CJ's Bat Pillow

Recently I had the opportunity to spend some grandma time at the beach with my four year old grandson. We had good weather all week, but some of the days were extremely windy with rough surf. Here's my view from our porch. We go here every year and always enjoy it. While CJ enjoyed digging on the beach with Grandpa on less blustery days, he really loved swimming in the pool.

I took sewing stuff along with me and set up a place to sew in the bedroom, using a table from the porch and a stool from the family room. It worked out well. 

CJ is crazy about Halloween and absolutely adores bats. Cluck Cluck Sew has a pattern for a bat quilt, and I used one of the blocks to make a pillow for CJ. He loves everything "cozy," his current favorite word, so I thought he might like it. Especially if he could see me make it. 

I had cut the parts and had everything kitted up ahead of time, which made off-site sewing easier. My improvised sewing space worked out very well. The condo had an iron and ironing board I could use so my piecing went smoothly. 

One bat block and some sashing strips, and I had a top for a 16" pillow.  Yes, I carefully planned for the stripey pattern in the background fabric to go all in the same direction. 

He needs a face, don't you think? This may not be the best embroidery or the most artistic bat face, but it works well enough. 

To quilt it, I outlined the bat and stitched wavy lines in the sky. Since the background fabric has wavy lines, it seemed fitting. 

I used a black and white text print for the back and made an envelope-style back so it would be easy to remove the cover for washing. Black binding finishes the edges. 

He likes it. He slept with it every night after I gave it to him. 

Totally worth hauling all my sewing stuff to the beach!!!

Link up: Confessions of a Fabric Addict