The Best Gift Ever!

I got the absolute coolest gift for Christmas this year and when it comes to actual material possessions, this one will rank right up there! The gifts in the Lexus commercials have nothing on this - except maybe the pony!

So at first glance, it's a quilt - a tshirt quilt to be precise, but here's the back story. When I was in 8th grade, my literature teacher (Linda Winburn - who was a most deserving teacher of the year and later worked with me when I was a first year teacher) assigned us a poetry project. We had to create an anthology of published poems as well as original poems of our own. We had to pick a genre and do all the poems from that. We also had to illustrate them all. So I chose children's poems and enjoyed finding lots of Shel Silverstein poems and other authors who were part of the published portion of my anthology. Then I wrote and illustrated 10 poems of my own.

Well my dad found the book of poetry at home and started his own little project. He scanned in all of my poems and their illustrations and then had them printed onto tshirts. The tshirts were then shipped off to a quilter to make my tshirt quilt. (There were some more steps involved as he ran into a few kinks with the quality of the pictures.)

Now I have this amazing quilt to share with Katherine. It is so cool to look at and see my original illustrations on this quilt. I remember writing these poems and trying to make pictures go with them. I remember turning it in and hoping my teacher was pleased. I remember the comments she wrote on my returned project praising my creativity and saying I could do that for a living one day! It was one of my favorite school projects ever and I had forgotten all about it until I unwrapped this present! I have seen lots of tshirt quilts before - made from children's clothes or sports jerseys galore. And while I am sure that all of them hold a special meaning for their respective recipients, I can't imagine anything more special than this for my daughter and me. Here's a picture of baby Katie just lounging on her quilt. She's particularly fond of the poem about tea time!

N.B. - If I were to have a bucket list like my sister in law Melissa - writing children's poetry or books would be on there. In fact, I have always wanted to be a children's author or run a children's bookshop. Maybe my MBA could get me started on my own business but I am sure I would be overrun by book moguls Barnes and Noble! Maybe I will just stick to writing as a goal and end up on their shelves!