Christmas shopping season is just around the corner, and while it takes time to shop for just the right present, it is much easier to shop than to create. It is also much easier to shop than to sacrifice personal time to do an activity that someone else enjoys.
I think of arts and crafts as gifts of time. True, the maker enjoys the activity, but the maker who is creating a gift is doing so with the recipient in mind. There is a difference in creating something for yourself as opposed to creating something for someone else.
Sentimental, I know. But the beautifully crocheted large table covering made by my maternal grandmother, whom I never knew very well since she passed away when I was four, is a tangible reminder of the fact she once lived and that I am a part of her, whether good or bad. Sometimes I look at it and wonder what was going through her mind as she worked on the complicated piece. Was she talking with my grandfather as they sat around in the evenings in the days before television? Was she listening to the radio? Was she simply focusing on her handiwork with no deep thoughts, no introspection, no worries? I don’t know. But I wonder.
The quilt in the photo was made by the 14-yera-old me when I was taking Home Ec. In Mrs. Blankenship’s sewing class, we had to make a dress, but outside of class we had to do a project of our own. Mom came up with the idea of me making a quilt top. The pattern is a Dutch Doll pattern, and the fabric used in every square were leftovers of clothing she had made for me. Actually, a couple of them are clothes I made for myself since she began to teach me to sew at a very young age. Nine, I think. So I spent hours cutting out the pieces and sewing them on to a square (by hand using a buttonhole stitch), and many years later, Mom quilted the top using a zigzag stitch on her sewing machine.
No, I wasn’t sacrificing my time for someone else. I was sacrificing it for a grade. But I like to think at least one of my family members will find it meaningful in some way when they are older.
I realize my sewing explanation means nothing to people who don’t sew, but I described it for those who do.
The funny thing is, I remember every fabric. I remember if it was a dress, a jumper, a robe, or a romper. I remember wearing those clothes, and as I look at the fabrics now, I am only too aware of how loud the fashions were of the time. Maybe I should have been honored with “worst dressed junior high student?”
But I have kept other things. Drawings my sons did. I even have their very bad pottery pieces they made in high school art class. I can’t bring myself to get rid of them. Mom kept some of my old drawings, and I haven’t thrown them away. I have framed cross-stitch pieces made by Barry’s mom, knowing the love she put into every stitch.
I know not everyone is sentimental about these things. But I’ll bet my cousin’s wife is sentimental about the beautiful small table and chairs he made from a tree in their yard before he passed away. I’m willing to bet she wouldn’t take any amount of money for it, and let me tell you, it is beautiful. I still have Barbie doll clothes made by my aunt that were presents for all of us girl nieces at Christmas. She was an expert seamstress, and oh, her baked goods…homemade doughnuts and cheesecakes were her specialties.
No doubt some things purchased for us are memorable as well, like the necklace I have with our granddaughters’ names on it. No doubt a teen-ager would appreciate a vehicle gifted to him (who wouldn’t?), and a sixth-grade boy obsessed with basketball would be thrilled with his own basketball goal beside the driveway.
But as I get older, I value experiences with family and friends more than I value what someone purchases. I value those drawings given to me by my granddaughters more than I would a work of art by a master painter.
Crafting may be on its way out, but I think there will always be a few souls continuing to express their creative side. And while they are doing it partially because they love to do the activity, they are also doing it for the one they are giving the item to. They are hoping the recipient will appreciate it if not love it. They are hoping the gift will be a reminder of them.
Not everyone has the ability nor the interest to pursue arts and crafts, but everyone has the ability to sacrifice their time in some way for someone else. Either way, a lasting memory is created.
Life As I know it 