Cherry capital pillowcases

 This area is the cherry capital of... well Michigan for sure, maybe the US, maybe the world.  One thing I know for sure is that we have loads of cherries up here in the summer. Nearby Traverse City has an annual cherry festival in the beginning of July. Daughter Jenn lives in TC and last summer I made her a set of pillowcases. This year I thought I would make myself a set.

This fabric is Moda's Farmers Market and the colors are perfect for my bedroom. Since I'm playing with a yoyo maker (I'm going to be doing a demo on how to make these on Monday), I decided to add yoyo cherries to the cuff. I found a solid red that matches the red in the fabric and used a coordinating green from this line for the stems and leaves.

The tricky part of making this is getting the yoyos to be on the correct side of the cuff and not upside down. What I found helps is to add the trim piece to the cuff ... stitch an 1/8" from the edge using a basting stitch. Then fold the cuff in half lengthwise and press. This allows you to see the area left for the trim. Then I fold it the opposide way (as it will end up as a pillowcase), I lay my yoyo's where I want them and in pencil, draw the stems. The stems are bias cut strips, 1" wide, folded in half and pressed. I line up the raw edge with my penciled line, stitch a scant 1/4" from the edge. Press the fold edge over the stitching and stitch the fold down. This hides the raw edges. I stitch the yoyos on using a straight stitch on my machine but you could applique them on. With the washing that pillowcases get, they have to stitched on well. The leaf is easy... out of cardstock, cut a 2" long leaf. Cut a piece of green about 1/4" larger all the way around. I soak my piece of fabric in starch then lay the template on the wrong side of the fabric piece, press the raw edges over the template.. all the way around. The starch gets stiff and holds the shape. When it cools, just pop the cardstock out and stitch the leaf in place.

If you haven't tried making pillowcases (these are the 20 minute ones), you should! They're super easy. Hearts to Holly Quilt Shop has the patterns free with pillowcase fabric. I'm sure you can find the demo online also. I like to make matching pillowcases to go with my quilts.