Bandwagon: Jumped

A few weeks ago, I decided that the thing to do between research trips was make drawstring bags. I had seen plenty pop up all across the internetz, and most referenced Jeni's tutorial. So I jumped on the drawstring bag bandwagon, which seems to have retained its popularity for quite some time, and made a few. I've given most of them away, but kept the one on the left above for myself. It's proven quite helpful as I travel -- I stuff all my chargers in there (still waiting for that universal charger....) and their aesthetics improve muchly. I'm about to leave for another trip, and this time the bag holds chargers, my camera, and my sunglasses. Pretty sweet.

These bags are the perfect size for using up small-but-not-quite-scrap-sized pieces of fabric. I will say that these bags are fun, though midway through my assembly-line, I remembered that I find making multiple bags at a time somewhat tedious. Nevertheless, I soldiered on and made six of them. I admire those who make lots of the same item to sell because I don't have that in me. I can make quilt blocks for hours on end but with bags, I'm a one-and-done kind of gal. I'll return to patterns I like, but even when they don't take that long to assemble, I'm just not that interested in repeating steps over and over again.

In other news, I was honored to receive a Liebster Award from Charlotte, who blogs at Twelfth Zodiac. The award--whose origins are unknown, as best I can tell--is for small blogs and helps spread the word about them. In that vein, if you haven't checked out the following blogs,* you should.

Michelle's Musings: A big fan of Tula-Pink fabrics, Michelle should get the award for best blog commenter. Not only was she one of the first to start commenting here (which led to a lovely friendship -- we even met in real life in November!), but I swear that every time I get ready to comment somewhere else, she already has.

Kitty Kitty Crafts: Not only does Karissa make fabulous stuffed hippos, but she makes her own dresses, something I find amazing and intimidating.

WoollyKat: Anna is now a real-life, local, quilty friend. Choosing a local quilt friend was tricky, since I'm lucky enough to have quite a few, but I decided to go with the first live, local person I added to my reader and Anna was it. Also, we have very similar taste and tend to echo one another in favoriting and commenting on items in the FTLOS swap.

The Quilt Engineer: I don't think there is a single quilt Latifah has made that I don't like. She is more than a quilt engineer; she is a quilt genius. She makes brilliant, bold geometric quilts, and sews up matching clothes to boot (at least for the babies).

Little Olive Branch: I'm not sure how or when I first stumbled onto Ruth's blog, but it's got a little of everything -- sewing, cooking, knitting, traveling, and more. She moved to DC from New York as I was transitioning to New York from DC for research last year, so I guess I felt a little transitory kinship.

*I'm basing "small size" on the number of followers I can see, either on the blog or via Google Reader.