First, a shawl that I’ve been working on for what feels like forever. It was my first foray into lace knitting and I’m proud of the outcome.

And as much as I’m missing the dog (both dogs if you count the foster one, and any dog, really, when it comes right down to it), I’ve found that not having pets is actually pretty handy when working on many craft projects. Basting quilts on the floor is much easier than trying to do it on a bed, as I had in the past:

As soon as I got that all spread out, I found myself looking around, expecting a pet to come running in and mess it up. Instead, I got to baste it in peace. Now to get it quilted.

And today’s accomplishment was finishing my challenge quilt for the quilting guild! (SPOILER ALERT: For any of the Stepping Stone Quilters that might be reading…I’ve posted photos below.) I’m not sure that I ever gave the details of this year’s challenge here on the blog. The basics are that it had to contain an oval, and use five different types of fabric and five different types of embellishments. This challenge definitely took me out of my comfort zone. In general, I’m a pretty traditional quilter, and I would consider this more of an art quilt. But I’m happy with the outcome. Well, at least until I see what the other women in the group did…that’s when I’ll feel inadequate.

It’s based on a photo of the front porch of the house I grew up in (where my parents still live). Next to the porch swing, there’s a huge lilac bush. The smell of lilacs always reminds me of two of my favorite things growing up: the end of the school year and my birthday!

A close-up of some of the embellishments. Besides the chains on the swing, I created the tree leaves out of two different types of ribbon, the clouds are made from some super fluffy white yarn, and the lilac bush is burlap, covered with purple silk and several types of purple beads.

Now I’ve realized that it’s time to get going on all the Christmas presents I plan on making. A crafter’s work is never done!

I am proud to say, however, that I have been trying to stretch my creative boundaries a little and have some things to show for it!

Two weeks ago, I started knitting a shawl. That may not sound so impressive, but I’m using lace-weight yarn. Lace-weight! This means it’s incredibly thin – you might even call it “wispy.” When I first pulled this yarn out of the package, I thought there was no way I was ever going to be able to do something with this, but here it is:

Okay, so not much progress there, but I can only do about two rows at a time and then I need to take a break to breath and stretch. So it’s a slow process, but I like how it’s looking. For anyone who’s interested, the pattern is Seascape Stole by Kieran Foley.

And just last week, I had the opportunity to use a friend’s long arm quilter. I had machine quilted some small quilts on my machine (which is not really meant for quilting), but never done any “real” machine quilting. I was pretty nervous going in — for those of you unfamiliar with long arm quilting, you’re basically driving the needle (which is moving really fast) around, drawing a pattern on your quilt. And you’re kind of just making up the pattern as you go. This is a challenge for someone like me, who has to draw out every single new quilt pattern I make before even thinking about cutting fabric. And I prefer straight lines. Perfectly straight lines.

After the first 10 minutes, when I finally remembered to breathe again, I realized I was having fun. I did a simple meandering pattern, which is basically just curvy, bubbly lines. Here’s a close up:

You can’t have a full photo because this is the quilt I made for the challenge I have going with my mom. Which means it’s not going public quite yet. The really awesome thing is that I totally hated this quilt top before I quilted it, but now I really like it. I’m not sure if that’s just the pride from having quilted it in a new way by myself, or what, but it makes me happy.

First, the fun stuff. I know you’re going to say that these things were not essential to get done before we pack out, and you’re right. But any knitter or quilter knows that putting away a half-finished project is a sure sign that said project will never get finished. Especially if it is doomed to sit in a box, in a crate, in a warehouse somewhere for the next 5 months. Both the socks and the quilts are completed. However, I don’ t have a photo of the quilts because they are already packed away in a box somewhere. I’m sure they’ll make an appearance on the blog later.

Next up were the handbags that I volunteered myself to make for my brother’s May wedding. He and his fiancee are keeping it simple (relatively speaking) and having a very DIY wedding. Luckily, they have my mom – the Martha Stewart of Northern Indiana – doing most of the work for them. But I’m pitching in as much as I can from overseas. These are the wristlet bags for the bridesmaids (myself included), which match the sashes on the dresses that are being made by my mom. There’s also a white bag for the bride, but she has to wait to see that one.

