gifts

Happies

| terriaw

Every year, my friends and I exchange gifts at our annual retreat, which we call “happies” because it makes us happy to give gifts. This year a few people went overboard in making their happies.

Grubers Happies 2015

  • Cindy made us the 1 hour basket with the cool license plate fabric, which we all used to throw our scraps in over the weekend.
  • Rene’ gave us a custom coffee mug with the logo I designed for our quilting bee, a stack of 2-1/2″ squares of fabric and a patchwork mug rug/mini quilt.
  • Michelle made us a catch-all fabric basket.
  • Amanda Jean made us her work in progress bag, included the pattern and gave us a stack of 2-1/2″ squares from her upcoming fabric collection, Good Neighbors. She also gave me an autographed postcard from Sarah Watts, since I love her illustrations and fabric.
  • Doris gave us charm packs and a cute scissors key chain.
  • Mary gave us a pin cushion with the tiniest hexagon flower. Sew cute!
  • We’re all in the same quilting bee together so Stephanie used the logo I designed to create custom embroidered totes for us. She threw in a jar of honey from her very own bee hives.

happies from StephanieShelly made us perpetual calendars, with each index card date-stamped, as a way for us to track happy moments.happy from ShellyI made a dresden color wheel mug rug for everyone. Click here to see my tutorial on how to make your own.dresden color wheel mug rugsIt was better than gift-exchanging at Christmas!

Terri

List of Gifts To Make

| terriaw

Have you started making gifts yet for the holiday season? I admire you if you started back in July, like I should have! I just recently started making a list of the gifts I want to make. I have gifts completed for just a couple people, but I sure would love to be able to give more handmade gifts this year.

Here’s my list so far, of the projects I want to make for gifts:

-Charm square table runner

–Storage cubes

–Little Forest Quilt (in progress!)

–More bird ornaments

–Advent House ornaments

–Scrappy tree mug mats

–Makeup bags

–Makeup brush roll

-Travel jewelry pouch from the Fall 2010 issue of Stitch magazine

-Travel sewing kit from the Fall 2010 issue of Stitch magazine

I used to tell myself that if I didn’t have to work, I would have time to make all those things I want to make. I’m not working now, but I feel like I have less time than before!

I am taking two classes, which means I’m gone about five hours a day. Then I have homework to do. I try to cook and bake a little more, and clean parts of the house once a week (not just before guests stop by). That just tells me that life is busy, no matter what you are doing.

I put a new list on my sidebar called Quilts I Want To Make. Maybe I will get to those projects next year, as long as I finish the five or so quilt tops I have piled in the closet, waiting to be quilted.

These days, I have started telling myself, “if I had all the time in the world, I would make this!” And then I add it to my list.

Handmade for Christmas

| terriaw

Before I do a recap of 2009 (which I love doing), I wanted to show you some handmade gifts that arrived at our house and were mailed from our house for Christmas. First I wanted to extend a thank you to my friend Lisa for sharing these adorable handmade projects with me! Aren’t they sweet?

Handmade gifts from Lisa

Next, I want to thank Emily for the fabulous note-taker. What a wonderful surprise!

Note-take from Emily

I mailed a pile of handmade gifts to share with friends for Christmas.

handmade Christmas gifts

They range from a patchwork basket to a drawstring bag to nesting bowls crocheted in organic cotton yarn,

crocheted nesting bowls

… to felted oven mitts,

felted oven mitts

… to a drawstring bag knit from silk yarn and a cotton chenille facecloth.

drawstring bag and facecloth

I wasn’t sure how I was going to get a few handmade gifts done this season, but I remembered how quickly each one of these projects comes together. I didn’t use a pattern for the crochet bowls, but I used patterns for almost everything else. Those cool soaps came from The Soap Opera in Madison, one of the best places to buy locally-made soaps. I love giving and receiving handmade for gifts; I just need to remember to start earlier next year.