New skill unlocked: applique

New skill unlocked: Appliqué.

Becky (my machine) and I got to know each other very well this past month. I wanted to learn appliqué, so instead of starting with an easy shape like a circle or a heart, I went all in with the school's dragon logo.

In hindsight, a circle would have saved my sanity.

By bag 26, I feel confident calling this a new skill. It would have been much easier to do gift cards, but with each bag I kept thinking about why I choose to create personalized gifts.

A few years ago, my daughter's teacher passed away. Shortly before that, I'd made small "academy award" statues for teacher appreciation week—something I considered pretty throwaway at the time. At her funeral, I saw one of those statues displayed by her parents. I don't know if the teacher even saw it before she passed, but I would like to think that she did. Since then, I've noticed several still of these little award statues sitting in classrooms around campus.

So here's what I learned throughout thirty years of making gifts for people:
1. People don't easily throw away things with their name on them. Maybe a psychologist can explain to me the reason why.
2. Something small to me can mean a lot to someone else.
3. If people keep things that took little effort, imagine how seen they feel when something clearly took effort.

Dragon logos cut with #xtool s1. Embroidery: #HappyJapan Design: Me. Encouragement: G and T.