Festive Pillows

The last time Brenda and Melissa and I got together was this summer at Brenda's cabin for a Weekend Retreat and Craft-Off.  Brenda found this fabulous tutorial for magic pillowcases and we had fun with it.  I made a pair of Christmas pillowcases that weekend but I should have bought just a tad more fabric so the print could be horizontal instead of vertical.  It's a busy enough print that it doesn't really matter, but I notice it!  Oh well.  Fun, easy and quick project.

I bought Valentine fabric that weekend too but only got around to sewing them last night.  When we still chose our own scrubs, I made all kinds of seasonal and holiday tops and I love using seasonal fabrics throughout the house in various home textiles.  My mind is mentally going through my stash inventory for combinations that I could use for my nieces and nephew. 

On a somewhat unrelated note...where I grew up in rural north central Iowa, we trick or treated with an ice cream bucket or a large plastic bag.  In fact, the volunteer fire fighters in our community would hold an assembly at our school every year and talk to us about trick-or-treat safety because we went out in the DARK in my day.  They'd also hand out sturdy plastic trick or treat bags to every kid in attendance and that is what we used.  Since moving to urban Minnesota, I was surprised to see that most kids up here trick or treat with pillowcases.  I asked Dave about this and apparently it is standard practice from time immemorial.  What do you use where you live?