Anna's Pillowcases

Since I was sewing pillowcases for Mila and Kate this spring, it was easy to add my student teacher's daughter, Anna, to the sewing list. She's four years old and has loved having pillowcases.

Today I made her one for the 4th of July and one for her birthday in early August.

Mila and Kate's Patriotic Pillowcases

I sewed Memorial Day/4th of July/Labor Day pillowcases for Mila and Kate this afternoon.

Kate's is at the top and Mila's on the bottom.

I do love sewing pillowcase sets for each grandchild!

Kate's Quiet Book

Kate's quiet book is done! I began in early January and have been working on it every Saturday. I am so pleased with how it turned out.

I could not find the matryoshka fabric I'd bought for her book even though I looked everywhere in my sewing things, so I went with some mischievous monkeys instead.

This page is a family favorite. My mom had the idea to add the dashed lines to show the bees' path so a part of her is in this book.

 The barn applique is new and adds a lot, I think.

 I put this page in Mila's book and Emily asked for it in Kate's (I saw the idea online and recreated it.)

 A page from one of our favorite childhood books.

 Next time I am going to find some bird appliques or clouds to add to this one.

 I drew the cattails; the dragonfly applique is new.

 This page takes FOREVER to make, but is worth the time.

 Those are earrings that Kate can wear.

 Cole requested this page - a connection to the family apple orchard.

 The rainbow is a new addition to this page.

Something else new that I tried was to color the velcro so that it wasn't just stark white patches on the pages. I think it blends in much better.

 As I was making the cover, I noticed that I was running short on thread.

 And sure enough, I ran out!

But I had another spool that was a very, very close shade, and it worked to finish the cover and make the pillow.

I can't wait to give this to Kate when she comes at the end of May!

Kate's Quiet Book - Making Progress

I am on Spring Break and so yesterday I spent most of the day in my horse room working on Kate's quiet book.

This panel is the furthest along, but there is still some final coloring and sewing to do (as you can tell by the missing apple on the apple tree.)

The panel in this photo is the one I worked on for the longest yesterday. If I could just use one color of thread for everything, that would speed things up tremendously. The tiny apple took four colors, brown, green, red, and white, and some of those colors only had a few stitches. (For example, the apple's stem had a total of five!)

But I am more interested in making something that will last and hopefully be a hand me down to my great grandchildren and so I put in a lot of work that is essentially unnoticed. I back everything with felt or cotton and that takes forever to do. I also use high quality stitching which means lots of thread changes and stitch-type variations (zigzag, straight, buttonhole, decorative, etc.) But I do think it's worth it in the end!

All the pieces are cut and prepped for the third panel of four pictures. I learned a long time ago (Kate's book is my seventeenth!) to have everything cut out and prepared so that they are ready to go as it makes the assembly of the pages go so much faster.

The grandchildren seem to enjoy the fruits of my labor whether it is a quiet book or their holiday pillowcase set. Kate and Julie just received their Easter package from me, and inside was Kate's Easter pillowcase.

You can see it tucked under the book on her lap.

I enjoy it, too!

Kate and Mila's Easter Pillowcases

Easter comes just two weeks after St. Patrick's Day and sort of snuck up on me. Today I quickly stitched up Mila and Kate's Easter pillowcases.

The yellow one with chicks is for Mila and the purple with bunnies is for Kate. The blue one is for Anna, my student teacher's daughter.

Mila and Kate's St. Patrick's Day Pillowcases

It's still February, but the St. Patrick's Day pillowcases are done!

The top one is for Kate, the middle one for Mila, and then the bottom is for Anna, my student teacher's daughter.

Mila and Kate's Valentine Pillowcases.

We had a surprise snow day Tuesday, although it was really for ice, not snow. No local or regional forecasts predicted the sleet and freezing rain that we received, and so none of the roads had any applications of beet juice, sand, or salt in preparation. The roads quickly became very, very slick, and so almost all area schools canceled classes for the day.

Including mine. And let's be honest - what teacher doesn't love a snow day? An unexpected opportunity to sleep in a bit, read a good book, catch up on a few chores? I'll take it, and today I chose to make my snow day a "sew day."

I sewed Valentine pillowcases for Mila and Kate, both of whom turn two this year and so will be getting their holiday pillowcase sets. (I also worked ahead and made Mila's St. Patrick's Day one, too.)

Each pillowcase takes about twenty minutes to make.

And I tag them with orange postits so I know which one goes to who (I don't want to use the same fabric that I used for one of their siblings.)

The Valentine ones are done and just one more St. Patrick's Day to make for Kate. I am also beginning her quiet book, so stay tuned!