I'm BACKKKK!!!!

Whew! It's so good to be back and sleeping in my own bed with my pillow and blankies!! Don't you agree?? It doesn't matter where I go, or for how long ... I miss my bed and it's comfortable spots. Seriously, I had a wonderful time at retreat. The ladies that came were all wonderful and a bit on the crazy side!! omg... some were down right a joy to hang out with !!! Winky -- if you read this - you are a HOOT!!

I thought that I took a ton of stuff to work on but evidently I didn't. I finished a small flower quilted wall hanging in minutes it seemed, and put another quilt wall hanging together, and then started the addiction that I only have Lisa to blame for. I made 10!! yes 10!! pillowcases over the course of 4 days. There were soooo simple and easy to do. They are called hot dog pillowcases and don't take but about 15 minutes to sew. And only 3 seams!! I plan on sharing the tutorial with you in this post .. how nice am I?? tell me I need to know....HAHAHAHA!!

I hope to be able to attend more retreats like this in the future... gotta start saving my pennies again. We were out in the boonies (smiles) at a great lodge. The meeting room was wide open and quite nice to sew in. The dorm rooms provided great privacy and was spacious too. The food was DELICIOUS!! It was so great to be able to get up in the morning with breakfast ready to eat, no cooking, cleaning, or worrying about anything but sewing our little fingers off. I don't think that I have laughed my butt off more at my new friends than I have in my whole life. We truly let our hair down and just enjoyed each other's company. I. will. go. again!!

Now on to the tutorial... it's really easy to do -- just remember this little equation for the fabric needed ... You will need a 3 inch band, 9 inches for the casing, and 27 inches for the body of the pillowcase. 3 x 9 = 27... neat huh? I am showing you my godson's present for Christmas with the cut pieces that you will need. The brown print is the body (27 inches), the brown strip (3 inches), and the green print (9 inches) will all make the pillowcase.

From here you will fold the band in half and iron it flat. This will create a nice edged banding for the pillow case and helps break up the 2 prints. Now you will lay it on the green print (casing) with all the raw edges facing in the same direction, doing this will make sure we have no raw edges to deal with.

Now I will have to stop here and make another post for tomorrow since it's photo rich already. Blogspot limits the amount of photo memory sooooo tomorrow will be the finishing part .. I know that you will stay tuned for that.

Keep Stitching,

Cameo