The 2012 Homemade Christmas Gift

Receiving personalized thoughtful gifts is so special - even if you aren't a gift person, a gift that is specifically for YOU means so much more than one that is not. In my opinion homemade gifts that are well made with the gift recipient in mind are the absolute best. :) I love making gifts for people and try to make at least one home-made gift each Christmas - maybe one of these years I'll go all out and start in January so that EVERYONE can receive a home-made gift. But not last year... and probably not this year ether... haha. :) 

My sister-in-law Amy showed me this adorable runner on PierOne's website and mentioned liking it - and that the only push I needed. :) My mind started spinning....

I asked Amy if she would be okay with receiving a runner that was in the same style but a bit more customized to her and to my excitement she said, "I was hoping you'd ask that." :) (Or something along those lines haha) 

We gave a set of these cloth napkins to Amy last year - they are from World Market and match her amazing Fiesta-ware dishes perfectly.

 After a few informative text messages with my fabulous mother-in-law and coconspirator I had a list of Fiesta-ware colors and dimensions for Amy's table - Fabric Shopping was next! 

My first stop was World Market to see if they had anymore cloth napkins in the print we had bought last year - I hoped to incorporate it into the runner. I was sad to see that they had discontinued the print but as as I was perusing the clearance section my eye spied it! A cloth napkin, in the right print - MAJORLY discounted! Yippee! I love it when things go "right" during projects! :) 

Next stop: JoAnn's (I've been so impressed with their fabric selection lately - they remodeled the one in Amarillo and it's amazing now.)

 After some browsing and fabric switching I finally picked my fabrics! Yes, that's is a baby foot at the bottom - don't worry, I was resting the bolts on ether side of Michael's stroller - he was very comfortable and having fun laughing at his mamma's crazy antics. :) 

 Here's a better shot of the fabrics - I loved the bright cheery print on top - it was modern/bright and just what I needed as a jumping off point. :)

I also bought some fun ribbons for some textural details.

I didn't take pictures of the process but here's a run down,

• Wash fabrics, Iron
• Cut out strips in varying lengths and then cut out pieces at 45 degree angles. (I cut mine out with my rotary cutter and cut two pieces out at once, this gave me two pieces that were cut perfectly to "mirror" each other on the runner.)
• Lay out your pieces in the order you want them to go.
• Sew together your pieces (much like you would a quilt top).
• Iron your top on to a piece of lightweight interfacing (I wanted to give the runner some stability so that Amy wouldn't need to iron it every time she washed it). 
• Sew on your ribbon accents (this hides any mistakes, ie. corners not matching up perfectly, you might have made along the way)
• Sew on the back of the runner, turn right side out and top stitch to finish.

Tada!

 The Pom-Pom trim was one of my favorite parts!

 All ready for it's owner. :) 

Amy loved it and I even got to see it in action at her apartment! It looked so cute on her green table! 

Are you a crafty person? Do you like making homemade gifts? Or if you're not crafty, do you like receiving them? :)