Talk Back Thursday

Thank you so much to Eileen, Carla, Anne, Sarah, Debbie, Gwen, Mary, Patsijean, Marie, Linda & Sarah for talking back to my confession last week! I asked if people were sewing any Christmas presents and the answers came from all points along the spectrum. ;)

Carla and Gwen came down firmly on the "no way!" side - with Carla saying (with a smile) "You can't make me!" and Gwen explaining that she finds it too stressful. I do agree that the last thing anyone needs is to have more stress associated with either your hobby or the holidays...

Taking an "intermediate" (i.e., reasonable) stance, 5 people reported that they do sew individual gifts for specific people, when appropriate. Anne, for example, has had requests for a lined bathrobe and soft pants for a niece and nephew respectively, and a doctor costume for the same nephew. Patsijean is making a set of camp shirts in jewel tones for a good friend. Marie is making her Mom an apron and Linda is making lap quilts for her parents.

Get this - Linda actually started her projects in May! Now THAT is being on top of things! And I was proud of myself for having a plan in place before the end of October... ;)

Sarah makes jewelry - necklaces and earrings - for the people in her life that she knows will appreciate and wear them - not an "en mass" project by any means - but (I think) more than 1 or 2.

At the other extreme, there was a substantial contingent reporting a history of making and/or plans for this year to make group gifts - a large number of the same item, in different fabrics - to be distributed to friends and/or family. Eileen is making potholders, Sarah hopes to make Bible covers, Marie has done coin purses, aprons and tissue holders in the past.

Patsijean is doing singlet shopping bags - that's a picture of one above - and you can read about it and see more pictures and useful links here and here. A friend in my office did that for co-workers one year and it was a huge hit! I use mine all the time. :)

Linda thinks she has just come up with a great mass gift idea, but she won't share just yet... I'm really looking forward to hearing about it! I'm starting to run low on ideas...

Finally, a couple of folks haven't really started thinking about Christmas just yet. I can relate - I just started thinking about it a week ago...

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to leave a comment! Best wishes with your sewing plans - whether they are for Christmas gifts or not. :)