Sewing Gifts

Sewing gifts for people is one of the JOYS OF MY LIFE. Honestly -- I am always grateful that I am able to do this.  It is a very big thing. I do it a lot. So do you. There is no doubt in my mind that women who sew are the most kind, generous people in the whole world.

You often sew JUST TO GIVE IT AWAY...IT IS THE WHOLE POINT OF THE THING, REALLY!!

And, of course, therein lies the rub...

Sometimes, the person you are giving the gift to may seem unappreciative.  For one thing, people who don't sew have no idea how much time and energy goes into any project.

They simply can't understand all the advance planning -- the shopping for fabric, cutting it up, laying it out. This could take hours, days....or even weeks...

You could have invested at least 12 hours by the time you got to the laying-out-stage...

 Maybe another 15 hours to sew...another 4 hours to cut all the edges...

Then, a special trip to the laundromat to rag the edges.

They have no idea how much trouble it was to plan the perfect BACK of your ragged edge quilt...

Maybe you pack up your gift, and spend $$ mailing it...

Then, after the weeks of planning and sewing and creating...after it is finally sent off to the lucky recipient.  Nothing.    Crickets.

Hells Bells.

We've all felt the let down of the disappointing-gift-reaction....

 My friend Eileen Roche (Editor of Designs in Machine Embroidery magazine) is an experienced GIFT GIVER...and somehow, she has come to the perfect ZEN attitude about making gifts for people.  She has a very unique point of view...and I have completely adopted her philosophy.

It has saved me.

AND, like all good advice -- if you will only TAKE IT -- it could change your life...

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Eileen says,

"Here’s how I look at sewing gifts for other people. I pour my heart into it, pick the project and the materials with that specific person in mind and then I throw myself into it. I think about them the entire time. And when it’s complete, I am done – I mean, I could literally, throw it away because I know I already got what I wanted to get. I wanted to honor them with my time, talent and thoughts. I wanted to spend time focusing on them, kind of ‘spending time’ with them (although they’re not there). In my mind, the process is the gift. 

So don’t look at the time and energy that you spent as a waste, look at it as a gift to yourself. The gift of thinking, imagining, fantasizing about how much they will love your gift. The fact that they didn’t, well -- screw it. That’s their loss, just a total loss, it’s not your loss."

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That is some of the best advice I ever got....and I'm sharing it with you. Because, recently, IT SAVED ME.

Thanks again, Eileen!!

If you love machine embroidery, be sure to check out Eileen's Machine Embroidery blog