Christmas Wish – Chasing MY Life WHEREVER it Leads Me

For a very long time I’ve dreamt and wished I could make everyone’s Christmas gifts each year, but time usually wins out and I end up going shopping and shopping some more looking for the right gift. This year I received a very special gift, a hand made quilt from my cousin, Jennifer, a very talented artist. Ironically, she says I picked out the fabric a couple of years ago when I was visiting. It’s so me.

Every hand made piece has a story and this one is no different. My very first hand quilted piece is a tree skirt that I made for Jenn back in 1991. It has had an interesting history itself (survived a fire while stored in her mother-in-law’s basement when they were moving), but was a cornerstone piece for myself and Jenn falling in love with quilting. From there she earned her degree in the arts and became a teacher and taught just about everything from clay to textiles at some point in time I think. She hand dyes her own fabrics as she did with this quilt. That too adds some weave to our family history. One Christmas not too long ago she dyed fabrics and used them as wrapping paper. I saved them and you can now find them in the quilt I made my mom which is the pink & green one in my quilt entry.

She hung this quilt at her show this past November in Kansas City. I think they really do look like cathedral windows. If you’d ike to see her other fabulous hand made, one of a kind quilts, log into her blog, What I did at School Today. I’ve hung the quilt between 2 pictures to draw out the colors. Ironically the picture on the left was given to me by my grandmother, but was painted by Jenn’s mom as was the one to its left. The picture at the bottom is of us at her wedding and she made the candle to its right for me.

She’s inspired me to actually get busy. That is my New Year’s resolution ~ to hand make everyone’s Christmas gifts for next year.

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