Full Circle

Today I am celebrating my 30th birthday and my mom and dad surprised me with a pretty cool gift. Way back around this time last year I joined my first online quilt block swap. Beth hosted a scrappy Christmas block swap using a tutorial from Elizabeth. We were each paired up with 3 other people and sent them 2 blocks each. The blocks were made from Christmas fabric and the selections chosen were from a large variety. Along with the blocks we made for our partners Beth also gave us the option to make an extra block or two to donate to charity. This of course was before I was overwhelmed with bee blocks and swap packages so I had extra time and made a few blocks to send for the charity quilt.

Fast forward to the earthquake that hit Haiti earlier this year. At that time Beth asked us if it would be okay to auction off the quilts to benefit the relief efforts. Of course we all said yes and the auction began. At the time I remember thinking how nice it would be to have one of the pieces with one of my blocks in it. Sort of sentimental memorabilia. I remember telling my mom the pieces had gone up for auction but I don't recall telling her my thoughts on wanting to own one of those pieces. One with my block in it in particular.

Now my mom is like me or maybe I should say I'm like my mom in that when I get someone a gift I get so excited about it that I want to give it to them right away. Not that this is a bad trait but it makes shopping in advance for holidays next to impossible, sometimes even costly. So imagine my surprise when we were opening gifts tonight (I say we because my brother's birthday is next week and we had a joint dinner and celebration) and I opened a box from Beth to my mom. Of course I recognized her name right away. After all she was the swap mama for my very first swap and I happen to be in a few flickr groups with Beth and am a follower of her blog so I knew exactly who it was. I just couldn't imagine what my mom could have gotten from her. So there you have it, the story of the tree skirt that I helped in a small way to create, that holds a special place to me, and that made it's way back to me as a piece of sentimental memorabilia.