I hope you are having a wonderful holiday surrounded by love and peace. My girls are now at the age that they went shopping with me and knew at least half of what they were getting as they picked it out. It is also the first year that they shopped for and bought almost all the gifts they gave on their own. I was so excited to open gifts I knew were thought out by them. I think it has made this one of my favorite Christmases this far.
We also discussed creating family traditions and started on Christmas Eve with eating Chinese food and each picking out a book to read together while a crackling fire was on the TV. We all read for about 90min before the girls went to bed and Tony and I finished wrapping the last straggling gifts.
Do you make gifts or buy them? I know this can be a hot topic. I have worked to encourage my girls to make handmade gifts but also that they don't have control over how those gifts are received once given. My oldest got a taste of this as she made a tie blanket for her class gift exchange and could tell it was not as well received as some of the other store bought gifts. And that's ok. She enjoyed making the blanket. We make tie blankets each year with Girl Scouts to donate to a local homeless agency which works with teens. It's one of my girls favorite scout activities and so we decided to make blankets for Christmas gifts this year too. That was a lot of tying but made some great warm gifts.
If you have never made a tie blanket, here is the basic instructions: For our donated gifts we tend to get 1.5yards of 2 fleece fabrics, cut 4 inch squares from each corner and cut 1-2in strips all around, double knotting each pair. It makes a great alp quilt. the girls each used 2 yards to make more of a top quilt for their twin beds too.
I enjoy making gifts for others and get great joy in giving in general. This year I made apple butter and jar openers for teachers, kitchen towels for friends and tried my 1st (definitely not my last) Hemmingway pouch as part of my white elephant gift for out friendsmas. Making these small items to me makes it easier to give. I can see that giving quilts away may be harder. So far I have mostly made quilts for my family. I have made a few baby quilts to give away and they have been well received but I do understand the trepidation in spending hours and $$ and not being sure the quilt you give will be loved. So for me I like the small gifts at christmas. What gifts have you made that you really loved giving?
I received a fat quarter bundle of Kaffe Fassett fabric and so am having fun looking for a pattern to use them in. I haven't really used Kaffe before but the colors are fun and bright. DO you have a favorite go to pattern for larger prints?
I hope you not only gave but received some crafty love this holiday. Enjoy the final days of 2024 and I hope you get to spend at least a little time creating.
If you want to get a start on goal setting check out my Free Guide to setting goals.
No comments:
Post a Comment