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.

Scrappy Stars and Little Skirts

If you are here for the Advice for New Bloggers series post and giveaway from yesterday, click here.

If you are here to learn more about the Let's Get Acquainted! Blog Hop for New Bloggers, click here.

If you are here because you want to read about my stars and skirts . . .

It has been almost a whole week since I uploaded the photos from my camera to the computer - it was so fun seeing my week in review like that.  I didn't realize how much sewing I had done - so much so that I actually have two posts worth of photos.  For today, I'll write about little skirts and scrappy stars.

I've been attempting to expand my quilting skills by trying new things each week.  This week it was Scrappy Stars.  I started small:

 
Worked my way to this:

That is actually the back of the first one or the other way around (that is a great thing about machine stitched binding - it's reversible!)

And I finally got to this (which was inspired by this little lovely from One Shabby Chick that I have pinned in my Quilty Inspiration Board):

Anyone else make any stars recently?  Anyone have any great patterns, tutorials, or tips for making stars?  Let me know.

And on to skirts:

When I first started sewing, I found this great free pattern from Oliver and S and made lots of little skirts for my girls.  They have been wearing the skirts we made last summer again recently so I was inspired to  make a few more.  The skirt I made following the pattern is the green and blue one with the Erin McMorris Urban Gardens fabric.  If you haven't sewed clothes before (or even if you have), this is a great pattern to start with.  One tip from me - when using this pattern, I find that if I press the casing before sewing up the selvedges, I have an easier time re-pressing and stitching the casing closed.

I also tried this tutorial from Purl Bee to make the cute little triangle dress in Little Folks voile by Anna Maria Horner.  I used the same ribbon method from the Oliver and S pattern to finish the bottom.   I need to find more information about sewing with voile - if you have any tips, let me know.

For the linen-look skirt with the scrappy binding, I kind of made it up as I went along using tips from both of the above tutorials.   I just took a rectangle of a quilting weight solid and used a bright pink thread to machine stitch straight lines in a somewhat random pattern from top to bottom throughout the skirt.  Since the selvedges were cut off, I used the seam finishing method from the triangle dress tutorial.  For the binding, I used my scraps to make a single fold binding and attached it to the skirt similarly to how I attach binding to a quilt (except I always use double fold binding for the quilts.)

I still have a lot to learn about sewing clothes but I am definitely much improved from the skirts I made a few years ago - I might still have trouble sewing a straight line but at least I can now sew a continuous one!  I plan on making more little girl clothes this week and maybe next time I'll post on a "model."  So, another question - anyone have any tips, tutorials, or free patterns for little girl or baby clothes that you recommend I try?

And one more question.  My new thing for this week is Triangles!  Here is my WIP.  If you have any tips or tutorials or feel like trying triangles with me this week, let me know in the comments.

Be sure to visit the great tutorials and posts by this week's blog hoppers.  

Please visit my Links page to see where I like to link my posts.  I'm linking this post to Sew and Tell at AmyLouWho and Quilt Story -both of whom also shared skirts this week as well as Confessions of a Fabric Addict and TGIFF for finishes and Try Something New Thursday for trying stars this week.  Wondering if I should have divided this post into two so that I didn't link one post to so many link ups?!?