Handmade love

I’ve written before about how talented my mom is… when I grow up, I want to be crafty, just like her!  :)

She sent us a care package a little while ago, and I have to share its wonderful contents with you!

Brief Disclaimer – I am not a photographer, nor will I ever claim to be; my camera is still pretty new for me to know the ins and outs of its manual settings; and, it was after 9pm when I took these.  Even though I hate how some blogs have one of these apologies on every.single.post, I feel that the quality of the images below warrants it… they’re embarassing.  But, better to have some pictures than no pictures, right?

One of Connor’s Christmas presents this last year was a quiet book, handmade by Grandma.  She didn’t get a chance to finish it prior to Christmas (due to that pesky church calling :), but in recent weeks she was finally able to complete it. 

“Wow!  Wow!  Wow!  All I can say is ‘WOW!’”

And, she even threw in a fun little crayon roll!

Also, as part of our master bedroom re-do, I asked my mom to make me 3 throw pillow covers.  Didn’t they turn out fabulously?!?

(These are a fairly simple, square design with a zipper closure.  The ruching/gathered strips are only on the fronts of the pillows, and the entire front piece is lined on the inside for stability.  The ruched strips are 2x the length of the flat pieces.)

We didn’t have a pattern or true tutorial to follow for these pillows.  I just told her what I was envisioning, and we sketched it out.  My fabric choices on these pillows were pretty pricey, but they coordinate perfectly with the bedding.  Personally, I prefer to have feather inserts in all of my decorative pillows – they just hold their shape so much better.  For these pillows I used the inserts available at IKEA – only $7 apiece.

Best.care.package.EVER!  Thanks, Mom… you’re the best!!  :)

She swears that she’s never going to sew for me again, but I can be pretty convincing…

Go here to see one of my all-time favorite pictures of my mom.  ;)