I DID IT!!!! I MADE A PILLOW!!!!

I am hoping that you can all tell from the title of today's entry that I successfully made a pillow.  Oh shucks!  I guess my title and first sentence gave away the conclusion.  However, if you don't read on, you won't know how I finished and you might miss out on a smile.

All day today, Mimi kept asking me, "Mommy, when are you going to work on your sew?"  I kept telling her, this afternoon when Grammy comes over.  So, we waited and waited and waited for our Sewing Guru, Grammy, to arrive.  Within minutes of arriving, Grammy is upstairs and put to work.  It turns out, yesterday's issue with the bunching thread was because when I threaded the machine, I did not have a tight enough tension as I was afraid of hurting the machine, if that is possible.  I guess the tension I was feeling in my body did not transfer to the thread, go figure.  Anyway, after a tutorial my mom got me all set up to actually start sewing the pillow.  I did not take any pictures of the work in progress because to be honest, I was so incredibly excited that I was sewing in a fairly straight line that I did not, could not stop.  My mom and Mimi sat upstairs with me.  Mimi quite often leaning over my shoulder, giddy with excitement, putting the pins away when I was finished with them.  I felt like I was participating in an Olympic event.  The pressure was on, could I do this, was I actually going to finish a pillow?  Yeah, yeah, you all know the answer because I already told you.

Mimi stuffing the pillow

I stitched the entire pillow and left an opening at the top so that Mimi could fill the pillow with stuffing.  Yes, I know, I can't take all the credit for this pillow, today it was team effort.  After the pillow was filled, my mom suggested pinning the pillow and adding a top stitch to create more of a border, she said it would be good practice.  And, I did it. My first line of stitches at the top of the pillow were not straight but the other three sides were pretty good.  Of course, Mom made me fix my mistake because you can't give someone a pillow with an uneven stitch.  Still, not perfect, but not bad.  Mimi was so excited she wanted the pillow right away.  But, I am a mean mom and won't let her have it until Violet's pillow is complete.  It just would not be fair and poor Vi would feel very left out.  Plus, I need a model.

Front of the pillow

Back of the pillow

As you can see from the pictures, the pillow is not perfect.  But, it was my first try.  It is the first time I have sewed on a machine since I was 13 years old.  I feel like I am experiencing a "pillow high" tonight.  I feel like there is a future for my machine and me.  Here is the thing friends, being laid off kind of put me in the dumps.  Sometimes life in general puts me in the dumps because in my mind, people are often successful based on job titles, salary, success in school, size of one's house, ect.  But, today I was successful because I pushed myself to try something new.  And I had to try and I have to keep going because I am accountable to not only to myself, but to my daughters, husband, Mom, and all my followers who have a little faith in me.  Yes, it is just sewing, but just trying sometimes makes someone a success.  And guess what?  I am not feeling sulky tonight and I don't feel like I have a lead weight in my belly.  And, I am 100% certain my in-laws will all be getting a pillow for Christmas this year!