Thanksgiving may just be my favorite holiday. There's nothing like waking up to a great parade, spending a lazy day with family and relishing the promise of an amazing meal that you've looked forward to all year long!
When it comes to family keepsakes, however, I think Thanksgiving often gets the short end of the wishbone. Here's a quick project I made to help my family remember a lifetime full of Thanksgivings!
The idea is, every year I'll ask my children to give me a list of what they are thankful for and write down their answers without any additions or revisions. I thought I would get a mile long list from my daughter, certainly including "mommy" and "daddy", however, this is what she told me:
I suppose, technically, we are included in the vast subset of "all the people on earth"! Then after the quick turkey picture, I labelled the year and tucked it inside of our little "blessings keeper". Each year we'll add our lists and in time, we'll have a priceless record of what was on our minds each Thanksgiving!
You could also include favorite Thanksgiving recipes, photos of family, or maybe your child's favorite balloon from that year's parade! This would be a great addition to any scrap book, or you could tuck it away next to your go-to Thanksgiving cookbook so that you're sure to remember to add to the mix every year!
What you'll need to make your own "blessings keeper":
Various scraps of "harvesty" colored fabrics ( I chose fabrics from Anna Maria Horner and Amy Butler)
Medium weight fusible interfacing, a fat quarter of fabric for the lining, a button and hair elastic for the closure, embroidery floss, a sheet of printer paper, anti-fray solution.
Download TisforThanksgiving- Click here to download my "T" template for the applique
1. Cut out 35 3" squares from your scraps. Lay them out in 7 rows of 5. Using a 3/8" seam allowance, sew them together forming a large patchwork rectangle.
For some reason patchwork says "home" to me, so I chose to use this technique for this project, but you could certainly skip this step and use a solid piece of fabric.
2. Fold the rectangle in half, lay the printer paper on the bottom fold and trim off the edges. If your patchwork piece ends up being a little larger or smaller than this, it will still work fine.
3. Now cut the same size piece from your lining fabric as well as the fusible interfacing.
4. Following the manufacturer's instructions, fuse the interfacing to the backside of the patchworked piece.
5. Place the patchwork piece and the lining pieces together, right sides facing, and pin. Be sure to place the elastic between the layers at the center of one of the shorter sides.
6. Sew around the rectangle, leaving a 3" space from where you started. Trim the hair elastic off and trim the corners diagonally.
7. Turn the piece right side out and press.
8. Using about a 1/8" seam allowance, topstitch aorund the rectangle, boing sure to close the turning space.
9. If you want to add the Thansgiving "T", download and cut out the "T" template. Trace it onto the wrong side of the applique fabric. Cut it out and treat the edges with an anti-frey liquid, then stitch it into place on the center front of the piece.
10. Stitch the button onto the top center (opposite the elastic).
11. The last step is to fold the piece in half, then stitch up both sides directly over your original topstitching.
Hope you enjoy this little project!
Here's to a Thanksgiving full of memories...
and sweet potatoes...
and pumpkin pie...
but mostly memories!
~Leigh Ann~