And finally, the pets are officially prepared to go overseas. (Well, besides the international certificate of health we have to get a few days before we leave.) I kind of felt like a counterfeiter putting passport photos into passports, even if it was just for a dog and a cat. And then, as with most things lately (further proving my declining mental health), it became overwhelmingly silly to me. Oh, the things I do for these two.

Socks! I was on a big sock knitting kick for a while, but hadn’t done any knitting projects at all for a while. Then I found this yarn (although they don’t seem to have my particular color any more) that my mom had sent me quite a while ago and decided it was time to get a-knittin’.

And a quilt! Actually, two twin-sized quilts. Again, kudos to mom for buying me the fabric and pattern about two years ago. They were originally supposed to be for our guest room here in Kyiv, but then it turned out that we didn’t have a guest room. So the fabric sat in the back of the closet. But I’ve got my fingers crossed for a bigger apartment in Nassau, so I’m working on putting the tops together, then I can hand-quilt them while I’m in DC next summer without a sewing machine.

I ended up doing quite a bit of quilting this summer. With two pregger friends, I had to come up with some great, unique baby gifts. And quilts were the answer, complete with minky backing.

And just this morning, while I was supposed to be working on about 4 other things (oh, wait, I’m still supposed to be working on those things…), I finally finished my challenge quilt.

The story behind the challenge quilt is that before I moved to Kyiv, my mom and I picked out a set of fabrics that we both liked and decided we would each work independently to make a quilt by the time our tour here was over. And then it would be a surprise to see what we each came up with. Well, I caved while my mom was here and showed mine to her, ruining the surprise. (In my defense, I don’t have any sort of craft support group here to give me feedback when I make things. It’s not fair.) But there are a few other people who will be in on the surprise when I get back to the States – our “judges,” if you will – and I don’t want to completely ruin things for them. But I will show you a picture of the label on the back. It will give hints, but I’m just as proud of how it turned out as the design on the front.

And then there was some knitting to mix things up a bit. I used the Chullo Pouch pattern from Bag Style, although I only used two colors (recycled from old sweaters!) instead of the 7 or so the pattern called for. And I kicked it up a notch by making a lining out of some cotton twill so that I could install pockets and a zipper for security. I think this is going to be my fall/winter carry-all.

Finally, a project from last week. Again, while I was supposed to be doing other things. I’ve had a vision in my head for a while of the perfect dog toy for Laika. The main problem we have is that she seems to think that we buy toys for her so that she can destroy them as quickly as possible. The last two toys we’ve purchased for her promised to be tough enough for aggressive chewers, yet she managed to destroy them in under 30 minutes. And these were not cheap toys. The toys that have lasted for a while have done so only because I take the time to sew them back together every day or two. Not exactly a fun task for me.

So last week, I used the Wee pattern from here, modified it slightly, inserted a squeaker (left over from a destroyed toy), and now Laika has here own Wee. Although not as pretty as the one in the pattern. But it’s lasted for a week, which is more than I can say for most things around here.

On top of that, we feasted on Velveeta Shells & Cheese for dinner. It was one of the things that my parents had brought with them assuming that my dad would refuse to eat anything else while they were here. Lucky for us, he decided he could eat Ukrainian food, and when my mom saw how excited Shawn got over the cheesy packet (“That’s fancy mac and cheese!”), she left the box behind for us.

Oh, we’re so spoiled!

As you can see, I was not disappointed. All kinds of knitting goodies, sewing goodies, candles, and assorted odds and ends! And books full of projects to add to my always growing I-must-make-that! list.

Then, earlier this week, Shawn surprised me with an early present as well. (Although he swears it’s a gift from Peema…) So far this is turning out to be a pretty good birthday!

And just for your amusement, here’s today’s feat of flexibility as performed by Laika. Yes, she was actually sleeping this way until rudely awakened by a camera flash. And, yes, she’s all legs.

Since our mail comes a little sporadically, I have days when I get shipments like this one. This is actually from 4 different sources, but all arrived at the same time. That’s what I call a good day!

But now I have 4 knitting projects and 2 sewing projects to work on. Where to begin? Since it’s supposed to snow (!) this weekend, I guess I’ll start with a hat and scarf set for me. That’s what the rainbow-y Vanna’s Choice yarn in the photo is for. It arrived looking a little more like a rainbow than I had anticipated (it’s really hard to order yarn online), but I think it will work out fine. I just won’t put my stripes in standard rainbow format. And, as Halloween is quickly approaching, I guess I need to work on Laika’s costume. I made a muslin a couple weeks ago, but she’s already grown enough that I need to alter it. Hopefully we will find a puppy-friendly Halloween venue for her to strut her stuff at. Otherwise, I’ll just take photos for my own (and your) enjoyment.

