I'm A Little Bit Country...

This Christmas the handmade gifts were few as our family was unpacking a house, getting sick, finishing up the end of a long semester, and writing an e-course but I did manage to sneak a big one in there with the help of my SIL, Brittany. She and I both knew her mom would love a seat cover for her front porch swing made from an old cutter quilt. Brittany didn't have time to fix it up and I didn't have a quilt to fix it up with and we soon realized this needed to be a joint effort.

With the assistance of my BIL, Grant, we were able to get the exact measurements of the swing. I had some foam on hand from a stalled project, a pillow form I no longer used in the kids' room, and a few doilies leftover from an earlier tutorial that I used without having to spend a thing.

As you can see (and maybe I'm a little worried that some of you quilt lovers are still going to hate me for cutting into this!) the quilt had been well loved to the point that there were dark stains, worn edges, and holes in a few spots.

I stitched it to a cream drop cloth to fill in the holes from underneath and give it a little more strength. I then covered up the holes with well positioned doilies and created a flower-like shape to extend coverage without it looking too random. I created a pillow case effect with the quilt by folding it in almost thirds (not quite all the way over on the back) and box stitching the ends to allow a nice shape for the foam insert. I then stitched ties on the bottom for easy removal. I stitched up a simple pillow case from the same quilt using more drop cloth and a pillow form.

Brittany set it up so that she'd see it on Christmas morning and Cheryl loves it! I love when a handmade gift turns out better than I had imagined and really hits the spot with the recipient! I didn't make my mom's gift but it was custom made by an online friend and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little thrilled that it made her cry when she opened it. It was a little more meaningful as it had to do with my brother's pending deployment and the few days we got to spend with him on his holiday pass before he heads out for awhile.

Were you able to give handmade this year? Did you surprise anyone with something they loved handmade or not?

I hope you had a lovely Christmas and continue to enjoy the week before New Years! I'm hoping to plan something extra fun for our little family to do to ring in 2011 but we all know what happens to the best laid plans...someone gets pneumonia! AAGGH!
xoxo,
Rachel