Christmas is coming

Before I get started today - I want you to know that I'm a very happy person and have an extremely positive outlook on life. I just have a different outlook on some aspects of life than others do and I'm quite happy to put traditions in the drawer and move on.

So Christmas is coming - it's just over two weeks away. Will there be hustle and bustle in our house? Are we out there madly shopping for gifts? No. Am I sad? Absolutely NOT! In fact, I'm feeling just the opposite. I'm thrilled. Zero stress, zero commitments, zero Christmas lists to make.

Here's a wee bit of background in case you think I'm heartless. I moved away from home when I was 17. I think I spent the following Christmas with my family (parents and two brothers) and probably the next one as well since one brother got married on Christmas Eve. There might have been one more Christmas in there, but I lived 3,000 KM away, had no money, and it was a long bus ride.

I do remember Christmases when we were kids, where one of my Mom's siblings and all their kids would get together. I did spend some great Christmas with my ex's family in Quebec. We did celebrate Christmas when M was at home. But now she lives over 4,000 KM away, so it's just the two of us and the girls. We long ago dispensed giving gifts to family members. They're so far away - costs a fortune to mail and what do you buy for someone you barely see? It was a total waste of time and money so we stopped that eons ago.

I see so many people running around like mad trying to find just the right gift for someone. Why? Isn't our life stressful enough? Why not just suggest that you don't exchange gifts anymore. People have a tendency to buy whatever they need/want when they see it rather than wait for Christmas. And how many boxes of chocolates, candles, and perfume/lotion gift sets does one household need? Most of them get regifted (except maybe the chocolates!). I don't see the point in all that.

DH and I now spend Christmas Day going to a movie (it's a big deal for a lot of people - the theaters are packed!). We splurge for the VIP experience and have dinner or lunch there. We do cook a simple Christmas dinner at some point during the holidays (OK - DH does the cooking) and that's about it. Nice and simple. No stress, no credit card bills in January that we're going to regret. And we do something that we enjoy.

People seem to love the stress - baking for an entire month before and cleaning their house. They love to decorate to the nines. They seem to love it or at least I hope they love it because it's a lot of work and a lot of expense.

It's OK to say - "let's not exchange gifts" or "let's set a value" or "let's do something simple this year". It's PERFECTLY OK.

But if you really want to give someone a gift, then here are some ideas so you don't end up at the last minute buying chocolates and candles.

1. Buy them a subscription (or pay for an existing one) for one year or whatever you can afford. This might be a magazine subscription (yes some of them still exist). Buy them a subscription to a software package - a budding photographer might want Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom. If they like to watch TV or movies - then how about Netflix or Apple TV. For a wedding gift for my brother, I bought them a bouquet of fresh flowers once a month for a year. Get creative - I'm sure there's something out there with a subscription base that your loved ones would want. And put that on your Christmas list as well.

2. Make a donation in their name to their favorite charity. Here's a great story - I'm not sure that it's true, but it's a great story and might be something that your family would want to do instead of gifts.

3. Buy (or make) them a set of litterless grocery bags. I believe that most grocery stores have reusable bags that you can buy. I LOVE the ones from Longo's that are actually folding boxes. They are the BEST and they last forever. I did a tutorial on making the reusable produce bags. We use them all the time at our house and they're the best. Very inexpensive.

4. Buy them a service. Could be a manicure, could be a pedicure, could be a massage, could be housecleaning. It could be something for their yard - yard service for a year. The options are endless in this category.

5. Give them your TIME. Yep - you may offer to do a service for them - i.e. if you're a hairdresser, you could give them free haircuts for the year or whatever you wish. Maybe - it's as simple as making a date to have coffee. Give them a gift card to the local coffee shop and then make a date to share that card with them. Sometimes, our TIME is the most precious gift you can give someone. Offer to babysit, dog sit (does anyone want to take Murphy for a day or two? - just kidding!)

6. Plan a family trip or outing instead of presents. It depends on your budget and your family - but there are loads of things you could do. Make planning part of the present. Spend Christmas Day planning what and where you want to go. Perhaps you devise a system before Christmas to put your ideas in a basket or envelopes that you open on Christmas Day and that becomes the basis for your trip/outing. Great dinner conversation while you plan.

7. Gift the gift of knowledge and experience. Why not put your best advice in an envelope and have everyone open on Christmas Day? I know it's a challenge to take advice from our elders because we know best. But I remember my Grandfather gave me the best advice ever. I don't even remember how old I was, but he told me "Even if you're lost, look like you know where you're going." That piece of advice has stuck with me all these years and trust me - there are man times, whether I'm teaching a class, riding my bike, driving my car or just in a conversation - I try very hard to make like I know where I'm going (confidence in case you didn't get that) even if I have no clue where I am or what to do next. and you know what? It has always worked out!

8. Buy one large thing for the family. This again requires some planning - so again - use the envelope system. Have each member write down the item that they think the family needs the most and why. It becomes a GREAT opening for family discussions about values and money and a whole lot of other lessons in there. We MUST stop focusing on buying material things.