Speaking of Laika, she’s currently recovering from her “sterilization” surgery. We’ve been calling it that because in Russian it’s much easier to say “to sterilize” than “to spay.” And we are all about taking the easy route when it comes to speaking Russian. She’s doing well – a little groggy, but coming out of it way faster than I would like her to. She gets her stitches taken out in 10 days, so we have to try and keep her calm at least that long. When they do operations on animals here, instead of wrapping the stitches or putting a cone on them, they give them little hospital gowns. It sounded really funny when we first heard that, but now I think it’s pretty cute. However, it is a pain when we have to get it off her quickly when she needs to do her business outside – guess they didn’t think that one through completely.

I’ve also realized that I haven’t done a “crafty” post since we got here to showcase all that I’ve been working on. To be honest, I feel like I haven’t been super productive since we arrived in Ukraine. I initially thought that I would be doing nothing but crafting after arriving here, especially since I didn’t have a job. However, we got the puppy fairly early on, which turned out to be my full-time job. And the exhaustion of living in a foreign country has taken up much valuable free time. Even if my only task for the day is to get groceries, it takes 3 hours to actually get the groceries, and then about 3 more hours to recover from the experience. So not a whole lot gets done on those days. Anyway, here are the few projects that I have been able to get done in the past few months.

This is the only bit of knitting I’ve done. The pattern is from the Spring 2007 Knitscene. I haven’t been very motivated to knit lately. Maybe that’s because it actually took me three attempts to get this garment right…

These are two quilting projects I’ve been working on. The one on the right isn’t actually finished in the photo, but it is now. These were the first projects I started when we got to Kyiv, so they were both pieced and quilted completely by hand. It’s not as impressive as it sounds – they’re only 19 inches square! In other quilting news, I’m still making steady progress on my butterfly quilt – I’ve got all 56 squares put together, now I just need to embroider all 112 antennae.

I’ve decided one of my favorite things in the world is that moment when you’ve got your sewing pattern all pinned on the fabric and are just ready to cut. There’s just something so neat and organized about it. (And you know you haven’t made any mistakes yet. Not that I make mistakes…) On the left is the beginning of a skirt from a Vogue pattern made out of some gorgeous wool that my mom bought for me at G Street in Washington. And the fabric on the right is going to be a top from a Simplicity pattern with a few alterations to the neckline.

And my final project to share is a small attempt to jazz up my sewing area. What makes a space happier than matching sewing machine covers? Honestly?

Besides the hours of classes I have been through at FSI, the work that goes into keeping our household and personal affairs in order, and re-watching every episode of Gilmore Girls, I have been doing plenty of sewing and crafty things. I have a tendency to purchase supplies with the best of intentions, but then I end up with the stuff to work on a million different projects and no time. No longer a problem!

Butterfly quilt

I’ve been collecting fabric for this quilt for almost 3 years. After the move to Arlington, I decided it was time to start. I cut out the pieces almost immediately after we moved, but after two and a half months, I really haven’t made a while lot of progress. I just put together the first half square today!

Messenger bag

So I decided that I wanted a new bag for when I start Russian classes. Even if I’m stressed out about trying to learn another language, at least I can look good doing it. I originally wanted a Timbuk2 bag (actually, I’ve wanted one of those for a while…), but decided that: 1. I could make a bag for much cheaper considering I already had most of the fabric; 2. if I made the bag myself I could customize it just the way I wanted it; and 3. anything I made would be totally cool, because, hey, I made it! So here it is.

Sock monkey

Holy cow (or monkey), this was so much fun to make! I think maybe I’m just going to spend all my time making sock monkeys now – they’re so easy and the gratification is almost instant. I do believe that this very girly monkey is going to be for my soon to be niece (expected arrival of Nov. 4), Layla. Hence the cute little “L.”

Knitted baby doll

So I’ve got no idea who this is for. I saw the pattern in a book and just decided that I needed to make it. Mission accomplished. Somebody put some pants on that kid!