May NewFO Project

Here it is the end of May and it still seems like April with our cool, cloudy and rainy weather.  I spent a lot of those rainy hours in the sewing room, completing Tropical Sunrise and working to tidy up a bit, cleaning and oiling some vintage sewing machines slated for sale.  And, I even started and finished a stash-buster NewFO project!

Our church ladies group held a sewing bee on my birthday(!), so after we all ate a hearty and delicious brunch followed immediately by one of the best birthday carrot cakes I've ever tasted, we set to work on our service project, sewing tube pillowcases for the local hospital's pediatric ward.  The hospital allows the children to take their special pillowcase with them when they are discharged, so the need is constant.  After rummaging through my stash I found enough children's fabrics of suitable size to make a dozen pillowcases.  Here are some of the preliminary fabric combinations I chose:

I only finished two cases during the get-together, but last week managed to finish the other ten.  Then early this week while looking for a green fabric suitable for a new baby quilt, I happened upon a couple yards of fishing fabric, suitable for an older boy, so yesterday I finally completed the last two cases.  Fourteen pillowcases = nearly 15 yards of fabric!  A great stash-buster wouldn't you say?
Here are a couple photos of the finished pillowcases, minus the two that were made at the church on the day of our sewing bee.  The fabrics for those are shown in the photo above, top row middle and right.

So, that and Tropical Sunrise are how I spent my merry month of May!  Linking up to Cat Patches May NewFO Linky Party where you can see what other intrepid quilters have started during May, and even enter your own new projects!