The magic pillowcase pattern is a popular sewing project that allows you to create a unique and functional pillowcase with a hidden seam. This clever design eliminates the need for hemming and provides a clean and professional finish. To create a magic pillowcase, you will need three different fabrics - one for the main body of the pillowcase, one for the cuff, and one for the accent trim. The main body fabric is typically a larger piece that will fold over to create the pillowcase, while the cuff and accent trim are smaller pieces that add visual interest. To begin, you will need to cut your fabric pieces to the appropriate dimensions. The measurements will vary depending on the size of your pillow, but a standard pillowcase is often around 20 inches wide and 30 inches long.

History in the Hills: Witches of Cross Creek

My collection of tales, many of which I have written in these columns, can be described as our collected folklore. Folklore that I have always enjoyed collecting and reading about, are those dealing with spooky topics. Ghosts, witches, cautionary tales and the like, seem to interest me, not necessarily because I believe in the truthfulness of these topics, but for the mere fact that it is a window into the collected history and way of thinking of a location, or a group of people from a specific time period in the past.

Looking at the folklore of the Italian immigrant in the past, for example, one can see the effects of the mal’occhio, or the evil eye, on the culture of those folks. There are many other cultures that have believed in the evil eye and various variations of the curse, but I only can write about my experience growing up with Italian heritage. The gist of the curse in the Italian culture is the belief that if some misfortune befalls you, from a headache to something far more serious, it is because of the effects of the evil eye. Someone could intentionally cast this “spell” on you, or rather the spell was cast because someone was envious of your successes, wealth or whatever, and inadvertently gave you the affliction. To break the spell of the mal’occhio, a certain ceremony had to be performed, usually by a healer, typically an older woman. The ceremony required the healer to drip olive oil into a dish of water. Depending on how the drops manifested in the dish, the healer could tell if you are afflicted or not and the proper way to reverse the curse. My great-uncle who grew up in Follansbee in the 1920s related a story to me about the neighborhood healer his father took him to as a boy in order to heal him from an earache. Today, that would be a trip to the doctor, but in those days, they couldn’t afford to be seen, so the healer was the next best thing.

Looking back into our area’s past, in the late 18th and early 19th century, there was a strong belief in otherworldly mischief among the settlers who came here. I think a lot of it had to do with the landscape and way of life of the frontier at that time. Imagine being alone in the wilderness, away from civilization. Nothing but forest and the unknown around you. Most of these settlers were uneducated and knowledge of the natural world was just not widely known. Tensions and risk of failure were high in this strange new land. So, one can imagine why unexplained events, sicknesses and just plain bad luck could be blamed, not on one’s own failures, but on something more sinister, possibly witchcraft.

The feelings of the settlers of this time are explained in detail by the Rev. Joseph Doddridge. Doddridge, according to the West Virginia Encyclopedia, was born in 1769 near Bedford, Pa. At the age of 4, his parents moved the family to Washington County and eventually he settled in Brooke County. Doddridge was an itinerant preacher, first with the Wesleyans then later as the first Protestant Episcopal priest in trans-Allegheny Virginia.

According to the article, he established churches in Brooke and Ohio counties in addition to some in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Olde St. John’s Church on Eldersville Road was founded by him in 1793. Doddridge also was a medical doctor and a writer of history. He wrote many books about the time in which he lived, but one of his most well-known works was “Notes on the Settlement and Indian Wars of the Western Parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania from 1763 to 1783.”

This book, printed in Wellsburg in 1824, is a fascinating look into our area’s unique past.

In his notes, Doddridge has a whole chapter devoted to “The Witchcraft Delusion” in which he states that “The belief of witchcraft was prevalent among the early settlers of the western country. To the witch was ascribed the tremendous power of inflicting strange and incurable diseases, particularly on children, of destroying cattle by shooting them with hair balls and a great variety of other means of destruction, of inflicting spells and curses on guns and other things, and lastly of changing men into horses, and after bridling and saddling them, riding them in full speed over hill and dale to their frolics and other places of rendezvous.”

