Hello all, Mary Ellen here.

I was quite surprised this morning when I looked at the date of my last post. Almost a month has gone by–where has the time gone? Anybody else running around like a chicken with no head trying to get everything done for the holidays? Yikes!

What have you been up to in the sewing room (if you’ve had time to get in there!)? I have made a few adult bibs for  elderly patients in a nursing home.  I copied the outline of the institutional one that is given out, and then make them with hand towels from the dollar store and novelty fabrics around the upper body and neck. They have been quite popular-I did pumpkins in October, wacky turkeys for November, and birds in Santa hats for this month. Those have been sent off so the patients can enjoy them for a bit before the Santa’s are out.

Also working on placemats for nieces’ apartments. They have finally grown beyond the stage where they didn’t want “homemade” stuff from auntie, and are often mentioning quilted things that they would like for their own homes. Holiday things are always mentioned so that’s what the placemats are. I may have to give IOU’s for the later holidays coming up after the new year. (Quick gift idea-when each of them was in college, I made pillowcases of the month for them which were a huge hit with them and the room mates. They would get them mailed in a package around the first of each month so there was the double fun of receiving a bit of snail mail. There are tons of free easy pillowcase patterns around on the internet, if you think this would work for someone on your list. Plus it pushes off the due date for your completion of the sewing project!)

Have you ever had the experience of giving a quilted item that you spent hours making falling flat on its face when the recipient opens the present? Or perhaps you got lots of enthusiastic thank you’s at the time of opening, but then you never see the quilt again or, worse yet,  see it being used as a dog bed or in the trunk of the car? Does that turn you off from making and giving quilts? There is a “hot” thread about this topic on one of the quilting boards that I read frequently. Apparently many quilters have decided not to give away quilts anymore because of lack of appreciation. Fortunately this hasn’t happened to me yet. Perhaps some of the charity quilts I’ve made have not been beloved, but I don’t have to know about that. How about you? What are your feelings or experiences with this?

HO! HO! HO! Off to teach a class today, and then shop for gift cards. After that it’s on to the baking! Making my list and checking it a million times!