How Fast Time Flies...

It seems like just a few weeks ago that I was dropping my oldest off for her first day of kindergarten in the middle of tears and nerves and begging me not to leave.  Those fears stuck around for a few anxious weeks.  But then one day it was almost like the clouds cleared, the fears receded and all of a sudden, school was SO much fun!

I give a lot of credit to her fabulous teacher Jess who kept the classroom a warm, inviting and engaging place to learn and have fun throughout the year.  I toyed with the idea of a quilt as an end of the year thank you gift, but a friend wisely pointed out that this would set expectations for coming years pretty high...she is only in kindergarten and just a few years down the road, I'll be pulling double duty when both girls are in school.  Instead, I decided on doing a larger gift for Jess and two smaller (but coordinating, natch) pouches for her art and music teachers.

Of course, these gifts were created in a whirlwind and gifted almost immediately after they were finished, so I'm going to have to rely on some smaller IG photos and hope that you all forgive the quality :)  They came out so cute that I might even get away with it.

The two smaller bags are the Vintage Pencil Case pattern from the book Patchwork Please - I did not look closely enough at the dimensions when I started out, but this zippered pouch turns out TINY.  Ironically, it is so small that regular colored pencils are too long to fit inside.

Those paper pieced pencil tips are even TEENIER...they are smaller than the head of my flower pins!  But I love the rainbow pencils against the Kona Dark Gray.  I lined them with my leftover Summerville.

The larger bag is the amazing Noodlehead Super Tote - after completing this pattern as well as the Divided Basket, I totally get why Noodlehead is such a go-to pattern designer.  The finished product is amazing and polished and the instructions are ridiculously easy to follow.   The only alteration I made to the pattern was to create a centerpiece of 15 of the Patchwork Please pencils on the front exterior pocket.

Even though I enlarged the pattern, they were still pretty small and I think that creating this front pocket panel took longer than assembling the rest of the entire tote.  But seriously, you just can't resist a rainbow of colored pencils and the effect was totally worth the effort.  Plus I even got a little bit of fussy cutting in so that the "Once upon a time" got a little time to shine.

The lining is a Cloud 9 organic cotton that I picked up on sale at Joann's - love it!  I've never tried a recessed zipper before, but I love how polished it looks.

I put pockets on both sides of the bag interior - two on one side and three on another.  Even managed to sneak a label in there.  The exterior pocket is lined with more leftover Summerville that gives it a few extra pops of color.

You know that a gift is a good one when you want to keep it for yourself.  Of course I could just make another carbon copy, but after a total of 25 of these teeny tiny pieced pencils, I am ready to tackle some bigger pieces and don't know if I have it in me again.

I've got a lot of stuff that I've been working on to share - two dresses, one quilt and two minis in progress - I just have to stop long enough to actually blog about them!  Stay tuned and if you want to see a few more "in progress" pics, follow me on Instagram @simplesewendipity

Linking up:

Crazy Mom Quilts - Finish it up Friday!