Torture

I should have titled this post How to Torture Grandma

 It all started with this piece of fabric.  Adelaide: "Grandma, will you make something for me with this? I think it's really pretty."   Of course.  So.  I thought and thought and thought a bed pocket would be good. They can keep their books or tablets in it when they finish for the night.   But Adelaide said no, "Just roll it up and stuff it.  Like this."

I have said a million times, I don't sew, I quilt.  It's torture for me.  But....

Elizabeth said she would like a bed pocket and I told her she could choose any fabric she liked.  "Even from the forbidden shelf?"  So she chose the blue floral print. 

This is where I was laid on the rack, arms and legs splayed and the screws tightened.  It took me over a week of angst to put this together. Really.  Nothing I did was right because after I cut everything according to specs I realized in a sit up in bed moment in the middle of the night, Elizabeth has a loft bed and so doesn't have a box spring for the full size pattern to fit.  She needed something less than half that size.  I must have circled the dining room table a hundred times talking to this thing, examining it, measuring, KNOWING as soon as I took a cut it would be wrong. 

Speaking of dining room table.  My machine is in the bathroom closet, my stash in a bedroom closet along with the tabletop ironing board and cutting mat, the iron is in the cupboard beneath the bathroom sink.  When I "want" to use the machine it's quite a process to set things up so whatever I do it needs time, time, time to make all that unpacking and repacking supplies worthwhile.

Back to coming to terms....I can't tell you how many times I rip.  But eventually I got the bed pocket done and it's really cute.  The ties are to hold it to her side rail.  By the time you see this she will have received it. She said she wanted it to "hold her candy."

I was saving myself for the pillow.  I knew I wasn't going to just stuff it. I bought a neck roll pillow and watched a few YouTubes and spent yesterday doing a job that would have taken any of you an hour.   The ends are a little loose, but when it's washed and dried after she and the cats and the dog use it, the looseness will tighten up.

So, now the dining room table is cleaned off, I'll vacuum the threads now and go back to my peaceful hand work with newfound love.