Are these not gorgeous!!!???
I had a bit of pillowcase madness last fall, when I decided to buy massive amounts of Christmas flannels and sew up Christmas/Winter themed flannel pillowcases as stocking stuffers for pretty much everyone on the gift list. I think I sewed up about 30 pillowcases by the time I was done.
In our house, we love the holidays and the challenge is always to add that special holiday magic to the season even as we fall farther away from our more traditional religious childhoods and families of origin, and are increasingly pulled into the commercialism that we now all associate with the holidays. Years ago we began adding in little traditions of our own, beginning with what is now a gargantuan holiday/winter mug collection that is brought out of the attic on December 1st, and returns to the attic on January 1st.
I decided the same approach would work well with holiday themed pillowcases. The trick was finding fabrics that had that truly magical feel, that "can't go to sleep on Christmas Eve/miracle of falling snow" component.
Luckily, in 2010 there were a couple of good holiday flannel releases, and I had tucked away a fabulous print from 2008...not sure at the time what I would make with it. Here is a detail from the set I made for my bed (the snowman fabric is the body of the pillow):
I used the now famous "sausage roll" pillowcase method, the pattern for which is now available all over the web (I have used the Rainy Day Quilt School tute) and is filmed on Youtube.
Sadly, the 2011 flannel releases have been thin on the ground. There are a couple of nice cotton lines out there, but very little flannel done in sufficiently lovely and magical winter/holiday themes. Shelly Comiskey's "I Love Snow" is so far the only line that strikes me, but I keep my antennae up at all times for great flannels: flannel prints in designs and colours that appeal across all ages and sexes as well.
Back to my luscious, '60's floral flannels, above. Once transmuted into pillowcases, they will go into our camping gear, and become a nice little tradition for our summer excursions.
What flannels are your favourites?
Update Sunday July 11
The first of my popart pillowcases are complete!
I had a bit of pillowcase madness last fall, when I decided to buy massive amounts of Christmas flannels and sew up Christmas/Winter themed flannel pillowcases as stocking stuffers for pretty much everyone on the gift list. I think I sewed up about 30 pillowcases by the time I was done.
In our house, we love the holidays and the challenge is always to add that special holiday magic to the season even as we fall farther away from our more traditional religious childhoods and families of origin, and are increasingly pulled into the commercialism that we now all associate with the holidays. Years ago we began adding in little traditions of our own, beginning with what is now a gargantuan holiday/winter mug collection that is brought out of the attic on December 1st, and returns to the attic on January 1st.
I decided the same approach would work well with holiday themed pillowcases. The trick was finding fabrics that had that truly magical feel, that "can't go to sleep on Christmas Eve/miracle of falling snow" component.
Luckily, in 2010 there were a couple of good holiday flannel releases, and I had tucked away a fabulous print from 2008...not sure at the time what I would make with it. Here is a detail from the set I made for my bed (the snowman fabric is the body of the pillow):
I used the now famous "sausage roll" pillowcase method, the pattern for which is now available all over the web (I have used the Rainy Day Quilt School tute) and is filmed on Youtube.
Sadly, the 2011 flannel releases have been thin on the ground. There are a couple of nice cotton lines out there, but very little flannel done in sufficiently lovely and magical winter/holiday themes. Shelly Comiskey's "I Love Snow" is so far the only line that strikes me, but I keep my antennae up at all times for great flannels: flannel prints in designs and colours that appeal across all ages and sexes as well.
Back to my luscious, '60's floral flannels, above. Once transmuted into pillowcases, they will go into our camping gear, and become a nice little tradition for our summer excursions.
What flannels are your favourites?
Update Sunday July 11
The first of my popart pillowcases are complete!
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2 comments:
What a fabulous gift idea! Cozy and cheerful at the same time. I'm crazy about the paisley. Lovely blog you have here--I'll be back. You asked about a little pillow tutorial on my blog and I just posted info. on how to get that. Thanks for stopping by--I'm so happy it lead me over here!
Your blog is great Robin, and I now have a link to yours in the Quilting Journeys links section!
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