A better heating pad cover

Ever since I got that great book of embroidery templates I've been dying to try something more demanding than blanket or chain stitches. So when I was asked to make a proper cover for a sick friend's heating pad I raced to the store for a fabric transfer pencil and raced home again to trace these:


Wouldn't any one of them be absolutely adorable along the top of a mini pillowcase-shaped sack for a heating pad?

I think so too, but I may never know for sure. First, I couldn't get any of them to transfer properly. Then, after tracing directly onto the fabric, I couldn't figure out how to stitch them without making a right royal mess. Nor could I figure out how to get the tracing marks off again.

After about three hours of trying to erase the problem, I came up with another brilliant solution to make a cheerful cover for the heating pad:


When in doubt, cover it up. Why didn't I think of that in the first place?