Small Projects and a May Mosaic

It was another great week of the blog hop.  I am so very happy to be part of this wonderful and supportive quilting/blogging online world.  When I first thought of the hop, I figured I would be lucky if I got 5 bloggers who wanted to be part - I never imagined what it would grow into.  So, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who is participating - all the blog hop stops, those following along, and the guest bloggers - it has been such a fun and exciting few weeks and I very much look forward to the next several months!

And onto quilty/sewing matters.

I checked off a small project on my list for the Small Project Sew Along at Crazy Mom Quilts (my list).  I made two kidlets.  What are kidlets you ask?  Well, I found this great free pattern/tutorial a while back at J. Casa Handmade that I bookmarked.   They are basically like little tote bags but only have a handle on the back which you use for hanging on a doorknob or hook - I thought it would be great to have a place for each of my older daughter's "stuff" that they leave hanging around the house like books and random little things they bring home from school.  It is a great pattern - I, of course, still don't have any type of interfacing so I just used some batting and stitched straight(ish) quilting lines on my exterior fabrics and I think it worked out okay.  (Actually, on the second I used home decor weight for the back exterior without batting - it worked fine but if I make more, I'll quilt the back and front.)  I also think mine are a bit bigger then the pattern calls for.

I used Essex Linen for both of the bags.  For the front pocket on the one I made for my older daughter, I used a Tina Given's print paired with the cat from The Ghastlies Gallery.  My daughter thinks The Ghastlies fabric is about the "funniest and coolest fabric ever."  Plus, she loves The Warrior's book series which is about cats so . . .

For my middle daughter, I used a bit of my precious Heather Ross Mendocino and a tiny square of Echino (a recent splurge when I found it on sale.)

Also on my small project list were skirts and dresses for the girls.  I posted about some skirts and dresses earlier this week but then I saw this tutorial from Prudent Baby about using an old T-shirt to make a dress.  I've never sewn with knits before and I've never gathered fabric before but they had links to their tutorials on both right in the post so I decided to try something new.  I don't have any pictures of my first try - it was too short and too wide for either girl - most likely because I made it when they were at school thinking I knew their size - um, wrong!  The second dress I made with my older daughter in the room with me and if you don't look too closely, it is passable - or at least wearable.  And the binding is also upcycled!

And since it is the beginning of a new month AND I just uploaded a bunch of photos onto Flickr and it is Fresh Sewing Day at Lily's Quilts, here is a mosaic of May in review.  Wow- when I look at everything together like that, I realize I sure do use a lot of pink!!!

Happy June everyone!

If you've read this far, I have a question - I wrote this post last night, woke up this morning and cut half of it out to save for another post.  What do you think about post lengths - do you like reading/writing long posts with lots of topics or do you prefer one topic per post?  I'm not really sure which I prefer, I just know my tendency is to throw it all in there at once.  

Please visit my Links page to see where I like to link my posts.