Purse Palooza: Children's Library Tote

I have entered the world of children's birthday parties thanks to my son's recent entry into kindergarten.  My son had his birthday party last week- a rewarding but exhausting project that explains a lot of my absence on my blog lately.  Then, this past weekend, he was invited to a party for his classmate, Hailey.

I decided to make Hailey a child sized library tote.  I have made adult sized versions previously:

I scaled it all down for the birthday gift, using some of my treasured Anne Kelle girlfriends fabric:

I am not sure if I love the dimensions of this bag- it seems a little "off."  Are the handles too long?  Too wide?  Either way, I knew a six year old would probably like it and I think she did!

Linking up to Sew Sweetness for this year's Purse Palooza and Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

P.S. I received some questions via a blog comment from a person named Lindy in Australia but her google account is set to "no reply" - so I cannot respond.  Please email me Lindy and I will be happy to help you out.

Le Challenge Entry: Gold

Hi friends!  Just under the wire, I wanted to submit an entry for this month's Le Challenge.  The theme is: gold.  I took an easy, literal approach to the challenge by making a bow pillow with some Remix chevron gold-accented fabric that I won at a guild retreat almost two years ago.  You all know I am a big Ann Kelle fan, so this was a great prize.

I used my own Bow Pillow tutorial along with some Kona solid (Apple?) from my stash.  

I always prefer a zippered pillow back but decided to favor the time saving technique of an envelope back:

Thanks to the ladies at Le Challenge for providing the inspiration to get back in my sewing room, it was getting a little dusty in there thanks to the demands of raising three small children!

Linking up to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Total stash fabric used in this post: 1.5 yard
Total stash fabric used since 1/1/15: 80.5 yards
Total stash fabric used to date:  82 yards