I Made Something--A Simple Pillow

I made something today--a simple pillow. I haven't sat at a sewing machine in probably five years. All summer I've been planning on re-learning to sew. I grew up in a home where my grandmother was sewing something almost every day. My grandmother, Mama Winnie, was an expert seamstress. Boy, do I wish I would have paid closer attention and learned more when I had the opportunity. I guess that's the thing with missed opportunities, you don't really know it's important until it's too late. My dear grandmother is now in a nursing home in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's. It's amazing how she could still remember to sew until just a few years ago. She forgot so many important things, but she still remembered how to sew. Sort of makes me teary-eyed to write about it. Now that I'm older and appreciate skills like sewing, I've found a wonderful teacher. It's not my dear grandmother, but another sweet friend, Mrs. G. Mrs. G is the school secretary where I'm a teacher. She is an excellent seamstress. She only sews for pleasure or for a favor to helpless, craft-challenged people like me. I can't tell you how many times she's hemmed pants for me (because my legs are freakishly short) and saved me so much money on alterations. Today I went to Mrs. G's house and she so patiently taught me some things about sewing. We made this pillow together. I can take credit for everything but the zipper. Zippers are tricky so I left that to the pro. Here's the finished product. I found the fabric on clearance at Hobby Lobby and the pillow insert is from Wal-Mart.