Using it Up

 If you've been to a quilt shop, or a quilt guild meeting, or read a sewing or quilting magazine in the last few months, then you might have heard about the American Patchwork and Quilting drive to collect one million pillowcases for charity.  It's an appealing idea: corralling quilters and seamstresses to make a simple item that can be useful to lots of people, and encouraging them to donate them to their local charities.  My local group provides pillowcases to a camp for children whose lives have been touched by cancer -- each kid gets his or her own pillowcase and then takes it home with them.  It's sort of hokey -- and yet, it's a lovely, cheery way to touch someone's life.

Last week, I had another burst of energy in the get-stuff-out-of-the-closet kick I'm on, and I pulled a stack of fabric down from the top shelf to get it out of there.  I had a big stack of bright flannels -- I think I bought them years ago thinking I'd make a few of those rag quilts... or maybe it was for those make-your-own-chenille throws... I don't even remember.  But as I was setting them into a bag to give away, it struck me that they'd make a good bunch of pillowcases.

Using a "roll it up" pattern my friend Pat had given me that makes for a really quick and fun pillowcase (and you can see it demonstrated with instructions here) I started cutting hunks of flannel and next thing you know, I had 11 pillowcases.  AND an empty shelf in my closet.  It felt great.

By the way, is this a middle-aged thing?  That it feels better to get stuff out of the house then it does to go shopping for new stuff and bring it home?!