A “before” photo: fabric washed and pressed for several different projects…some that are done, and some that are not yet.

I finally finished the project that I started at the class I took at the quilt show in Florida way back in November. Here’s a close up so that you can see just how small I learned to stitch:

This is why it took me so long to finish it. That’s the excuse I’m using, anyway.

Looking ahead, I’ve got some craft projects all lined up to take with me to Kabul. And because I like to keep things super-organized, I decided that I needed some way to keep all the supplies for each project together. So I started thinking about buying project bags, then decided why not just make them? And I happened to have some vinyl left over from the diaper bag, which made perfect windows to allow me to see what’s in each one!

Oh, how I love organizing…

I actually have a few other projects finished (or half-finished I should say, since they are just finished quilt tops), but no photos yet. It’s a rainy, dreary day here today, which does not make for good photos. You’ll just have to check back later!

Back when I was making bags professionally, I had many requests for diaper bags. Since I know nothing about babies, and therefore, nothing about diaper bags, I always told myself that was a specialty that I did not want to get into. So I turned down several special requests from friends. Saying no to friends is one thing, but when your little brother comes to you and says that the one thing he wants you to make is a diaper bag for his first baby…well, there’s no way I could say no to that.

His issue was that all the bags he and his wife were finding were either “too girly” or “too plain.” He really wanted something that he wouldn’t be embarrassed carrying, but was still a little fun. So when they came to visit over Christmas, I had him look through my fabrics and show me what he liked. My sister-in-law drew up a little sketch of the exterior for me (yes, she’s an arts-and-crafts type, too!) and requested a matching pacifier pod. (That one definitely required some research at the local Babies ‘R’ Us because I had no idea what she was talking about.) And I took their ideas and ran with it.

You can see the little pacifier pod sitting in front of the bag here – it has a strap so that it can be attached to the bag, or anything else, for that matter.

Originally, I hoped to find oilcloth to line the bag, but I couldn’t find anything that looked good. I ended up just making a base that I covered with clear vinyl, and also made the pockets out of vinyl. The rest is just lined with fabric – not so good for clean up. Later on in the process, I found a press on vinyl that you can put on any fabric to essentially make your own oilcloth. So I lined the bottle pocket on the exterior and the pacifier pod with that. I was kind of annoyed that I didn’t find this until I was already done with the bag’s interior…

I decided to go the extra mile and make a matching changing pad as well. It has its own pocket on the back of the bag.

Overall, I think it came out pretty well. Not bad for something that I said I would “never” make!

First of all, my brother and his wife have a baby on the way. The two of them are runners — they met on their college cross country team. So I knew the baby would need appropriate attire to attend the local high school’s track and cross country meets. Bleach pen plus onesie makes a quick and easy gift:

Then, I had seen this tutorial a while back for a tea wallet. Since my mom is a tea lover, I put together a matching tea wallet/mug rug set for her. (The embroidery designs are from Wild Olive.)

Finally, since I’d put all this work into making gifts, why not just make the packaging as well? This tutorial for drawstring bags is great, and super easy. I’m planning on making up a bunch in wine bottle size. Not only will it use up some of my fabric stash, but we often take bottles of wine as hostess gifts. Score!

This one is unrelated to Christmas, but I finally finished hand quilting a lap quilt I’d been working on for myself. The pattern is called “Kitchen Window” from this book by Elizabeth Hartman and I used up some scraps on the back, rather than buying more fabric.

Up next is a custom-made diaper bag for my brother to carry once their baby gets here. He requested “not too girly,” so he looked through my stash of bag fabric while he was here visiting for Christmas. I also got a knitting kit for a bag from my mom, so that will be something to work on soon. And of course, I’ve got several half-finished projects laying around!

It’s a tiny little town! I think the ferris wheel is my favorite (it also just happens to be for May, which is my birthday month).

I’m not going to lie. This was a lot of work and required much patience. But even Shawn was impressed with how it came out. And there was one that was appropriate for him, too.

A zoo! The site only has the first three months for the zoo pattern, so I’ll be making more months once they’re published. I’ve made other papercraft projects from the Canon Creative Park website before and they always come out super cute.  Of course, anything in miniature is cute, right?