Other curses that witches of the area are said to have inflicted, were when cows no longer produced milk or butter refused to gather in the churn. According to Doddridge, witches would hang a new towel above their door with a straight pin. After incantations were said, the fringes of the towel would be milked and the milk from the bewitched cow would dry up.

Doddridge says that there were a few ways to counter the effects of a witch. The best way was calling on a wizard or a witch master or doctor. These were men who, according to Doddridge, possessed the same powers as a witch but used their powers to counter act a witch’s curse.

Seemingly the most famous witch doctor of our area was a person called Billy McConnell. Billy lived and worked in the area of Cross Creek, Smithfield and McIntyre in Jefferson County dispelling curses and witches. The lines cross between myth and historical fact in regard to Billy and his work. He was known to specifically be able to cure cows that were bewitched, but if a person was cursed, Billy would go about killing the witch.

The picture of the suspected witch was drawn on a tree, board or barn door with her name written beneath. Billy would then recite some incantations and shoot the effigy with a silver bullet and if the person was the suspected witch, then she would fall dead or loose her power instantly.

Billy’s life was recorded in a satirical work published in 1851 by a Dr. David Christy called “The Spirit Rappings, Mesmerism, Clairvoyance, and Psychometry; Or the Life and Times of Old Billy McConnell the Witch Doctor.” Christy weaves an entertaining tale about the many gifts of Billy McConnell that is worth the read.

There was another witch doctor in the area of Cross Creek called Mr. Johnson. In a publication called “Pathfinders of Jefferson County,” a story was related by a Mr. Rickey in 1883. Rickey came from a prominent family in Cross Creek near Dry Fork. Around 1810 or so, Rickey said it was well known that there were two witches in the area called Mrs. Armstrong and Mrs. Daughtery.

According to the publication, Mrs. Daughtery would be killed by a witch doctor. “Hiram Haynes’s family lived in Cross Creek township on a farm adjoining the Rickey place, and several members of his family taking ill, of course, it was claimed that they were bewitched. It was then proposed that the witch be destroyed. Johnson, having announced Mrs. Daughtery as the one who had put on the spell, one of the Haynes boys cut a silver button off his grandfather’s military coat and made a bullet of it. He drew a picture of Mrs. Daughtery and placed it for a target, got further ready to slay the witch. Others went to the cabin where Mrs. Daughtery resided, for the purpose of watching the result. Haynes discharged his gun, and being near the cabin the aged woman heard the report, fell, as if dead, upon the floor of the cabin. After uttering frightful groans, she was revived to consciousness, but not to power. She was placed upon her bed and died in a few days … the good but deluded pioneers felt that in her death a spirit of great evil had been removed from their midst never more to trouble and vex mankind.”

The children of Mr. Haynes recovered, and it was all due to the death of the witch. Thanks to the quick work of the witch doctor.

Stories of witches in our area fizzle out as our country became more and more populated. With the taming of the frontier, the mystery of the wilderness and unknown became known. And the mystery of the witches and witch doctors faded into the past, the folklore of a specific time, place and people to be discovered far in the future.

(Zuros is the Hancock County administrator)

The History of the Witch Doctor

I have for the longest time always thought that in a past life I must have been a witch doctor. Even as a kid I used to love going into my mother’s spice racks and making up potions and concoctions (sorry mum).

I would take them out into the garden and pour them on the plants and the grass. Looking back, I had no idea what I was really doing and at the time, I just used to love ‘cooking’ things. I would pluck flowers and leaves and put them all in with my spice mix and some water and pretend I had my own cooking show.

In fact, even to this day I am a proud member of the Facebook group “Pretending You’re the Host of a Cooking Show When you are Home Alone Cooking.”

My first real exposure to anything remotely ‘witchy’ came from pop culture. My older sister was always enamoured with witches from the green wicked witch of the west and even Roald Dahl’s famous book, ‘ The Witches’.

I always thought of a witch being an evil woman with a pointy black hat and a wart on the end of her long nose but witches in fact were nothing more than herbalists.

