Sewing Corals: November 2020

Hello and Welcome!

I am so excited to be part of this amazing blog tour and have seen so many fun things on organizing and revisiting UFOs. Today I want to share a quilt that was briefly in my UFO pile and how it became more than just a completed UFO.

Let's rewind to Christmas 2019. I had given my mom a quilt pattern called So This Is Christmas by the lovely Cotton Street Commons that we saw at Quilt Market a couple months before. The gift came with the promise to have girls weekends and work on these quilts together. We got one weekend in and then COVID restrictions made it a challenge to get together to finish the quilt.

Months went by and I kept thinking I need to work on that for her and things would come up. Then UFOvember sparked a new desire to get it done so I could hopefully surprise her before Christmas. It took just over a week to piece and prep for quilting. Do you know how hard it is for me to keep secrets? Hard! Thankfully she couldn't see my face as I was asking her about quilting patterns because they were "on sale", yeah they weren't, FaceTime was off limits, and I had to stop the longarm if she called when I was quilting her quilt. It all came together so well and then it was shipping time.

Does anyone else want to throw up when they ship a quilt somewhere? Just me? I packaged the quilt with a cute Christmas ribbon and put it in the box all nice and heavily padded. The next part was the hardest. I wanted to make sure my mom was there to get the quilt but I wanted it to be a complete surprise. So.... I lied. I lied to my mom! But it had to be done because the element of surprise is always my favorite. I told her I accidently shipped a present for my husband to there house, almost 300 miles away, and that she needed to FaceTime me to make sure it was damaged because it was expensive. Not really expensive, just priceless. She. Had. No. Clue!! It was working so well.

For two days I watched the tracking on this package like it was an advent calendar counting down until Christmas. While talking to my dad and husband, I got a text that said it had been delivered. A phone call has never ended faster than that one. It was showtime!!!

My mom and I FaceTimed just like we said and my dad helped her open the box. This was it! She said the box was a little squished and I about fainted, but the next comment brought me right back. She said, "Kenzy I don't think this is your package. I think its the boots I ordered." Hook, line, and sinker. The package she is about to open was better than a pair of boots.

As she unwrapped it and quickly realized what she was holding, tears began to fill her eyes as she said, "Seriously!" Surprise!!! It worked like a charm and now my mom had a beautiful quilt that she could display for Christmas. Let me preface what I said next by saying that the last time I have hugged my parents was in February because of COVID restrictions. When she opened up I told her that this was me wrapping my arms around her until I could do it in person. Queue the tissues because we were a hot mess but in a good way.

This year has been one for the books you guys and if I have learned anything it is that it's the little things that make big things possible. Making the quilt required a little time on my part but the reward was completely worth it. It could have stayed in the UFO pile for another year or more, but look what we would have missed out on. A chance to give hope to each other that things will get better and we have so much to look forward to down the road.

I challenge you to go through your UFO pile and see if there is something that catches your interest or pulls at your heartstrings a bit. Who knows, it may be just what the doctor ordered to lift your spirits or help to lift another's. It might just do both.

Be sure to follow these amazing creators and blogs this month to help bring that excitement back to your UFO pile. You won't be disappointed.

November 1-7

November 8-14