Today is the first full day of Autumn, and Oma’s Pumpkin Patch came into being almost one year ago. Oma is Meta, my mom, and “Oma” to her grandchildren. My son, Sam, set up an Etsy store to provide a pandemic-inspired outlet to sell the stuffed pumpkins of repurposed materials that his Oma is creatively obsessed with making.
Today’s Throwback Thursday takes you back to the October 3rd, 2020 post that introduced Oma’s Pumpkin Patch, and the story behind my mom’s love of making things with fabric. No doubt growing up surrounded by her dressmaking fabrics greatly influenced my own creative trajectory, and she continues to inspire me daily.
In the TBT post, I related how no sweater or blanket is safe from Oma’s scissors—this summer, a couple of her quilted UFO’s got re-directed, never to become jackets and vests, but as my mom declared, they made better pumpkins anyway (photos above and below).
In rearranging some storage boxes, my mom found her stash of men’s ties. In no time at all, they began to adorn this fall crop of pumpkins (photos above left and below)—she’s committed to only using materials she already has on hand—and they appear to be never-ending. Recently, my dad walked through her sewing room, picked up one of the ties and told me it was one he used to wear, then set it back down and walked away. I don’t think he’s looked closely at this new batch of my mom’s. Since he no longer wears neckties, I decided not to mention that it’s red color will probably grace a future holiday pumpkin.
There’s no way we can ever know the full count of Oma’s pumpkins (she’s been creating them on and off for at least a couple decades now). But in the past year, Sam has posted 179 pumpkins in the Etsy shop—including the 15 new ones posted today—of those, 146 have sold.
My mom is so tickled when sales are made, and especially when comments come in, all due to you, my readers, since my blog posts are the only public exposure these pumpkins have seen. You have driven Oma’s healthy obsession with these fabric gourds from one season to the next—not only her Autumn harvests, but Holiday, Winter, Valentine’s Day, Spring, and Summer collections as well—it has been a year filled with pumpkin pleasure.
Thank you from all of us who love Oma and love seeing her energized with the next fabric, stem, and decoration she lays her lovely hands onto, or hearing how stuffing a couple pumpkins at 3 a.m. got her through a sleepless night. Would she still be creating pumpkins without the Etsy outlet? Certainly, though housing 179 pumpkins (and counting) would be a stretch for her home and those of all family and friends that know her (this year’s count doesn’t even include the ones she’s given away!).
So, another sincere thank you to those of you commenting on and providing new homes for Oma’s pumpkins. And as Autumn begins, a new harvest is ready for viewing in Oma’s Pumpkin Patch.
Love today’s post. Last year I bought some of Oma’s pumpkins planning to gift them. Well that didn’t happen because I fell in love with all of them. This year I purchased pumpkins with specific friends in mind, and those will be going out in the mail soon. even though it’s officially autumn, it’s not quite where my friends live. We don’t usually decorate until October 1st. I love seeing her smiling face and hearing about her pumpkin creations. Thank you for sharing Oma with all of us. Maybe give her a hug for me.