If you’re firming up a holiday gift list for your quilting friends, you may face a common question: What do you get for the quilter who has it all? Perhaps the friend you’re thinking of has enough fabric to make an Olympic-sized swimming pool cover. Maybe she has enough rulers, tools, and gadgets to build her own Eiffel-tower sized monument to the craft. But there’s still something every quilter seldom stops searching for and occasionally runs out of: inspiration.
Below you’ll find quick, affordable, no-sew solutions for all of your quilter-to-quilter gifting needs: quilt calendars! Through these daily desk calendars and monthly wall calendars, your quilting friends will find all the inspiration they need to get creative—and stay that way.
For the traditional-quilt enthusiast:
365 Quilt-Block Patterns Perpetual Calendar: The Best of Judy Hopkins
Give a gift that keeps on giving—year after year after year! This outstanding collection of quilt blocks honors the memory of bestselling author Judy Hopkins. Flip the pages of this compact, spiral-bound calendar each day of the year to reveal a new rotary-cut block to make. Color illustrations, lettered line drawings, and cutting directions make it easy to stitch all 365 designs. Block sizes range from 6″ to 14″.
To show you just how easy Judy’s blocks are to create, here’s one straight from the calendar to use right now—Judy’s Christmas Star II block.
Spoil a quilting friend by making four of these 10″ blocks. Set the blocks to form a square and finish it as a beautiful table topper to give along with the calendar.
Save 40% on Judy’s calendar this week: was $22.99, now only $13.79.
For the patchwork-and-appliqué aficionado:
Quilter’s Block-a-Day Calendar
Debby Kratovil has been an avid block-pattern designer and collector for many years. Her perpetual calendar includes 366 traditional, pictorial, seasonal, and holiday blocks that use both piecing and appliqué.
A companion CD is also available—with it, you can print each block in two different sizes. The CD also contains 12 complete step-by-step quilt patterns.
Save 40% on Debby’s perpetual calendar this week: was $19.95, now only $11.97.
For the time-crunched quilter:
That Patchwork Place® Quilt Calendar 2013
Got a friend looking for an excuse to make time to quilt? Inspire her with a dozen reasons in this year’s wall calendar from That Patchwork Place—a perennial favorite of quilters the world over. View a gorgeous quilt every month; then flip to the back of the calendar for a pullout instruction booklet that includes step-by-step directions for making each quilt featured.
Here’s an idea to make your gift even sweeter: Choose a special day each month to get together with your friend for sewing, a meal, or just a chat. Write a note about your special monthly date in the calendar before you wrap it.
Includes designs from Carrie Nelson, Nancy Mahoney, Kim Brackett, Amy Ellis, and more.
Save 40% on the That Patchwork Place Quilt Calendar 2013 this week: was $16.99, now only $10.19.
For the Kim Diehl fanatic:
Simply Beautiful Quilts 2013 Calendar
Perhaps you have a friend who goes gaga over Kim Diehl’s quilts (or maybe it’s you?). Give her year-round inspiration with this collection of Kim’s best designs from her Simple series of books in a wall-calendar format. Gorgeously photographed quilts feature both seasonal and holiday themes.
Pair a gift of Kim’s wall calendar with her charming note cards, recipe tin, or one of her many bestselling books for an extra-special holiday treat.
Save 40% on Kim’s calendar this week: was $14.99, now only $8.99.
For the aspiring art quilter:
Award-Winning Quilts 2013 Calendar: Featuring Quilts from the International Quilt Association
Give encouragement to a budding art quilter with a compilation of blue-ribbon quilts to study and enjoy all year long. This wall calendar features 13 designs from the 2011 “Quilts: A World of Beauty” judged show. Exquisite works from Anna Faustino, Jaynette Huff, Terry Kramzar, Susan Stewart, and more will keep those creative wheels turning.
Encourage your creative friend even further when you pair your gift with the new book Design, Create, and Quilt—a guidebook for designing your own quilts with step-by-step lessons, techniques, and patterns.
Save 40% on the Award-Winning Quilts 2013 Calendar this week: was $14.99, now only $8.99.
What kinds of gifts have you given over the years to your quilting friends? Share your idea—a gift in itself!—in the comments.
Special shipping note: To guarantee receipt of your order in time for holiday giving (in the continental US only), please place your order no later than Monday, December 10, 2012.
I love little blingy things and the do-dahs usually at the check out, i.e., longer tweezer painted like girls, and little scissors painted like butterflies/bugs,etc, and paper products, regular 3-ring binders in pretty colors and quilty-style graphics or festive file folders (aren’t we always jotting and clipping) and I like to give a little gift cert just for the emergency run for thread or batting, etc.
—Carol on December 3, 2012Love the perpetual calendar and keep it going-once is not enough.
Holiday cheers and happy gifting,
Carol
I bought a bag of Merino fleece from a wool spinner’s stall at a state fair. I have used it often to make beautiful Merino fleece filled pin cushions for my friends using english paper pieced hexagons.
—Kayt on December 3, 2012If you ever decide to try this, a good tip is to make a little calico bag filled with rice for the base, to give it weight and balance, and stitch the ‘top’ of pin cushion to some wool felt (a great way to practice stipple quilting!) before attaching it to the rest of the pin cushion. The felt will help stop the needles from disappearing into the pin cushion.
The most difficult gift of all – time! My sister and I have pledged to spend time together each year at her shop’s quilt retreat. All the fabric and tools are worthless without the time to create. Give yourself or a friend a dedicated block of time to follow your inspiration.
—Peg on December 3, 2012Generalmente son pequeños detalles de intercambio como alfileteros, posavasos y similares.
Translation: They are generally small details of exchange such as cushions, coasters and similar.
—Jacquelin B. on December 4, 2012Because I am the most prolific quilter in our very large group of friends, those folks always get stitched gifts. I have made stained glass wall hangings, big pot holders, postcards, tree ornaments, sets of coasters, and this year brought toppers for toilet tanks. I make these things throughout the year, and drop them into a big basket, and when it is time for our annual Christmas party, just grab the full basket and head out. This year there were also crocheted dish rags and fabric bookmarks, all of which are now gone!! They love the gifts and I love the looks of glee on their faces, as well as all the hugs and thank yous I get. Makes me happy to be able to use some of my considerable stash.
—Ele Willard on December 4, 2012A lighted magnifier is a favorite gift to give along with a seem ripper. Also a few embellishments like wide ric rac or beads if my quilter friend makes artsy quilts.
—Becky on December 5, 2012My daughter is a quilter and LOVES Halloween. One year I took my grandchildren shopping for her August birthday. We got her 1/4 yd. cuts of Halloween fabric and found co-ordinating FQs. It was their gift to her. Same idea could be applied for Christmas.
—Joanne Scott on December 7, 2012My parents found, while on vacation, a postcard poem about "the toilet" written by an anonymous person. It began, "Sit down my friend and rest your weary frame; Do what you must and do it without shame; The little throne your fanny occupies, makes all men e, …."
—Lynnita Shipman on December 9, 2012I printed this poem on fabric, added frog designs around it and listing it as being written by Frog Enterprises. Yes, she’s a "Frog" person.
I placed my creation in a glass picture frame and gave it to her for Christmas. She hung it, at the time, in her studio bathroom. Since her move to Mississippi, I’m not sure where it hangs now.
Gifts, I have given to others, are fabric hot pads, wall hangings, and I’ve learned over the years the best gift we can give are those from our hearts and made with our own hands, and not from our pocketbooks.
Keep smiling,
—Lynnita Shipman on December 9, 2012