Dinosaur Pillowcase

Can you believe how easy it is to make a pillowcase? I couldn't until yesterday when I made this one while Ezra was taking his nap. The possibilities are now endless and the price can be very inexpensive compared to store bought. Here's all the materials you need:

3/4 yard of 45" wide fabric (main pillow)

2"-4" for flange (plaid in the picture)

1/3 yard for the end section

The flange is optional but adds a fancy touch.

My oldest grandson is in the dinosaur phase at the moment so he was thrilled yesterday when I presented it to him and promised a dinosaur quilt to follow. Being the oldest he had first choice of which bed would be his at my house. He chose the top bunk away from the window. I think that would have been my choice too! Sweet dreams, Owen, and thank goodness he hasn't asked me to read Danny and the Dinosaur a million times like my daughter did when she was little.

Estonia Lace

                 

 

 It was a careless decision when I picked a scarf out of a book entitled Estonia Lace.  Being an intermediate knitter at best, I should have know that such a project was way beyond my abilities and so it seemed as I ripped out the beginning of the scarf for the third time.  But determination won out plus the fact that I accidentally came upon the technique of using a "life line" while I knit.  For the few of you who don't know, a life line is simply running a piece of dental floss through the stitches of a row every  ten or so rows.  That way if you make a mistake and aren't able to successfully tear back and repair it, you can rip back to your life line and start again from there.  This is much better than having to start all over again.  I found it necessary to rip back to my life line three times in this project. A word of warning:  Be sure to write down which row your life line is on.  That was a mistake I made the first time, and I had a difficult time figuring out where I was on the pattern!  Furthermore, this scarf didn't look like much until I blocked it and then WOW! The pattern really showed up.  After all my whining and moaning, I think I'd like to knit another one of these one day soon.

Applique Envy

Here is the winner and 2nd place in the applique category.  This is the section I'm planning on entering next year, so it looks like it is time to teach myself how to hand applique.  At the moment I am finishing a quilt using machine applique which obviously this entry is not...   

Ezra Faces the Clowns

Here is my grandson, Ezra.  Unfortunately, he has developed a huge fear of clowns and horror upon horrors the Kerrville quilt shop's theme was the circus. Inside two people were dressed as clowns which caused him to cling apprehensively to his mother or me or both. He had to be bribed to stand by the elephant and look happy which he was NOT!  As we arrived at each shop after this one, he cupped his hands to the windows and looked in suspiciously with the same question:  anyone clowns?

Shop Hop

Once a year in San Antonio, there is the phenomenon called the shop hop. This year 12 stores in and around the city participated. People entered 12.5 inch quilt blocks under the categories of pieced, applique, combination, and 3D art.  The winners were displayed at various shops during the 4 day event.  Since I am such a beginning quilter, I didn't enter, but my fearless daughter did and although we looked for her block, we did not see it displayed for which we were both sad and wondering if it had gotten to the judges table at all.