Storybook Quilts Rocks! » grandma

What keeps you in your grandchild’s thoughts?

Nancy — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 16:47:32 +0000

In today’s world, grandparents and grandchildren all too often live quite a distance from one another. Is this true of you? How can that distance be overcome?

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re keeping in contact using e-mail and possibly also Facebook. Maybe you have a webcam and mic so that you can see and hear one another “live”! Maybe you send things back and forth in the mail – cards or gifts or photos.

Is there something very special that you share that keeps you in your grandchild’s thoughts? Is it something that your grandchild will still have when he or she is a grandparent?

A Storybook Quilt can be the tie — and last for a lifetime. The quilt can be customized with a short message, names and dates.

The book can include a longer message from you and a photo – and even be specially rewritten to include family details in the story itself.

To make this even more special, your grandchild can help make the choices, so that it’s not just a surprise, it’s a special project and a lifelong connection.

Until July 4th, we are offering a chance to win a discount on any of our Storybook Quilt themes. Enter to create a wonderful summer memory for you and your grandchild!

Grandma Starts a New Family Tradition

Nancy — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 16:08:20 +0000

This week, one of the Storybook Quilts we shipped off was to a grandmother with a great idea. She fell in love with the Storybook Quilts, Luna the Turtle in particular. With three grandchildren and another on the way, she struck on the perfect solution to please them all, including herself!

This Luna the Turtle will remain with “Babbie,” as she’s called. She’ll have it at her house when the grandchildren come to visit and she will take it with her when she goes to visit them. It will be a very special treat the entire family looks forward to, creating memories that will be cherished for the lifetimes of them all.

Any bets on how many readings of the story it will take before the grandkids know it by heart?

Grandparents: A Gift Idea to Bridge the Miles!

Nancy — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:00:13 +0000

With people spread out all over the country (and farther!) and with the hassle and cost of holiday travel, grandparents often find it difficult to be with grandchildren to celebrate the holidays. That can be rough on both grandparent and grandchild. This week, Grandparents.com published one real gem of an idea in its suggestions for bridging the distance: work on something together that can be shared when you next meet in person.

Let’s take one of our customized Storybook Quilts as an example. Many grandparents choose one to give as a wonderful surprise — but consider instead collaborating with your grandchild to create a handmade, original, customized Storybook Quilt. This is a wonderful way to enhance closeness and create memories that will be treasured for a lifetime (or two!). And NO special skills are required!

Here’s how it works. For the sake of this story, we’ll assume that “Grandma” is the giver and “Olivia” is the recipient. But, of course, it could include Grandpa, be for a boy, or be two Storybook Quilts for twins!

Step 1. Grandma gives Olivia a Storybook Quilts gift certificate for Christmas (or for Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or a birthday). Olivia receives a special, handmade card with a special message from Grandma.

Step 2. The holidays pass. January arrives with its sudden quiet and, often, dark and dreary days. The blahs are waiting in ambush.

Step 3. Grandma and Olivia begin to customize their Storybook Quilt, corresponding with us back here in the workshop. (We’ll help with ideas, when you need us, and guide the process along.)

First, Grandma and Olivia think and talk and think and talk — and finally choose one of the eight (soon to be nine) Storybook Quilt themes: Maurice the Cat, Maggie the Dog, Dapper Dan the Snowman, DanZy the Rabbit, Vroom Vroom the Car, Amos the Bear, Luna the Turtle, Winnie the Frog or Per — oops! That’s our January surprise!

Then, they decide what words will be embroidered on the special square in the quilt.

Together, they write a message to be printed in the storybook and a pick a photograph to include there, too.

Dapper Dan Storybook Quilt Package

And, last but not least, Grandma and Olivia decide how they want to tailor the story, adding in their own names and details about their family’s life. This then is woven into the story by our expert writer.

Storybook Quilts e-mails photographs as the quilt is made so that Grandma and Olivia both can watch it come to life.

Step 4. The completed Storybook Quilt is delivered in time for the next get-together. Grandma and Olivia open the package together, snuggle up under the quilt and Grandma reads Olivia their story.

What a gift! What a memory! What a way to overcome the miles! What a great way to fight the Winter blahs! And, of course, your grandchild doesn’t have to live far away for you both to enjoy this creative project.

Storybook Quilts are available in eight themes and with various types of personalization and customization. To see them all, visit us at www.StorybookQuilts.biz Or give us a call to find out more. You can call us free using the Google Voice service on our order page.

We look forward to making your gift the most memorable ever.

The Best Gifts Come from the Heart

Nancy — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:03:36 +0000

This the time of year that we strive to find just the perfect gift for those we love. I think it’s particularly challenging for grandparents who live at a distance from their grandchildren. Knowing their likes and dislikes and their latest obsession is difficult when time together is sparse.

