted me this gorgeous pin cushion from one such fair that someone painstakingly hand-embroidered on soft wool knit. She also gave me these wonderful scissors that is home to my tape measures.

My friend, Trudie, has been so generous with her talents. She creates such beautiful machine embroidery and I have been the lucky recipient of quite a few items made by her. If you’ve seen the posts about my sewing room, Elton John, and Christmas ornaments you will already have seen the “SEW” wall hanging, the jean jacket embroidery, and the ornaments that she made for me. Add to that an absolutely gorgeous sewing machine cover, framed artwork with silver metallic backgrounds for my sewing room, and drink coasters for my livingroom made of cork. Wow!

My daughter, Kate, has always been such an artistic person. I’ve absconded with a few pieces of her artwork that she made while at OCAD…things I wouldn’t let her sell because I loved them so much. For Christmas 2019 (before the world shut down because of Covid), she created a graphic “ticket” for me…she was treating me to a day in the city (Toronto’s CN tower is in the background) with lunch and fabric shopping, just the two of us. My “ticket” (note the perforated edges of the ticket!) is on the wall in my sewing room. Another thing in my sewing room is the cactus pincushion in a little clay pot that she made for me. Adorable!

One Christmas I was very crafty myself and made each of my quilt buds Trudie, Gail, Patti, Becky and Marg (and myself) a piece of “artwork”. I’m a huge puzzle lover so I decided to scrounge the local Salvation Army, Value Village and other charity shops for beat up Scrabble games so I could collect the letter tiles. Fabric was stretched over dollar store canvas frames in their favourite colours, letter tiles were glued on forming a crossword puzzle which included both their name and quilting words. It was tough getting enough letter “Q”’s for the word “quilt” for everyone! I guess I could have used the blank tiles and a marker, but I wanted them all to look somewhat the same. Here’s a photo of mine so you get the idea. So much fun to make.

Usually we, the quilters and makers, are the ones making things for everyone else, so I absolutely love it when someone else puts the time, effort and thoughtfulness into creating something just for me (I’m sure many of you can relate to that). Have fun making your own special gifts for the special people in your life.