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Welcome to Finished Friday! In addition to my normal posting schedule, I sometimes post a finished craft piece on Fridays, just for fun. 

Today’s Finished Friday piece is a pillow cover I made for my maternal grandmother as a Christmas present. (She’s 90 years old and not very tech savvy, so it’s safe to post about her present before Christmas — it won’t spoil the surprise!) 

She’s from Oklahoma originally and likes the warm colors often used in the Southwestern US. So I decided to take some bright, warm yarn and make her a fancy pillow cover! The idea (which I’ll say to her on Christmas Day) is that I made the pillow case with love and care, so when she looks at it, she can remember how much she’s loved. 

Materials

I used a G hook and DK weight yarn for both the front and back. The yarn is Universal Yarn’s Uptown DK in the colorways white, dijon, pumpkin, bittersweet, radish, and bashful. I used about a ball and a half of white and two-thirds of a ball of the other colors. 

Grandmamanzi Details

The front of the pillow cover uses the “Amanzi” pattern by one of my favorite designers, Jen Tyler of The Floral Hook. It’s cheerful and full of texture, so it’s a great choice for adding some brightness to my grandmother’s home. 

The back of the pillow cover uses my Seamless Linen Stitch pattern. I didn’t want to just do a plain back, so I went with a simpler stitch that still incorporates the colors from the front block. This way she can decide which side she wants to display — flashy or more subdued.

I really enjoyed making the “Grandmamanzi”. It worked up pretty quickly and I love the way the colors came out — the pictures don’t really do it justice, it’s even brighter and more cheerful in real life. I know it’ll brighten my grandmother’s day!