A Finish is a Finish

I am a total slacker this month.  I have only 2 completes so far, the first is my Grandpa's Cards and it is tiny, almost as small as Julia.  The ssecond was not fancy by all means and was a top made more then a month ago Kathy's Quilt.  I decided to go all out today and I finished my first Pillow Case.  Yes lets hear the applause.  Such a great.. Wait that is not a quilt??

Yes Richard is out to amaze today, he made a Pillow Case.  Lets call its name "Jungle Friends".

Yes I know a pillow case is nothing to be amazed with.  It was a total Train Wrek wait that can't be, I already have a quilt named that and Julia is laying on it.

If you have been around for a while (or at least read my first few posts) I wrote about this quilt that Julia is laying on (A little history I started quilting so that I could make Julia quilts, and Train Wrek was the first I ever made) and it was a wreck.  That quilt was finished January 16 and was my first pieced quilt.  Every thing went wrong.  Hence its name.  Today I topped my wrecking skills.

How it went totally wrong was simple.  1) Instructions for the pillow pattern were a single page hand written and hard to read. 2) Typical man, I did not read them (looked at them saw the measurements tossed instructions on the floor).  Looking at the picture above my Rick Rack while I blew it, I um sewed the edge of it instead of down the middle and it looks silly.  Then you can see that silly stitch thing down from the rick rack.  While I sewed the top and the bottom of the pillowcase together, then sewed around the pillow case and then the DUH moment kicked in when I realized (if I had read the instructions) I was suppose to fold the top in half and sew that to the bottom.  So improvise is a mans best friend I just um pushed the end into the pillow case and stitched it down.

I know this is where every one says that's what that pick was made for.  While if I used that pick I would not have a constant reminder of my mistakes (that I won't make again) and then you guys could not laugh at me.  What fun would that be for you.

Now for you all to teach me something.  Above is the seam inside my pillow case.  Below is the seam inside a pillow case that my daughter brought me as an example of what I should have done (yes even she picks on me, so don't feel bad laughing at me).

My wife tells me that the below picture is a serged seam?? I don't have a serger so I need some ideas of what I should do on my inside seam's of my pillow cases?

By the way, I always have a reason for my madness.  We (Tanya and I) plan to give a quilt to every one of my and her family's and their kids (2 siblings on my side of the family no kids(not counting me) plus mom and dad, Tanya has 3 siblings on her side not counting her, 8 kids + mom and dad (this is for Christmas this coming year).  We also have  2 grandmothers (already got their quilts) .  That does not sound too bad. My wife's dad got remarried 2 years ago which added 6 kids & spouses (+ new step mom) and and they have 17 kids between them with a baby on the way.  We decided we would give 1 quilt to each of the step brothers/sisters of my wife as a family gift. Then we thought that's not enough.  So we are going to make the 17 kids each a pillow case (see I am not totally crazy after all).  The baby on the way though is going to score its own quilt (doesn't every baby need a quilt).   Today I crashed and burned on the first one (Julia never complains about my train wrecks as she is not quite 3 months old,  so she can have that one). I  did cut out material for 8 more and we bought material today for another 3-4 of them so expect to see some wimpy finishes in my future.

When I sat down tonight to make my post I had my son bring me the camera and he insisted I take a close up of his face (while 2 pictures the first flashed in his eyes and he made me delete that one)  Tanya says he is my child, if he was hers his face would be washed and not have a chocolate milk moustache.

I asked him to hold up the apron I won from Keeping It Simple and their sponsor Knotty Daughters.  When Tanya,  opened my mail (she tends to not wait for me in opening things I get) she called me to tell my the apron will just look cute on me.  Duh its a girls apron (hum I did look to see if they made a guy looking one when I won). I did inform her that she gets to wear it and that she gets to model it for this post.  She quickly told me no (though you can find her pictures here any way ha!) shy tries to be picture shy.  So I made Jared model for me.  He promptly refused (You know its a Girlo thing and he is a boy after all) I did convince him to hold it so I could take a picture, but he covered his face. I am supposed to tell you that it is a girl holding it and its not Jared.

I also won this secret surprise gift from http://ibescheraldine.blogspot.com/ and it was shipped to me from England.  My wife after I opened my surprise ruined the day by telling me she already knew what it was before I opened it.  She cheated and read the custom declaration on my envelope.  Oh well I did not cheat and read that first, I opened my surprise and saw it the proper way.  They are 2 cute magnets pin cushions,  I promptly stuck them too my computer (which my wife protested about) so I moved them to my white board in my office, they are so cute.  Thank you Cherie.

Lastly today (because today is almost over and what more could I blab about)

http://beccasews101.blogspot.com/2012/06/cupcake-baby-toy.html Rebecca my daughter finished another item.  This is her 3rd/4th finish I am so proud of her and its on her blog.  The 5th item a pieced baby quilt she started quilting today.  It will be a week or so for her to get it quilted, it wore her out quilting the part she did today but I got some cute pictures of her working go check out her blog and tell her that she is doing a great job.