This isn't really a holiday gift, unless you count "watching a friend blossom into an amazing person and advocate through a challenging time" as a holiday...which I guess I do!
This weekend my walking buddy of days gone by is participating in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day For the Cure Breast Cancer Walk. She is walking with several of our mutual friends, plus her mom and sister who came to town for the event. If you remember, we whipped up a little something for her mom last summer. I'm glad to report that her mom is doing great and they should be about half way through the 60 miles right about...NOW!
My foot issues prevented me from walking with them, although I did hop on some of the training walks for a few miles at a time when I could. It has been an amazing thing to watch my friend get to this point. When we met and started walking together several years ago, we high fived on the day we bumped it up from two to three miles. Now she's walking sixty in one weekend, and logged literally hundreds during her training.
I wanted them to know that I was with them in spirit and cheering them every step of the way. I decided to make some mementos. The first was this little "scrap tail" that they can write on. This was easy to do with scraps of pink and white fabric and some fat pink rick-rack. I used a pinking blade on my rotary cutter, but you could use pinking shears too.
I put the fabric slices back to back with the rick rack in between. I used a 23" strip of rick rack. The strips were varying sizes, but on average they were 2" wide and 7" long.
Then I just stitched down the center of the rick rack.
And voila! I thought this would be cute to make even longer like a feather boa, but my buddy wanted something a little shorter to attach to her backpack. I gave them each a Pigma pen to carry and add names along their journey.
I wanted something extra special for my buddy and her sister to wear in honor of their mom's fight last summer. I printed a picture of her mom on a fabric sheet, along with "I walk in gratitude for " her name, and "Survivor" on it. I couldn't leave out mom, so I made one for her with a picture of the three of them and the text "I'm walking with my daughters" and "I'm a survivor!" I also made one more for my buddy with the picture of a friend who is a survivor AND walking her 5th walk this year! Yes, I am friends with some amazing women.
Anyway, back to the tut:
I cut 1" strips of pink ribbon fabric and stitched them around the edge of my photo. Then I made a little quilt sandwich with a piece of pink ribbon fabric and batting cut to the same size. Make sure your fabrics are right sides together with the batting at the back.
I cut a 4" piece of pink rick rack to tuck in the corner to hang it by. Make sure to pin the raw edges in your seam allowance, and be sure the middle doesn't get into your stitch line.
Stitch around the edges and leave a small opening for turning.
My buddy said this was a really special way to let everyone know who she was walking for!
To find out about a 3-Day event in your area or to make a donation, visit the3day.org.
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YOu are so clever and thoughtful!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea. I bet you will start a trend!
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