3 days

Tonight I have two things that I'm most excited to share with you! The first I can't take any credit for whatsoever, but it was such a find.

I have a very dear aunt and uncle who live nearby. I can't begin to tell you how tremendous they are. We've had serious medical scares with both of them this past year, so these days I'm feeling hugely lucky to have them both alive and well. Anyway, I've been at their house a bit these past few days and just happened upon this quilt.



Yes, it's entirely handmade. Hand pieced, hand quilted, all from scraps, handmade. I was in disbelief when I first saw it. I can't imagine the work that goes into something like that! Granted, I'm hand quilting my niece's quilt, slowly but surely, but doing all the piecing too? Gracious. Obviously, handmade quilts aren't all that rare, but I seem to think they're something of a legend, a myth, falling somewhere on the scale between four-leafed clovers and leprechauns.



I wonder about all the love that went into it, what else those fabrics were used for, what was going on in the quilter's life when she made this. Don't you put all of that stuff into your crafting? I think after I'm gone my projects will be able to tell my life story better than anyone, if only you could get it out of them. Anyway, It's the happiest quilt I've ever seen. You know, I think my favorite part is the red binding. Note to self - my next quilt must have a red binding. Till then I'll marvel at this one whenever I'm visiting my aunt and uncle.



Next up, a sneak peak! This year my goal was to give as many handmade Christmas gifts as I could. That was a great plan until I remembered that Christmas is also my busy season as a horn player. Thus, my family will be celebrating Three Kings Day and sending Happy New Year cards this year, but that's ok. Nonetheless, I've been wondering about how craft bloggers deal with Christmas. You don't want to give away any surprises, but what happens when most of your projects are meant as gifts? So I'm hoping the recipient(s) of this particular item still pretend to be surprised, whether they guess it or not. And I promise more pictures after the holidays are over!