*I’m apologizing up front for the quality of any of the photos I’ll be posting this week. My camera (and my husband!) are in Istanbul, Turkey this week. He had the once in a lifetime opportunity to attend a conference there this week. In the mean time I am reduced to using my camera phone until he returns. I got out 4 old/broken cameras over the weekend trying to see if I could get something to work but alas they were all a no go.
Back to the pillowcases.
In the continuing effort to clean out my sewing room I decided to finally do something with all the random bits of quilting fabric I have collected over the past 4 years or more. Most of the pieces in my stash are bolt ends from store fabrics. Some are true scraps from earlier projects.
Everything that was smaller than a half yard was cut up into strips ranging from 1 1/2” to 3 1/2” wide to be used in the string quilt I’ve started. (That is a future post!) The larger pieces were piled up and sorted. Once I got all the strips cut I started pairing up the fabrics in the “Pillowcase Pile”. I spent most of the day Monday putting together pretty, colorful, happy pillowcases.
For most of them I used the traditional “burrito roll” method of attaching a contrasting band at the hem. For those I used a 4-thread overlock on my serger and had them sewn together in no time flat. I did have some longer cuts of fabrics that I was able to make the pocket pillowcase that has the flap on the open end to hold the pillow so it doesn’t fall out. These are also the type that look really cute with a crocheted edge. I was able to make 4 like this (2 matching sets). Yesterday when I was in town I picked up some DK weight cotton yarn so that I can do some fun crocheted edgings.
These are the pocket style ones. They are one fabric on the front and another on the back. Today it is raining so I think I will set aside some time to sit on the screen porch and start the crocheted edges on these.
When I’m finished I will have a Baker’s Dozen of new pretty pillowcases and will be motivated to go through my old linens and purge anything that is shabby or stained. If I so chose, my family and I would never have to sleep on a plain old pillowcase again! And I now have two drawers in one of my fabric storage bins that are now empty.
It feels good to move this stuff through the process. I met with a friend yesterday who is also an artist. She works with glass (Glassquerade. Friend her. Buy her stuff!) We were talking about working the work and just moving through the process instead of waiting for the inspiration. Sometimes you just have to do the work and the inspiration will follow. She was saying how she had been in a creative slump (no pun intended to you glass artists out there!) but then some custom orders came in and she just had to go out to her studio and work through these orders. In the process of doing the mundane work, her mind was free to play in the background and she was able to see new patterns and designs and ideas that grew out of the scraps and pieces she was working on. So then she would do a “real job” and then go play with another idea for a minute and alternate back and forth. She left her studio feeling inspired and out of her slump.
Energy needs to move. Boxes and bags of fabric, yarn, paper, etc can be inspiring to look at and lovely to have and to hold. But after a time they can be stagnating and hold us back. We must take the old and make it into something new and put that energy out into the universe so that new energy can have a place to flow into our lives.
On a somewhat unrelated note and to prove once again just how scattered and eclectic my brain can be, can we talk for a minute about the title of this post? Of course it brings to mind, Joan Crawford and Mommy Dearest, “No more wire hangers!!!!” I usually come up with the ideas for my blog posts on my morning walk and yesterday was no exception. I was walking through the Ferson Creek Fen while thinking about writing this post. I came to the idea that I now have enough pillowcases that I will never have to sleep on a plain white case again which took me to Joan Crawford screaming at her terrified child. And then I thought how awful it was that for generations now the most famous thing she will ever be remembered for is that moment in her life. As a mother and actress it was quite a sobering thought. I had one of those, “but for the grace of God go I” moments. I’ve had my share of crazy, lost my shit moments when I’ve screamed and thrown a fit and directed it toward people I loved. What if when I die that was all I was remembered for? What if no amount of hard work on the stage, or love and devotion I’ve shown my family and friends mattered anymore because all anyone ever remembered me for was one crazy moment of anger? Anger is heavy. Love is light. On the scales of life it takes a lot more love to outweigh anger. I’ve still got a lot more balancing to do before I die.
Pretty pillow slip and so need to make several too. Thanks for the inspriation. Looking forward to your string quilt.
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