9. Give them a picture book. I'm referring to those books that you make yourself from pictures you've taken over the year. There are many services out there and we all have cameras in our phones and we rarely print out the pictures - why not make a book (even if it is for yourself) of some of those pictures so you can really enjoy them. These are the best! They take time  - don't' wait until the last minute. I use Blurb, but there are loads of other ones out there.

10. If you're hosting a party, ask the guests to bring food for the Food Bank instead of chocolates and candles!



Hmmm - I can't think of anything else at the moment. That was a lot of thinking.


Here's a couple of pointers about wrapping paper. DO NOT USE IT. Here's an article with shocking statistics about wrapping paper and other Christmas waste.   There are loads of other ways to wrap a gift other than using Christmas wrapping paper.

1. Use an envelope (that can be easily recycled) for smaller things. Yes - it doesn't look as glamorous under the tree - get over it.
2. Use reusable gift bags. Here are some large ones that I made for each family member when M was home. A friend told me that each family member (and the children are all adults) has a bag. No name on it. As the gifts come in, Mom and Dad are responsible to put the unwrapped gift in the appropriate bag. Then on Christmas Day, one at a time and taking turns, they reach in the bag and pull out one item until all bags are empty. A SUPER great idea.

Large reusable gift bag

Or you can make these quick and easy small gift bags. I have a pattern for these or you can find online. If you have a serger, they are done in mere minutes. They can also be done on a sewing machine. They are RESUSEALBE.

Reuseable gift bags

Reusable gift bags

3. Use gift boxes and reuse them the following year. I found a nice set of nesting boxes and we've used those over and over again.

4. If the item is large - hide it in the garage or a closet and create a treasure hunt for the recipient to find the gift. No need to use huge gobs of wrapping paper to wrap it.

5. Use brown paper and decorate that with stamps and paint. This is a great pre-Christmas activity for children. I did this for M and one year, she treasured the wrapping way more than she did the gift inside!

I'm sure there are way more ideas, but you get the idea here.

So - if your Christmas preparations are stressing you out or making you change your entire routine to fit in all the extra stuff you have to do, then I'd suggest that you have a serious chat with your family, your friends and yourself. What can you do to simply Christmas? What can you do to make it FUN? What can you do to bring back the spirit of Christmas (not the Christmas that the marketing firms of each and every company out there is trying to sell you, but the Christmas of having fun with family and friends)?

On that note, I'm out of here. It's a CLEAN-UP day and I'm so excited to get started.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!

Loads of fun!

I'm so not good at letting you know where I am and what I'm doing. I'm not sure why - I must try to be more open about that in the future.

Last night, I was the guest speaker at the Paris Bee Quilters in Paris, Ontario. As I drove through the downtown, I remembered that I'd had lunch with my friend Robin years ago and we shopped in the little shops along the street. Last night, the downtown area was decorated to the nines for Christmas.

What a FUN night. The topic was modern quilts and I had filled my giant suitcase (not the traveling by plane suitcase - this one is even bigger!) with modern quilts that I had made. Hmm - as I did the presentation, I realized that almost all the modern quilts are my own design. Funny - I have tons of patterns and while I do make quilts from patterns, it appears that most or none of them are finished.

Doing a guild presentation can be a bit scary although I don't let that bother me anymore. But you never know the crowd. Well, this group is a FUN group. They asked tons of questions which made me go way over the time limit, but we were having fun.

Then they did their own show n tell. OH MY. It was amazing and they had a challenge which I didn't catch all the rules, but it sounds like they were to take a panel and do something with it. What a totally creative idea. I swear - even though the guild members think they walked away from the meeting as the winners (in terms of learning something new), I walk away with way more than they do! So THANKS for the lessons.

I was on the opposite side of the room to take some decent pictures, but I think they'll get posted on their Facebook page. Then the class results from a recent workshop were presented. They had used the Sew Kind of Wonderful Ruler - the mini one. I was totally blown away by the number of finished projects. I was holding someone's project so they could get a picture. I wanted to count how many finished projects there were, but it was a LOT. Way to go ladies - that's awesome. Thye made the tree pattern which is a free giveaway at that link above.

Speaking of links - I goofed yesterday when I added in the link to the Catalog Living blog. I changed the blog post yesterday (thanks to Torry for alerting me to that) and here's the link again.

I did manage to take a picture of the quilts that came in for their Community Projects. Holy - there were a lot of quilts and I think more were placed on the table after the show n tell. This is a great way for quilters to give back to the community. And it's a great way to DESTASH. It's a great way to finish UFOs in your house and get rid of a quilt. All around, it's a WIN-WIN-WIN.

Quilts for Community Projects

The other thing I noticed was the little zippered pouches. Those were also being donated to the Community Projects. Imagine getting a colorful little pouch when you have nothing. You can put toys in it, toiletries or any number of other things.

On top of that, I got this beautiful thank-you card. Not sure who made it, but it's a handmade card and I love it.