On a recent trip to Salem, I learnt that the idea that witches were green came from the fact that they were always out in the garden tending to their herbs. Even today we commonly use the expression ‘green thumb’ when talking about those who are savvy in the garden.

The idea of the broomstick also came to be as a common folklore tradition was to jump up and down in the garden holding a garden tool to promote fertility and a luscious crop.

During the patriarchal times when paganism was outlawed, only men were permitted to be doctors. Healthcare became increasingly expensive for villagers and so they sought out these herbalists for treatments. Jealous and annoyed that these women were taking their business, they set out to destroy them.

They painted horrible pictures of these women and threatened to hang them if they were caught practicing herbalism.

They scared the locals against these ‘witches’ and many were hung to death for practicing herbal medicine.

Today being a witch is associated with the religion of Wicca which has practices very similar to that of a herbalist.

Herbal medicine is now a widely accepted practice, although there are still a few organizations- ie. the pharmaceutical industry, that will do anything to stop herbal medicine from becoming more widely known.

In fact you can even get your degree in Herbal Medicine, something I myself set out to do.

I did end up dropping out (sorry mum again), but that’s a whole other story….

While I don’t have my degree or any qualification other than the innate abilities that perhaps stem from another life or perhaps even my blood line, I still have a little cupboard filled with potions and lotions and concoctions and knock-on-wood, I haven’t used mainstream medicine in a very, very long time.

Disclaimer: I am a horrible flyer and suffer from bad motion sickness. I have tried every herbal supplement and homeopathic remedy on the market but those 16 hour flights from Australia to the US are brutal and the only thing that works for me is Dramamine. So yes, I do take that! Hey, Western medicine has it’s place too 🙂

9 Countries Where Witchcraft Is Still Practiced — or Persecuted

M any people’s understanding of witchcraft is pretty limited to the fantasies of pop culture, thanks to countless on-screen portrayals of the craft, including Harry Potter, Hocus Pocus, and, well, The Craft. Then of course there’s the much-taught history of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, where many people — mostly young women — were tried for crimes of witchcraft. Even the town of Salem, Massachusetts has transformed itself into a kitschy celebration of the most common interpretation of witchcraft. But you might be surprised how common sorcery, dark magic, voodoo, and other forms of witchcraft around the world are today.

The measurements will vary depending on the size of your pillow, but a standard pillowcase is often around 20 inches wide and 30 inches long. The cuff and accent trim pieces are typically narrower than the main body fabric. Once you have your fabric pieces cut, you will fold the cuff piece in half lengthwise and press it with an iron to create a crease.

1. South Africa

In South Africa, witches are not merely mythical figures or part of cultural history — they’re an important element of the Zulu way of life. The indigenous Zulus revere witch doctors as healers who serve a vital role in their society. Witch doctors fall into two categories: inyanga and isangoma. Inyanga are like shamans, practitioners of natural medicine. They are believed to be appointed by divine powers, and have powers ranging from predicting the future to protecting tribe members against evil spirits. Isangoma function more as religious leaders, communicating with ancestors via trance and music rituals. Zulu witch doctors are viewed with reverence and respect.

Then, you will place the accent trim piece right sides together with the folded cuff piece, aligning the raw edges, and sew along the long edge. Next, you will attach the cuff and accent trim piece to the main body fabric. Lay the main body fabric right side up and place the cuff and accent trim piece on top, aligning the raw edges. Pin them in place and sew along the raw edges, leaving a small opening unsewn for turning. After sewing the raw edges, you will turn the pillowcase right side out through the opening and smooth out any wrinkles. Then, you can press the seams with an iron to create a crisp finish. Finally, sew the opening closed, either by hand or with a machine, and you're done! The magic pillowcase pattern is a great way to add a personal touch to your bedroom decor or create thoughtful handmade gifts. With its hidden seam and polished look, this sewing project is sure to impress. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced sewer, you'll enjoy creating these charming pillowcases using the magic pillowcase pattern..

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