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Okay, so I took a glance at the calendar and there are exactly 2 months less one day to Christmas. I know it is hard to believe – but it is time to start thinking Christmas. And I believe that giving handmade – from the heart and hands – is a really great way to celebrate with family and friends this year. Not only is making more practical in a tough economy, but handmade and homemade is a way to give a very personalized gift to each of your loved ones.

So – in order to (hopefully) inspire you, I am going to share a new idea for gifts every day until Dec. 25th. Some of these ideas will be quick and easy, and some will be more involved, but I hope that maybe, just maybe, you will give something a try.

To start off this epic (can we call it epic?) gift giving idea extravaganza (okay, so I don’t think that it can be called an extravaganza either, but what am I going to call it?), I want to revisit the Rose Throw Cushion from last week. As you may recall, it needed some changes before I was going to be happy with it, so I made a few changes, and I am over-the-moon pleased with it! (The before picture is on the left).

This, then, is my first Christmas gift idea of 2009: the Appliquéd Throw Cushion.

And, in case you were scared off by the whole inspirational journey of the rose, and are thinking that a throw cushion is a big commitment of time and energy, I beg you to reconsider. In fact, to prove that this isn't the case, I took 2 hours to turn some vintage patchwork quilt squares into 2 very lovely pillows.

I left the quilted squares just as they were, but added some hearts that I cut out of the trimmings from the square. These hearts were edged with a zig zag stitch, hand stitched in place, then a ribbon was added. The pillows are backed with white broadcloth to match the size of the quilt square. Beautiful. And not nearly as complicated as the rose pillow was.

I guess the real story is that if you like a lot of handwork and want to spend a lot of time on a pillow, it will look great. But, if you want to try something a little less involved, an easier pillow project will look great to. Have I convinced you to try it yet?

Okay. So the woven cross looked good. But what about something else? Does the cardboard loom stand up to an even bigger project? What if my creative ideas were to stretch beyond the 1" width of the cross?

In order to find an answer, I decided to tackle a project just a little bigger in size: a throw cushion.

When I started, I thought that this exercise would be more about routine and less about creativity - more about experimenting to see what the tools could do - but even though there was nothing complicated or finnicky about the project, I soon realized that there were choices to be made: creativity was still required.

First, I had to upgrade from my little piece of cardboard. It seems that my project came about after the recycling had been taken out for the week, and there were no 14" square pieces of cardboard to be found anywhere around my studio or home. What to use? After considering all my options, I chose to work on a piece of foam core. It was strong, lightweight and smooth. It worked great.

Then, it was all about the yarn I was going to work with. A while ago, I was out doing some outlet shopping and came across this faux hand-dyed yarn. (Not that the yarn was fake, but it was most likely machine dyed, and certainly wasn't a natural fibre.) I picked it up only because I fell in love with the colours, and thought that it might hold possibility. (Haven't you ever felt that way about a creative purchase - don't know what you bought it for, but it seemed perfectly necessary at the time?) But I digress, since I had that yarn waiting for me to use, it seemed like the best place to start. The problem? I really don't like how verigated yarns work up in knitting, crocheting, etc. and apparently weaving was no exception. Although I loved the look of the yarn hanging in the skein, I was really not liking it woven.

So...

I considered scrapping the project.

But. And here is the but. After having completed a lot of creative projects over the course of my career, I know that there is a time in every project when I doubt how it will ever turn out. (Often, there is more than one such time in every project.)  Instead of throwing the pillow to the wolves, I went back down to my scrap yarn pile and found a piece in a very pretty blue. After adding a few rows of the blue, I felt entirely different about the project. It appears that all the pillow needed was a diversion in blue. I guess that a little creativity (and some patience... and some flexibility) saved this project from the garbage bin (or eternal ugliness).