Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
This is not really a Christmas pillowcase, but since it was red, I thought it would be a good one to send off in December.
This one has all the states. I am not sure why some states are in a larger font than others.
Travel doesn’t have to be around the world. There are a lot of interesting things in the states as well as I have found traveling around California with DH. If the youngest nephew can’t quite make it out of the country, perhaps he can do some stateside travel?
I am on the fence about whether this pillowcase encourages travel or not. I thought the fabric was entertaining, so I bought it and now it is off to be encouragement for the youngest nephew. Fingers crossed.
Friend Julie told me that most of these monsters are made up to give each National Park a monster (or legend?).
I found an article on a site I have never heard of called “6 Mythical Beasts and the National Parks They Call Home.” The article tells you what equipment you’ll need to stalk them.
There is also a calendar of National Park monsters.
This month I sent off one of the actual travel pillowcases. Last month was the camping pillowcase. I suppose you have to travel somewhere to camp, but it didn’t feel like ‘real’ travel to me, whatever that is.
This was also a birthday gift since the nephew turned 18 yesterday. I stuck a card in the package for him. I actually got a thank you text! Unnecessary, but much appreciated.
I had some extra fabric, so I added the trim pieces to some of the pillowcases for this project
So, the new pillowcase project has started. As mentioned, I am trying to encourage the youngest nephew to follow through on his dream to travel through my pillowcase fabric choices.
I sent the first pillowcase off a few days ago. I hope the theme is obvious. To help with that, I sent him the camping pillowcase first.
I am pleased with how this one came out. I like the tree fabric for the cuff.
My youngest nephew graduated from high school in June. He is not going to college right now, so is missing out on some of the experiences his older brother and cousin had.
While I was on vacation, I decided that he needed pillowcases anyway. He wants to travel, so I chose a travel theme. I was able to buy several prints that I will use, but I’ll need to get more to fill out the year.
These pillowcases will be quick wins in terms of fabric usage, too.
My Dad’s birthday is today. I got him a gift card, which is boring. I also made him these trout pillowcases. As soon as I saw the fabric, I knew I had to make him something.
The main fabric is a recent Martha Negley. The red is the last of an old Robert Kaufman Reflections collection. I think it might
Like the other pillowcases for the beginning of this year, I finished these pillowcases in February.
I also bought this fabric at the Granary on my birthday. I wasn’t planning on buying pillowcase fabric that day, but I saw it there and got inspired. Strike while the iron is hot, right?
I thought it would be a better choice than some kind of Veteran’s Day fabric. I suppose I could have chosen Cinco de Mayo themed fabric. Lots of choices there. I have an image in my mind of pillowcases covered in avocados!
Both will be home soon so these are the last for these boys. I’ll have to send them a care package occasionally next year.
As mentioned, I sewed all the remaining pillowcases at once when I made the Valentine’s Day pillowcases. I didn’t want to miss sending them out after the Valentine’s Day pillowcase debacle.
I bought this fabric at the Granary on my birthday. It isn’t exactly Easter-ish, but I thought it would be better for college boys. I didn’t want the pillowcases to be too girly.
I have to say that I am getting a little short of fabrics for cuffs. I have a few more nieces and nephews going to college in the next few years, so I guess I have time to stock up.
The boys seem to appreciate getting something in the mail. I am not sure how they feel about pillowcases exactly.
When I finally received the Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day pillowcase fabric, I decided to just make all the pillowcases and have them ready to go.
These were in the mail around March 1, so the boys would have a lot of time to enjoy them — or hide them in the back of their wardrobe!
Well, the Valentine’s pillowcases didn’t happen on time. I went to Hancock’s of Paducah early in January and bought Valentine’s fabric – some really nice chocolate box fabric that was okay for college boys. It turns out that Hancock’s does not even, apparently, look at your order for two weeks. Soon after, when I was in Portland, I got an email saying that most of the fabric I ordered was out of stock, including the Valentine’s Day fabric.
By this time, it was about a week before February started, so I cancelled most of the order and tried to decide what to do. Finally, went to the Hart’s of Santa Cruz online shop. I found the chili pepper fabric, which is, at least, red. I received the package the next day. Still, I had a lot to do and some weekends out of town in February, so the pillowcases didn’t get made in time for celebrating. I sent them along this week with the St. Patrick’s Day pillowcases. They got some socks and chocolates for Valentine’s Day.
I wanted to get ahead of the ‘pillowcase for the college nephews project’, so I stocked up on some themed fabrics. The Valentine’s fabric was backordered, which was a huge disappointment. I sent them cards and socks. I ended up buying some chili pepper fabric, which I think will work for the Valentine’s pillowcases. I didn’t have a chance to make them yet, though. I might do it and send them late. We’ll see. I don’t need a yard and a half of chili pepper fabric hanging around.
On my birthday, I went to the Granary and found some fabric for April and May. For April, I will make Easter pillowcases and the May pillowcases will be ‘May the Fourth Be With You’ pillowcases.
You can see that I bought a few other items as well.
I didn’t want the Easter pillowcases to be boring, so I chose some dancing rabbits. These might be on the edge of Easter, but I think they will work for my nephews.
I think the ‘May the Fourth Be With You’ pillowcases will be fun. I didn’t know what to do for May and I think these will be perfect. I could have done Cinco de Mayo. The ‘May the Fourth Be With You’ theme will be perfect for 19 year olds.
I also got some St. Patrick’s fabric for March. This isn’t great fabric, but I think it will be ok for the boys.
Let’s get these made!!!
I dragged out this old New Year’s fabric and made some pillowcases for my college student nephews.
It’s really fun fabric and I haven’t seen any like it in a long time. I still have two, approximately FQs, pieces left and will make some napkins. I think that may have been my original intention, but I don’t need 2.5 yards worth of napkins.
Once the Halloween pillowcases were done, I knew I needed to start thinking about Thanksgiving.
I finally (that must be my word of the month!) bought some fabrics for the Thanksgiving pillowcases. I was inspired to get turkey fabric by some photos one of my students sent me. The photo showed a flock of turkeys she sees in her yard. They looked like the turkeys on this fabric.
I need to choose some cuff fabric and wash these pieces, then I can make them. I have about two weeks before I need to send them off.
I totally forgot to show you the Halloween Pillowcases I made for the nephews and the YM. The black cat pillowcases are for my YM and his partner in honor of their black cat, Marie. I hadn’t intended to make him more pillowcases, but I couldn’t pass up the fabric.
The pumpkin pillowcases are for my two nephews who are in their first semesters of college. They are not twins; they are cousins, but are only two months apart. My intention is to send them a themed pillowcase every month, but we will see what happens.
I just want to let them know I am thinking about them and pillowcases are useful.
I actually finished 3 pillowcases over the weekend. These were the ones I had planned to make for a long time. They go with the Red Scribbles quilt. My SIL asked especially for pillowcases made from this bones fabric. I don’t usually make things to order, but felt like doing it. She may be surprised at the dots. I hope she likes them! I’ll give them to her as an early anniversary gift.