How to Get What You Want for Mother’s Day

I’m thinking of gift giving – or more specifically gift GETTING.

In the photo above are some of the things my sister and I found when we were going through our mom’s things after she passed a few years ago. We laughed and laughed because some of them are just plain ugly!!! Poor Mom! My sister and I agreed that on some of those occasions we should have taken her out to lunch instead of giving her such strange gifts.

We’ve all had that occasion where we got a gift, particularly a Mother’s Day gift, and the gift giver just plain missed the mark. We don’t want that to happen to you. So, I’ve got a couple of suggestions.

The first one is easy. If you have a favorite quilt store where they know you, send your family there. When we lived in northeast Colorado, I regularly shopped at the Silver Thimble in Ogallala, Nebraska. When a gift-giving occasion was looming, Bake (my hubby) would go there and ask them what I wanted. They never steered him wrong.

Then there is another way, I’ve done this on occasion and it’s great fun. It’s not subtle but it works. I write notes and leave them everywhere. What I generally do is take song titles, poetry, or well-known quotes and substitute the gift I desire for one of the words. Like:

• “Give me liberty or give me a new sewing machine.”
• “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your new sewing machine.”
• “Under a spreading new sewing machine, the village smithy stands.”
• “Pretty new sewing machine, walking down the street, pretty new sewing machine, the kind I’d like to meet.”

I think you get the idea. Write your notes, (hand-written is fine) and then put them everywhere the gift giver is likely to see them. When I’m hinting to Bake, I’ve put them in the coffee canister, his sock drawer, in the top of his tool box, in the glove box of his vehicle. Just everywhere.

I’m a little difficult to buy presents for. (I don’t like to get cut flowers, they die. Don’t like boxes of chocolate, I’m way too fussy about my chocolate. I’m even getting so I don’t want jewelry, I have so much.) So, this method generally works. If the gift givers are your grown children, I think you could do the same thing by sending texts or doing a group on Facebook.

You can also go the more traditional way and provide them with wish list with the patterns and classes you’d like, or you can suggest a gift card so you have more time to decide.

I do have a couple of suggestions. Here is a quilt that I like a lot, Mother’s Best.

The Plus and Square pattern is another one that has good possibilities.

But there are so many more possibilities. Or if you happen to be considering what to get mom this Mother’s Day, make sure to check out our all of the gifts for her that can be found on the Quilting Daily website.

Until next time, happy quilting,