Here’s my most recently completed baby gift:

These pictures were taken before washing and drying. Unfortunately, when it came out of the dryer, the lovely (and very time-consuming) running stitch lines had shrunk more than the rest of the blanket, pulling it into a wonky mess. So those are no more. I think it looks okay without them – not quite as cute, but oh, well. Being machine wash/dry -able is more important than looks and those lines kind of seemed like baby fingers might get stuck in them anyway.

And when I’m not making gifts for other people, I’m working on ones for our “baby.” Here’s Laika enjoying her new homemade bed and granny square blanket:

Wow. I really digressed there. Anywho…the point of this little entry was supposed to be to show you what crafty goodness I’ve been working on. So let’s go.

I finally finished the quilt that I feel like I’ve been working on forever! It’s currently covering the bed in our guest room. I have a matching quilt top pieced, but my fingers need a break before I start quilting that one. Sometimes I wish I had a machine that could do the quilting for me, but that just doesn’t seem as special as hand quilted ones.

While trying to get this house organized, I also put together a set of bedside organizers from this book. They’re pretty spiffy – a set of pockets for each side of the bed. They’re connected with a piece of fabric that runs across the bed, under the mattress. Ingenious!

Shawn had requested a new bag for work that didn’t “look as girly” as my other bags. So after many discussions about color/style/features, I came up with this design for a Man Bag. He claims to like it so far. And it goes to work with him every day.

No photo, but a few days ago I made a pair of yoga pants using this pattern. I didn’t really check the measurements on the pattern to my body before I started, which was a little bit of a problem. I know it says it’s an “adult” size, but I would call it an “adult small.” So I ended up adding some gussets in the center front and center back seam after the fact. However, it is also important to remember that the fabric will stretch while you wear it. Which I learned when I wore the pants yesterday and they were practically falling off me by the end of the day. So I think there’s going to be a little more fidgeting with them – perhaps removing the gusset in the front (it looked a little weird anyway). Since I’m using my serger to do all this, it’s not really a big deal to make these adjustments. Overall, I really like the pattern and it’s a good way to use an old (extra large) t-shirt.

That’s all I’ve accomplished for now. As you can see, I was pretty excited to get my sewing machines back (in one piece!) after packing them up in April. But don’t you worry – there are more projects in the works.

(And Laika loves to help.)

But on a more positive note, I have a finished craft project to share. A few months ago, I stumbled upon this site with a crochet pattern for mini safety cones. My first thought was that they were the most adorable things I’d ever seen. And then I started reading about how people associate these orange cones with safety and protection. I realized that after a year and a half in Kyiv, my associations are totally different. Here, orange cones are either used to designate where one should not park – there’s absolutely no authority associated with this; it’s often business owners trying to keep cars off the sidewalks in front of their shops – or I’ve also seen them used by the traffic police as just another way to extract bribes. And I realized that Ukrainian orange cones would not be the happy-go-lucky cones that the pattern shows. They would be cranky…surly, even. And so I present to you, Surly Ukrainian Traffic Cones:

Aren’t they cute? In their own cranky post-Soviet sort of way?

I’ve spent today finishing our Halloween costumes. I’ll be sure to post photos from the party tomorrow night. They should be pretty entertaining.

A couple weeks ago, Shawn started taunting me with the promise of a surprise coming in the mail. Well, on Monday, it arrived….

Buttons! A box of random buttons purchased on e-bay. I am not very e-bay savvy, so I had no idea that you could even purchase such a thing. But what a great husband, huh? He not only deals with my craziness, but encourages it.

(And as you can also see, I immediately began to feed another one of my obsessions: organization.)

So I headed over to our local sewing supply store, “All for Sewing.” (Weren’t the Soviets great at naming things? 95% of the office supply stores here are called “All for the Office.”) Anyway, I got to the store and went to work determining which counter I needed to go to in order to purchase the snaps. Luckily, it was one of the first ones I checked. I peered through the glass to determine exactly which size I needed, and pointed it out to the woman working at the counter. She then proceeded to pull out a box of snaps affixed to pieces of cardboard with a perforated line between each set of 6 snaps. I told her I would take 12, so she tore off that many for me, I paid, and I was on my merry way.

But look at this packaging! How old-timey is that? I feel like this is something my grandmother would have purchased at the general store in town.

I did notice that it says “made in Czech Republic” rather than “made in Czechoslovakia” like I recently noticed all the busses say. Come to think of it, the busses kind of look like they’re from the 1950s as well.