Wanna see what I made for Christmas?

Friends, I've been wanting to show you this project, but I didn't want to take a chance of spoiling the surprise in case my mom stopped by this blog... (hi, mom!)

I wanted to do something personal and handmade for my mom for Christmas, and I was quite inspired by Jacquie's post here ...  so here's what I ended up with!

I started from this picture that my daughter drew of her and her sister with my mom and dad:

And I had a Wee Play charm pack... so I picked out squares that I thought would be nice for the solid pieces....

And WonderUndered pieces for the bodies... "WonderUndered" is a verb, right?

And I used my redneck light box (also known as the back window) to trace the design onto a piece of cream fabric that apparently needs to be pressed...

 I ironed the bodies into place.  And I had her write names on a separate piece of paper so that I could place them exactly where I wanted them:

I added pieces from the charm pack around the edges.  No pictures, but you can imagine, right?

And then I layered up the top, 2 layers of batting, and another layer of cotton fabric

And quilted it in black using my daughter's lines as a guide.  

This took a lot of concentration, and it isn't perfect, but I love the way it captures her drawing!

I did everything on the machine except for the eyes, which were quicker/easier to embroider by hand.

I quilted the edges in cream using pebbles.

The backing and binding is out of the Wee Play line as well.

And here's the finished product:

I was so pleased with it!  

My daughter loved being involved, I was thrilled with the way it turned out, and my mom absolutely loved it.  

{ I love it when a plan comes together...}