Monday, September 8, 2008

Quilting Arts Gifts

Fun stuff again! I just received advance copies of Quilting Arts GIFTS, a fun issue full of quick and easy projects that are perfect for Christmas. It should be on the stands by the end on September.


It's been years since I've had time to make hand-made gifts for people so I don't usually pay attention to projects like this. If I were to do something from this issue however, it would most definitely by Lois Jarvis' Travel Scarf. You'll have to look it up. Here's a sneak peak at my project.


As sort of an "aside" I thought I'd share my Christmas gift philosophy. We have lots of kids in our family. We live in an affluent area of the United States. We love Christmas. I do, however, try my level best to raise my children without that sense of entitlement that seems so prevalent among children today. I think they get tired of my telling them that we are put on the earth to make it a better place, not to be entertained.

The kids get one gift from "Santa" and a small something in their stockings. They love to make or buy gifts for each other. We don't put presents under our tree until Christmas Eve. After they go to bed each child is allowed to sneak up, pull out the gifts for the family that they have hidden, and put on the elf hat and arrange it under the tree. Then we put the rest of the gifts there. 

We give family portraits to our parents every year and among my siblings we have traded names in the past. Lately we have written down our different memories of a common experience instead of buying things. Eventually we will have a family history book that will be a treasure for generations.

We try each year to choose a service project, such as sponsoring another family, and go all out spending a day shopping and wrapping and when possible, anonymously delivering gifts for them. The kids know Christmas is not their birthday - it is Christs'. 

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Quilting Arts TV

What an adventure! I spent half of last week taping a couple of segments for Quilting Arts TV


What lovely people and what a wonderful opportunity. Patricia Bolton is one of the hardest working (honestly - I don't know when she sleeps) people I know. It has been such a pleasure to watch her add on projects and succeed with every step. I give most of the credit for the wonderful leaps my career has made over the past several years to her.  You can read her blog here.

And I learned some interesting things. The most interesting is that being the Hostess of a TV show requires three brains in one head. Pokey had to make up questions and comments on the fly, watch the crew's cues, listen to the producer in her earpiece, and remember things like who she was supposed to introduce for the next segment. Oh - and change outfits every 30 minutes for a week. Sounds like work to me. Can't wait to see how it turns out. I'll have to order the DVD's though as PBS doesn't hasn't picked up the show in this area. Write your local station and request the show - I have. Didn't work but I keep writing. Hopefully it will happen eventually.