Over the River and Through the Woods

Hello everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I know that we did. :)  I always love spending time with family and extended family. Too much good food, good conversations, and people I love - what's not to like about that?

Well, I'm plugging along on my journey to Christmas.  I did not participate in Black Friday because all of my relatives are getting hand-made gifts that I expect them to at least pretend to like while we are there.  So there.  I'm sticking with the hand print theme on this one.  Remember that?  Well, here are those cute little hands again.  I saw a pillow like this that a woman had made online somewhere.  I think it was here: http://fromanigloo.blogspot.com.  Yep, it was - I just checked.  Anyways, I saw it and thought "I can do that..."  So I did.  I lucked out on this one, because a friend of mine is an Interior Decorator and had all this fabric lying around that she offered to give me.  How could I say no to that?  Free fabric is always a plus and I will find something to make with it all.  This is the first project.

I used a 12x16 inch pillow form from JoAnn Fabrics.  I just measured 1" inch extra for the material all the way around for seam allowances.  So, I wanted a middle panel with borders.  I figured I should have a 2" border all the way around so I cut 2 pieces 3" wide x 13" long for the side borders.  Then I cut 2 pieces 3" wide x 12 " long for the top borders.  The middle panel I cut 9" wide x 12" long.  I cut out enough pieces for the front and the back of the pillow.  In other words:

2 - 9x12 inch panels

4 - 3x13 inch side borders

4 - 3x12 inch top borders

Then, before I sewed them all together, I traced the girls' hands onto some poster board I had laying around.  I cut their hands out and used the poster board patterns to trace the hands onto some Steam-a-Seam double-sided fusible webbing.  That was then stuck to the blue fabric and cut out.  The paper backing was peeled off, stuck to the pink pillow fabric, and ironed on.  I used a simple zigzag stitch to secure the applique to the front panel.  I used the same fusible webbing to create the black felt letters for the girls' initials and the year.  The pieces were sewn together to form the front and back panels.  The panels were sewn together, leaving one side open for the pillow to go in.  I folded over a 1/4" seam on the open end to make closing it up easier.  The pillow was shoved in and a slip-stitch was used to sew up the pillow so that the seam is unnoticeable.  And there you have it...one hand print pillow for Nana and Grandpa (hence the title - sorry, it was the best I could come up with).

And here is the back...

One more gift ready!  Woo hoo! Have a great week everyone - can't wait to share my next one.  Here's a hint - it's AWESOME (and if you are in my immediate family, you will get this right away). ;)