Personal Pillows

We have many siblings, my husband and I, and every sibling has a birthday that comes around every year... and every year it seems that just when we finish a gift for one sibling, its time  to think up a new gift for the next!

So this year we've planned ahead and made things simpler for ourselves.

**SPOILER ALERT!!**

Everyone will be getting the same thing!

That's right siblings, practice your surprised faces because you will all be getting the same thing for your birthdays.  Everybody's getting pillowcases.  Of course, they will all be different and customized so there will be some uniqueness to look forward to!

Here is how I customized little Roslyn's pillowcase:

I wanted to put her name on the pillow somewhere, so I found this really cute set of free alphabet paper-piecing patterns from The Quilter Community.  I love how the letters are easy to read and yet have just enough funkiness to make them fun!

I scaled down the letters to make them 2 inches square and printed them off.  Paper piecing is so simple... instead of fussing with seam allowances, you simply sew on the lines!  It's my favorite method of quilting because I don't have to be precise in how I cut out the little pieces of fabric, yet the result is crisp and perfect!  (Perhaps someday I'll get around to a paper-piecing tutorial... for now I'll recommend Marcia's tutorial from The Quilter's Cache.)

So anyway, I pieced together Roslyn's name and spaced the letters half and inch apart.

...and here is the back:

At this point it still looks a little messy... I'm a messy quilter.  But after trimming and sewing on the rest of the pillow band (and peeling off the paper patterns... always a fun part!) it looks pretty sweet!

The back doesn't look too bad either (at least in my opinion...).

To finish it off I did add a small piece of thin batting behind the letters and quilted around them to add a little stability.  Then all it took was a few seams to add on the rest of the pillowcase!

Ta Da!  Time for some sweet dreams!