If I am growing seeds from a seed seller (rather than from my own plants), I always assume that the seeds have already gone into dormancy and are going to need a period of cold stratification. I know people do this in the fridge but, being disorganised, I tend to forget, let them dry out, fail to check on the seeds and so forth...so I go for the simplest method of sowing in autumn and leaving the pots outside. I use a good loamy mix 0 here in the UK, John Innes recipes are always soil based and are infinitely better than using potting compost...but, if you can be bothered, you can make an excellent primula starting mix using sieved leaf compost, sterile topsoil and a bit of peat. As long as the mix does not contain a zillion weed seeds and is both free-draining but able to hold sufficient moisture, the actual medium is less important than its water-holding capacity. I sow my seeds on the surface, having tamped it down and compressed it slightly. I don't cover with more soil but use chicken grit instead (make sure to use the flint based stuff not the oyster shell. This is finer (and cheaper) than horticultural grit, lets in enough light and maintains a level of moisture while preventing the growth of vast moss colonies. I water in from the top with a fine rose, to settle the seeds in around the grit crevices. Then I stash the pots out of the way all winter, checking every now and again that they have not dried out. The top of the pots often looks a bit grim by spring - crusty, greenish and never very promising. Even so, around April, the little seedlings should start to germinate (I do not use lights, heating mats or hormones). Fresh seed. I have increased my stock of vulgaris by splitting open the fat seed pods while the little seeds are still green and sticky (around May). I also sowed p.wilsonii in August (they flower much later than the early spring flowers) and again, fresh seed showed a willingness to germinate readily...but overwintering tiny seedlings can be problematic...I will wait till autumn and allow the seeds to sink into dormancy if I do these again. Using a fingernail, I smear the seeds on the top of a moist medium (they are very sticky), cover lightly with grit, water in and wait. The seeds will often germinate in a couple of weeks. I think, in a very cold spring, there might be a use for heating mats or a covered propagator...but in the UK, primulas will often germinate outside in a sunny May/June. I find division is a reliable way of increasing stock - you can do it every year with the common vulgaris and polys, while root cuttings are also easy and viable, especially the denticulata and some of the candelabra types.

It doesn't sound silly when it takes what you think is a super long time to accomplish a sewing task - no matter how small (and lining up squares isn't easy)...give yourself the time and remember it's better to do it right once then have to rip and re-rip. I have ripped miles and miles of seams and such over the years...all because I'd just whip through a job and discover I'd done something wrong and have to start again. Good thing I learned patience.....my one SIL who USED to sew...(has now sold her fancy serger and machine due to lack of use) ..well as soon as she made one small error (like the time she sewed a sleeve on a nightie inside out) she ditched the whole project. I ended up fixing so many things over the years and completeing them ...all because of minor mistakes she was too lazy to fix herself. so hang in there...your pillows sound wonderful and I'm sure your mom and grandma will love them all the more because of the effort you took to make them . Keep on sewing!

I tried Tricia Yerwood's Cold Oven Pound Cake, and it is a favorite. COLD OVEN POUND CAKE 2 sticks of butter (1/2 pound of butter), room temperature 3 c sugar 6 eggs, room temperature 3 c flour, sifted 1 c whipping cream, room temperature 1 tsp vanilla DO NOT PRE HEAT THE OVEN. Cream butter and sugar very well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just incorporated into batter. Do not over beat. Add flour alternately with the whipping cream, starting and ending with the flour. Do not over beat. Add vanilla. Grease and flour a tube pan. Pour batter into pan and smooth it. Put in cold oven. Close the door and set the oven to bake at 325 for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Use a cake tester to test for doneness. Cool in pan 20 minutes and turn out onto a rack to cool.

Thank you both, here are a few more pics for you....difficult to get a pic other than this as its long and relatively narrow in shape as we needed access to a shed at the end where the lawn tractors are stored. Gill UK