On the 12th Day of Christmas - Sara Velder (aka MOM) inspired me!

Merry Christmas Eve and my 12th Day of Inspirational Women!

On the 12th Day of Christmas Sara Velder, aka, my Mom Inspired Me!

If any one person has inspired me the most to live a creative life it is my Mom.  Growing up we always had handmade items which I thought was completely the norm, now I know better.  We had soft flannel tied blankets, quilts, Raggedy Ann dolls, Cabbage Patch kid clothing, Barbie clothing and accessories, jean jackets and jeans with hand embroidered patches, and more.  Sewing was a pastime and a craft area was a given.

My Mom also was very well known around our grade school as a Homemade (from scratch) bread maker.  When Christmas rolled around there were days of kneading dough, letting it rise and baking.  There were also some teachers that were very happy to have my brother or I in their class to find themselves with a loaf of her bread!

In grade school I also remember that she made baby stuffed chicks and rabbits to sell at a local shop.  In 6th grade my class had an auction where the students got to bid on parent donated gifts with our points we'd earned during the semester.   My mom gave 6 or so stuffed baby geese on a stick holder.  I can vividly remember my classmates bidding on those geese like crazy, every kid wanted one.

My Mom inspired me to make my first quilt in high school when I found a stack of quilt blocks at an antique store and I decided to not to wait around for her project list to accommodate my request and made my own vintage feedback bow-tie patterned quilt.

Now she runs Acorn Ridge Quilting and does Long-Arm Quilting for many Quilters in the Lincoln/Omaha area.  If you have a quilt top that you've made, or find a neat old vintage Quilt top you need someone to finish call my mom.  She is not only reasonably priced, but she is FAST.  No waiting 2 or 3 months, she keeps on top of her stack of quilts and gets them done quickly.  She has also inspired me to work hard, sometimes probably too hard, but we like to keep busy.

My parents' home is full of her handmade work.  A sweet touch for Easter one year were these adorable bunny banners.



Also special occasions are always fun to have awesome handmade gifts.



My Mom is also a very big supporter and sponsor of Handmade U.



She has made endless goodie bags/totes, embroidered countless Handmade U logos, and sewn more pennant banners for our Barn than she'd like to count.


When she has made small mini quilts as raffle prizes - the lucky winners have loved them.

{Lucky Stephanie winning this Halloween Quilt!}

I'm the lucky daughter to have such a creative and loving Mom.  Thanks Mom for inspiring me!  I love you!

-Rachel

The 12 Days of Christmas.....

If you're like me, you are having a hard time believing Christmas is just 15 days away!!  15?!   With the weather in Nebraska unseasonably warm (65+ today), it is even tougher to grasp that the year is nearing its end.  We still need to decorate the house and find a few more gifts in the next week or so!  YIKES.

Jim and I celebrate the holiday with the 12 Days of Christmas.   Each day leading up to Christmas we exchange little gifts and a card.  It is a treat to have a little surprise every morning and nice to share a card with a sweet message or funny memory.  The gifts might be a special Christmas Tea, or chocolates, maybe a DMB CD...anything that we think the other would enjoy (and maybe even share ;)

This season I have decided to add one more tradition along with our 12 Days of Christmas.  In the same vein I am going to celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas by sending out 12 handmade gifts to 12 Ladies that have inspired me in some way.  Each Day I'll share with you who these women are and what they have done to be surprised with a little something heading their way.

I am sure I could come up with 100 women to send something to, however, I do need to be a little realistic on how much I can get done in the next 2 weeks!  

Would you like to join me??  I have way too much to do, but after participating in the Secret Sister gift giving and getting a handful of sweet surprises I thought why not pay that forward and send a few more gifts out??  If you don't find the time to send 12 gifts, why not just send a few?  It could be a handmade card, or gift tags, anything that your recipient would enjoy!

If you do join me why don't you tag photos of your handmade goodies with #12DaysHandmadeGiftGiving  

I would love to hear about who inspires you!  

Happy Handmade Holidays!

Stay tuned, it all begins Sunday!

Cheers!

-Rach