Sunday, April 29, 2012

Pillow Case Heaven

When I went on the Quilt Across Texas shop hop last September, I picked up some pillow case kits in a few of the different shops I visited. I had never done any "real sewing" only piecing blocks and sewing blocks together. Totally different skill set. When I went on the Quilting Cruise this past March, I decided to take a couple of the pillow kits with me. The first day, before we had any classes, we had time to sew and I worked on the pillowcases. Having never made one before it was more complicated than I imagined, but once I got the hang of it, all went well. I made three Super Hero pillow cases for my grandsons and a friend's son. They looked awesome and I was hooked.

I told my daughter about them and how much fun they were to make and told her I was making one for her and her husband. She asked if I could make some for a group she meets with monthly, all ladies, so I said sure. I went through my stash and dug out a bunch of flower prints and coordinating fabric and was hoping to get them done before I went to visit her in April. That didn't work so I brought them with me when I went to visit her, but didn't have any time for sewing, so I brought them back home and this weekend I finally got started making them.

On the cruise I used the French Seam to enclose the seams so that you wouldn't get any frayed edges but that really wastes a lot of fabric and takes a bit longer than necessary. A friend recommended I used a serger so Saturday I went and bought one. Of course that took about 5 hours off my sewing time, but I'm so glad I did. Today I was able to sew 9 pillow cases and with the three I made yesterday my daughter has two for her, two for her hubby and another 8 for her group. They look awesome. I'm not sure you can tell by the picture but that is three rows of four pillowcases each.

I made two for myself and one for my hubby and it's so fun to pull back the bedspread and see these cute happy pillowcases waiting for me each night. I'm thinking of doing some holiday ones as well. Some folks won't think they're worth the money, since fabric is not cheap, but quilts are never worth the money they cost or the time they take. Quilters (at least those like me) don't sew for money, they sew for fun and for the joy of playing with colors and fabrics.

I had a very sewful and fun weekend. Life is good!