A Trying Thursday

Gosh, here it is Thursday already!  I'm so behind in everything -- blogging, reading, quilting - you name it and it is piling up.  You might think I'm sitting around eating bon bons, right?  Nope.  I've been challenged to fulfil a customer's request.  Several months ago, this customer pieced two quilts for her grandsons, which I quilted.  Now she needs a set of custom pillowcases to match each quilt.
The first quilt is shown below along with the matching pillowcases finally finished.
This pattern is by designer Cyndi Walker which appeared in the July/Aug. 2008 issue of Fons & Porter's magazine. It is called Glory Days.

pillow cases are white with black dots

I have an easy pillowcase pattern, so I thought this would be a piece of cake.  After figuring out which blocks to use so they would fit across half of the case, then reducing their size from the quilt size, I had to recalculate the individual pieces to cut, using her leftover scraps. I was limited by the sizes of the scraps as to what could be used for which part of the case, cuff and the backing on the cuff area plus the blocks. After finally getting them pieced and ready to attach to the top of the pillowcase, something struck me -- "this would not work with my easy "sausage" type construction.  It uses a 9.5" cuff size that finishes off the top of the case completely enclosing all raw edges with one seam.  These blocks are 6" finished so I added "coping" strips to get me to the 9.5 inch size. Then realized that half of the design would be on the inside of the cuff! UGHRRR!! That would only only leave about 4 1/2" of the blocks showing at the top of the pillowcase. If only the "light bulb" had gone off sooner, it would have saved me switching to plan B and then plan C.  And just think, I have another set to go !  After what I went through on these, the next ones will be easier and much more simple in construction.  My customer was delighted with the results, thank goodness.