Happy December 1st!

Sew the countdown begins!!! If you don't celebrate Christmas, forgive me, there are plenty of other holidays this time of year to celebrate as well! Sew no matter what your beliefs are we all seem to have huge lists of things to get done in December!!! I know that if it was any normal month we'd still be busy with 3 family birthdays this month. Coming off November where we have 5 birthdays & 2 anniversaries one barely has time to think!!!
I keep telling myself that I will start earlier in the year, and really I did try this year. Guess I just got sidetracked. And forget accomplishing anything over the summer, we operated 2 ice cream shoppes this year, one with full food service, I'm lucky I was able to keep up with laundry let alone sewing for the holidays.

Sew I figured I'd share the details of the fleece quillows I mentioned yesterday, since it's a cozy & easy gift idea! I finished 3 of these in a few hours, plus made scarves out of the leftovers (just trimmed the edges with my pinked rotary cutter & a 2" fringe on ends with the straight rotary cutter).

Fleece Quillow

What is a Quillow? A quillow is a blanket (or
quilt –hence the name) with a built in pocket. The blanket
folds up into the pocket –creating a pillow. This simple
quillow is made of fleece.
Any blanket or quilt can be made into a quillow by
attaching a pocket with a finished width 1/3 of the width
of the blanket plus 1 to 2 inches and a length of about ¼
of the blanket plus 1 to 2 inches.

Fabric

1. For a 48” by 60” lap quilt: buy 1 7/8 yards of 60” width fleece. (This will leave you left over
fleece for 2 more pillow pockets. –OR- Use an 18” square scrap of fleece for the pocket and
1 and 1/3 yards fleece for the blanket. *You can even piece your little polar fleece scraps to
make a pocket the right size.
2. Larger blankets: If you have access to wider fleece –you can make a longer blanket. For
example, if your fleece is 70” wide, to make a 54” by 70” wide fleece blanket, just make
your pocket 20” long.

If your fleece is 60” wide but you want a bigger blanket, buy more yardage. For a 60”by 72”
quillow, for the blanket portion buy 2 yards of fleece. Your pillow should be 21 to 22”
square.

Supplies:

1. 90/14 Universal sewing machine needle
2. Good quality polyester thread –we like Mettler’s Metrosene.
3. Sewing machine in good working order.
4. (Optional) Rotary Cutter and Mat
5. (Optional) Wavy blade (or you could opt to do a fringe trim)

Sewing Machine Directions for the 48” by 60” quillow:

1. Cut the blanket to measure 48” by 60” (4’ by 5’). –For a fun
treatment, use a wavy blade rotary cutter.
2. Cut an 18” square for the pocket. –Again, use your wavy blade.
3. Mark the center of the short side of your blanket and of your
pocket. –place pocket along blanket short side (48” side) right
sides together–matching center marks. If using the wavy blade
>just pin down and sew around 3 sides of the quillow leaving
interior bottom side open. OR turn under a ½” hem and sew
down from the top. To sew use a narrow zigzag or your stretch
stitch (looks like a narrow zigzag.)

©December 2000 Alexandra Wright* Thread Dreams * for Hans’ Sewing & Vacuum
www.sewvac1.com May be shared freely with attribution.