Today, I’m continuing to  marry the prompts for the #igquiltfest2023 with the blog post schedule, and the prompt today is a recent finish. Truthfully, I have a very recently back from the longarmer finish to share…but it kind of falls under the heading of ‘secret sewing’, and I don’t want to make an online debut until it’s completely ready for photography.  I expect that to happen around the middle of May (for once I am ahead of schedule!)…so I went looking for another recent finish.

Is 4:34 this afternoon recent enough?

I have made pillowcases for my two oldest grandchildren, each designed around a theme and each with their name on the cuff of the case.  Wes’ is 3 ½ years old, and he’s the grand that we’ve been seeing a lot of recently. He is (and always has been) all about airplanes, and he likes nothing better than to go to our small airport and watch the planes. It’s a great way to keep him entertained – and I’ve learned a lot watching him watch the planes take off and land.

I found this fabric (which is from Robert Kaufman) on a destash site, and I knew that it was the starting point for his case.  It’s got a beautiful feel to it – very soft – and the colors provide a lot of options for coordinating fabric with it. Since Wes’ favorite color is blue…that choice was easy. The brown was a scrap big enough to use for the flange and the letters.

There are a number of really good pillowcase patterns out there, but the one I use (over and over) is the very well illustrated pattern from Dragonfly’s Quilting Design Studio.  

I made the letters for the case using my Cricut Maker electronic cutter with fusible web attached to the back of it.  Wes was actually here with me the day that I cut the letters (and a bunny or two), and he loved that he could recognize the W for his name.  He was very interested in seeing how the cricut operated, and he loved being able to pull the fabric off to reveal the letters.

I promised him that the next time I saw him, I would have his pillowcase ready for him – and you never break a promise to a little kid.

I followed the pattern exactly, paying very close attention to where on the cuff I layed out the letters before I fused them down (it’s an easy pattern, but it had been some time since the last time I made one). I’m particularly fussy about wanting the letters to face outward on the cuff.

I always stitch the letters down after fusing – these are going to little kids, and will be well used (I hope). All the seams in this pattern are enclosed, which means it should stand the test of time.

Here are a few more I have made – one is mine for quilt retreats, and one is for Christmas sleepovers.