Handmade card

So a HUGE welcome to anyone from the Paris Bee Quilters who decided to stop by and see what my blog is all about. OH - I should mention that there'll be a quilt show next year, so we need to watch for those details.

I also committed to the group something - I won't share it with you at this point, but let's just say that all that extra time in December? I just filled it!!

Before packing and leaving, I had work to do. I had a small make-up class for someone who missed one of my classes two weeks ago. We got everything squared away and that was good.

I finished this drawstring gift bag. Isn't it just the best? Seriously - these are so simple to make, but if you don't know how - well, I'll be teaching a class at Oh Look Fabric TOMORROW evening. Get yourself signed up. I've decided to take my serger along - maybe - as it's even faster with the serger and all the edges in the bag are finished and they look beautiful.

Reuseable gift bag

This is a great way to use up fabric - HUGE amounts of fabric. If you can't make the class, here's a link to the free pattern.    Hmmm - this pattern was written by ME, but I see that Northcott took my name off it. Pretty cheeky if you ask me. I know that they did add one paragraph and a picture, but the rest of the words are mine. Heck - the format is mine. They've been good to me, so I'm going to let it go, but seriously????

NO - I decided to not let it go. I wrote a letter to the culprit and the President. I know they will just roll their eyes and call me an idiot and nothing will happen, but there is way too much copyright violation going on and for a company to be the culprit - I can't accept that.

I'm happy to say that the picture above is the RIGHT picture if you follow the instructions. The picture on the pattern isn't even the right picture. It's complicated, but I made the sample in the picture (from gray fabric so any new fabric could be mapped in place) and I was pressed for time. Have a look at the cording - it's not the same as above. Oh well - there are other things to worry about than this. But this makes me even more determined to follow through on what I talked to the quilting group last night.

I wonder how many other patterns on that website were changed ever so slightly so they could take my name off. I don't have time to check, but it irks me.

I got one more quilt quilted for Quilts of Valour. Well, not completed, but the quilting is done.

Quilts of Valour quilt - done

So here's a very important lesson. I was running around trying to get things accomplished yesterday. I had two gift bags to make. I threaded the serger - super easy. On my other serger, I would never dream of changing thread color on the fly, but the air threading is a dream. Should I do a test? No need. So I just serged up the edges of that gift bag. Oh shoot - this isn't looking right. What's the matter? This is supposed to be super easy. Well, after a bit of puttering around, I decided to rethread. OH - the lower looper thread was behind the bar, not in front of it. Totally my mistake. But I'm very excited that that happened. Why?

Well, if I did it when I was in a hurry, guess what? A customer will do it as well. Now I can tell them very quickly how to fix the problem. I love mistakes!!!  One more piece of knowledge in my brain that's almost filled to capacity.

Speaking of learning, I was chatting with my parents yesterday. Oh god - I'm just like my mother.

"Hey, Mom - what are you working on these days?" My Mom almost always has some craft thing on the go.
"Oh, I don't have time to make things these days."
"Why is that, Mom?"
 "I've got my nose in a book and I can't put it down".

My Mom was never a huge reader, but she did read. I said she's going to need a library card. Oh - they could never do that. They are so afraid of anything they don't know about.

In chatting to my Dad, he arrived home early from "work". He volunteers at the local Museum. Five days a week, from 8 - 4:30. EVERY DAY!!!  He's 86. He'd work at the museum 7 days a week if they'd let him, so he has to taken Monday to Friday. He plays in the machine shop making stuff like missing tractor parts that they can no longer buy and fixing stuff for the museum as well as making stuff for himself.

Last night, he was going to continue his learning about CNC (and CAD/CAM)  technology which is used in 3-D printing, routers, embroidery machines, plasma cutters, long arm quilting machines, etc. And he was also trying to find a new security camera that operates through the internet. Don't ask!

So you see why I'm like I am?? It's all my parents' fault. So even though I "hated" living at home as a child, I have pretty cool parents that instilled the love of reading, learning, and high levels of curiosity. I'm grateful to them for that.

Here's one more picture that I took at the guild last night. This caught my eye as the owner walked in the door. This is the Mondo bag pattern. Some people call it a schlep bag. But she had collected bits and pieces of wool (from items she purchased at the thrift store) and made her winter bag. Then she used bright pieces of cotton and made the summer version. I thought that was a brilliant idea! See how easy it is to customize a pattern and make it your own???

Summer and winter versions of the Mondo bag

Today is going to be another crazy day. It's Sit n Sew at my house. We'll be seven if everyone comes. I can't wait. I don't have anything urgent to sew and I hope to finish that community project quilt that was on the wall. You don't want to see the corner of Studio B. It's a bit piled up with stuff - there are quilts to trim and bind and a few other things that I was working on. It appears that I need a total confined area for "dumping". But then I need to keep things moving through that area so it doesn't get too crazy. I'm working on how I can make that happen. Things have a home, but not the immediate working on them right now projects.

Have a super day!!!!!


Ciao!!!!