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?
May the Fourth Be With You pillowcases
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.
Easter pillowcase 2023
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.
The Granary – January 2023
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.
St. Patrick’s fabric – March 2023
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.
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.
Turkeys
Turkeys
Showoff Turkeys
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.
I am trying to make a few gifts for Christmas and upcoming birthdays. Here is a pillowcase I made over the weekend for a friend of the Y.M.’s.
The fabric is Robert Kaufman print that actually got reprinted. I asked a shop to email me if they ever got it again and they did! I bought three yards and have used almost all of it on Pillowcases.
The YMG has a collection of rubber duckies. When I saw the flannel rubber ducky fabric, I decided to make her a pillowcase.
I made it last weekend and will save it for Christmas or her birthday.
Tim commented that she isn’t five, but I decided that she could use a snuggly pillowcase in winter. I also bought a yard of the same print in regular quilting cotton. I’ll put it on the inside of some bags I plan to make for her.
I went on a binge of pillowcase making over the weekend. I had several pieces of fabric I had purchased for pillowcases. Somehow they had never risen high enough on the list, but this past weekend was the time.
I needed some quick finishes. I have been working hard on Flying Around, but it slow going and I just needed to finish something. I know I finished the Jelly Roll Rug recently, but that didn’t really feel like a finish somehow.
The YM gets a new pair (tacos). His new roommates each get one (taco, Mexican food cuff). A niece and nephew each get a pair and I will keep the turquoise dotted one for myself. I love that chocolate fabric.
On Wednesday the YM and I went to Stockton to spend the day making pillowcases with the Tuleberg Quilt Guild. My mom is a member. She told me about it and since we haven’t had a chance to get together alone this month, I decided to go. When I found out the YM would be home, I convinced him to tag along. He wants to learn to sew, so this was a good opportunity to start.
It is a far drive for us, so we go there a little late and, after setting up, he went off with my mom to get something to eat. Is tarted cutting up fabric to make the first pillowcase and quickly realized that he wouldn’t be able to make a whole pillowcase on his own. I decided to do the cutting and have him sew.
YM Sewing Cuffs to Bodies
It has been a long time since he sat in front of a machine, so this was a good decision. He carefully guided the fabric through the machine, encountering the stop and start problems of the feed dogs not grabbing the fabric, thread bunnies and backstitching. We used the pillowcase tutorial I have cobbled together from experience and a variety of sources. He chain pieced the cuff/body burrito together. I also had him turn the burritos inside out and do a little pressing when I got behind. By the end, the three of us were all working together to finish the pillowcases.
Mom working on pillowcases
I brought some yard sized pieces of fabric I didn’t think I would use, but cutting bits out for other projects does help with this. Fortunately, I have realized this and started cutting up the side of yardage, so I have a chance of having enough for a body (yard sized length) and cuff (half yard sized length). Newer fabric is easier to use, but so far I still like it enough to not want to use it for community quilts/projects. I suppose that is something I have to work on.
As a team, we made 5 pillowcases in about 3 hours. This is probably a bit slow, but I do French seams so everything is enclosed and that takes longer. I don’t have a serger, so this is the best way for me to achieve my goal.
They also had an ice cream social, which was make it yourself sundaes and banana splits. I love banana splits and made myself a small one. They brought real glass sundae holders, which was really classy.
Tuleberg Pillowcase display
The guild ended up with 121 pillowcases for the day, which I thought was a good effort.
I started out making these for the YM. Then I decided that I would give them to my cousin (he is a few years older than the YM and more like a nephew) instead. I don’t usually get an acknowledgement of gifts I send, so I have no idea whether or not he liked them. *I* like them and that is what is important to me.
I put the cuff on the wrong way on one of the pillowcases. I had no idea there was a right way and a wrong way on that shark fabric, so he probably won’t notice.