The best gifts are those that come from your heart and that have a bit of your heart in them. If you’re like me, you want the gifts to those most special to you to last, and be loved for longer than a day or a month or two.

That is exactly what’s so perfect about giving a Storybook Quilt as a gift. It’s not “just” another children’s quilt or “just” another storybook — or even “just” another storybook quilt. The quilts and stories are entirely original. They are so woven around each other that they are inseparable — one doesn’t mean much without the other.

Children become very attached to such visual and aural combinations. With a message from you on the quilt square and in the book, you will be in their thoughts daily.

Storybook Quilts will endure for years. It’s the kind of thing one still has decades later, one that evokes warm, positive memories of childhood and the grandparent who gave the gift.

See our themes on our website or on our Facebook Fan page. Contact us through those sites or on Twitter @StorybookQuilts.

Orders are being taking for Hanukkah until mid-November and for Christmas, Kwanzaa and New Year’s until early December. Order now to be sure your very special gift is in the production queue.

We look forward to making your Storybook Quilt!

What Grandparents Want

Nancy — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:22:52 +0000

What is it that grandparents look for in a gift for their grandchildren? Each person has his or her own list, of course. What would you add to the list below?

1. A gift of experience and memories, preferably one that will last a lifetime

2. Allows Grandma or Grandpa to enjoy it with the grandchild, forming even closer bonds

3. Can be fully personalized for your grandchild and even include the entire family in the personalization

4. Does not beep beep beep, toot toot toot, or thump thump thump (or at least not loudly)

5. Unique — no one else will give the same gift and no other child will have it

6. Matches the grandchild’s interests — his or her love of cars, or dogs and cats, or teddy bears, for example

7. Packs easily for a visit to Grandma and Grandpa, or to take home from a visit there

8. Does not need an Internet connection, a computer, a cell phone or other gizmo

9. Grandma and Grandpa already know how to use it

10. Can help develop your grandchild’s imagination and advance other life skills

11. Does not need to be walked morning and night or use a litter box

12. Pleases the family as well as the child

13. Teaches positive values; no violent messages or images

14. Will still be a favorite of your grandchild after other toys have been outgrown, broken or lost

How well do you think a Storybook Quilt would meet the requirements on this list?

Childhood Gifts: Treasures for a Lifetime

Nancy — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:32:42 +0000

Unless some disaster has befallen them, I suspect all of us have one or two gift treasures from childhood – an old toy train, maybe, or part of one; a doll, which may have “features” that were added purposely or by mistake; a teddy bear or other stuffed animal that is hug-worn; maybe even a surviving blanky.

What’s your childhood gift treasure?

My favorite gift treasure is a doll I received for my second birthday from my Great-Aunt Brownie and which I named, appropriately enough, “Happy Birthday.” She has been with me through thick and thin, for more decades than I care to admit, and never has lost her ability to comfort.

Happy got a little tattered after three or four years. My grandmother, a seamstress, took her away to make her a new body. I was bereft! When she came back, though, she was even more precious because she had been “remade” by Grandma. She also returned in a fancy new dress, which she wears now.

This lifelong connection is the idea behind Storybook Quilts. These are special gifts, each one as individual and customized as the buyer cares to make it. Most customers order an
embroidered square with a message from them to the child for whom it is intended. And most also opt for a special message and a photograph, printed in the book.

Combining the quilt with a matching adventure story ensures that the child who loves this quilt will have strong ties to those with whom it was shared. Imagine looking at that quilt when times are tough – at any age! – and remembering sitting on the lap of a parent or grandparent covered with the quilt and listening to the story being read. What a wonderful lifelong comfort that can be!

Amos the Bear quilt with storybook

The Storybook Quilts are available in eight themes, with more in development. For details, visit us at www.storybookquilts.biz

How would you customize your Storybook Quilt?

Want to Win [Turtle]? Gotta Get Past Grandma!

Nancy — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:24:30 +0000

Grandmas, some more than others, all have PhDs in children — Pretty Heavy Doting. OK, so you could think of something better. (Tell me!) Grandmas certainly have read their share of stories. I suspect if you could tap a grandma’s brain, you’d find miles and miles of neurons with stories recorded!

To win the [Turtle] contest, you’ll have to satisfy many miles of grandma and grandpa neurons, including those of the newest members of the judges panel.

Aletha Scarangello, from northern Delaware, is a retired teacher and world traveler, mother of two and grandmother of three

Cora Sparling, from southeastern Pennsylvania, is a docent at the Mt Cuba Center, mother of two and grandmother of four

Enter the contest here — and maybe consult a grandparent to increase your chances!

Reading Dapper Dan the Snowman