Quick and Easy Christmas Gifts

I love reading about the hands who've stitched a thousand miles. Keep telling us about the women who've influenced you. We are always inspired by the stories of generous, creative women.

And if you are generous and creative and want quick and easy Christmas gifts, here are some ideas.
1) Take a tea towel and add 5/8" yard ribbon trim. Fast and fabulous for $4.00-6.00 each.
2) Pick out a cute pattern, (purses are always good!) and put the required yardage, trims, thread and notions in a gift bag. Your friend will love the fact that she can just start sewing. (As seen in SewNews, December 20007.
3) Indulge anyone who loves to sew with paid tuition to a quilting, sewing, or project class. Taking a class is a great way to learn new techniques and make new friends, but it's a luxury that we don't always do for ourselves.
4) Take 1/4 yard of plush velour or Minkee with a width of 60". Fold it in half, right sides together and stitch with a l/4" seam , leaving one end open for turning. Fold the ends under, insert beads or feather trim and stitch closed. Viola! You've got an incredibly soft scarf with a "Wow" factor.
5) Potholders and oven mitts can be made very quickly and inexpensively. Pick out fabrics in a holiday pattern or that go with your friend's decor. Sandwich two layers with Insul-brite and bind by machine. Click here to go to our online store for a selection of fabrics: http://threadsoftimefab.com/catalog/index.php.
6) Aprons are hot and perfect for a hostess gift. Stitch up a simple apron for something she can really use.

If you have any other ideas for quick and easy Christmas gifts that you're willing to share, we'd love to see them. Enjoy the season! Missi

"Miles of stitches...." - a question from Missi

A few years ago - long before we opened Threads of Time, I read a book called "Ahab's Wife." In one memorable passage, the heroine remembers her mother:


"I thought of the miles and miles of thread that her nimble fingers pulled through cloth. What song had her needle sung to the fabric? .....If all the thread from all her quilts were measured, would it stretch a thousand miles? Had her needle trudged, as a man's foot might trudge, a thousand miles?"


We all know that in a woman's hands, there's strength, power, and beauty on the point of needle. So I ask you, who have you known in your lifetime that has trudged miles with her needle? Who do you know that has made a needle "sing?"

Pay her tribute here. Tell us about the women who have inspired you with their sewing and their miles of thread.

Welcome to the Thread Heads: The blog from Threads of Time

We would like to welcome everyone to our Blog. Threads of Time is a Quilting and Fine Fabrics Store located in Danville, Illinois. With over 5,500 square feet of floor space and thousands of bolts of fabric, we serve our local customers in a brick and mortar location as well as clients all over the USA with our online store.

Our Blog will be full of sewing and quilting advice from our expert staff. We will have plenty of how-to's for you to try out, and we will recommend great kits from our online store. We plan on recommending other products to our customers in our Blog too.

You can always post a question to our Blog for us to answer. If you need assistance with any quilting or sewing project, our experts are here to answer your questions. We will post an answer to your question just as soon as we can. If you have an opinion or idea, here is the place to post it. The "Thread Heads" will provide information and answers, lively discussion on past and current trends, and Missi will throw in an occasional sewing-oriented column. Don't miss out on this exciting new hot spot for quilters and seamstresses.