More Lovely Matryoshka Dolls

These are the last two Matryoshka dolls that I bought. I actually have had them since the summer, but didn't think to post about them for whatever reason. The black and yellow one even has personalized Birthday greetings painted onto the bottom - how cute!
I am hoping to add a couple more dolls to my collection this year, we'll see how Aren feels about that I guess....... 

I was so excited when these new dolls first arrived and couldn’t believe how small the ten piece set actually gets. Miniscule! I still can't believe it.

Of course these dolls were also purchased from Elena Beytane via EBay. Now I need to get some type of curio cabinet to display all of the dolls on.

Matryoshka Potholders - A Tutorial

I promised all of you that my next post would be a project and I have one-uped myself by making it a Tutorial. Although it did take me a couple of days to get this one online...

I am back out at work, and although the internet is slow I think I will survive the next three weeks.

This tutorial is for basic potholders with a motif. Of course you can make these withough a motif or you can do a quilted version like I did a while back HERE.

The first step is to cut out your main fabric. I made my squares 8X8 although you can do any size or shape with this project.  I LOVE my new Olfa cutting mat and ruler that Aren bought for me as early birthday presents since I will *sadly* be at camp on the big day.

You will need to cut four squares of your main (or "self") fabric in order to make two potholders. I always want to make sure that my hands (and the hands of anyone who may be using my potholders) are protected and for this reason place denim pieces inside my potholders. My mum had the misfortune of purchasing a beautiful pair of quilted potholders many years ago only to find that they were barely useable as the maker had only used batting in between. Take care of your hands. If you don't have denim then use another thick fabric. Cut two pieces for each potholder you plan on making.

You will still need some batting to give your potholders a cute *poufy* look. Again - two pieces for each of the potholders you plan on making. All of these pieces should be cut to the same size/shape as your self fabric pieces as you will sandwich them together when you sew them all up.

Next cut long strips 2 inches wide from your self fabric. The length of strip you need depends entirely on the size/shape of your finished potholder. Cutting these on the bias (diagonally) will make it easier to maneuver  them onto the potholder but if you don't have enough fabric for this don't sweat it. You can still make do with "unbiased" strips. I am so clever - the Queen of lame puns.

As a note: I had to sew a couple of shorter strips together in order to make a strip long enough to finish the edge of my potholder. You may need to do this too. It is fine and will still look wonderful when it is finished. Trust me.

Next choose a motif. Or choose no motif. Or do whatever you want. I chose Matryoshka as I am planning on selling Matryoshka themed items in my upcoming-but-as-yet-nonexistent Etsy store.

If you are using motifs you will now need to trace them onto your contrasting/coordinating fabrics. I am only showing you the tracing/fusing from the undersides of the dolls as this is a fairly repetetive and easy to grasp process. Use fabric pen that disappears or chalk but please please do not use permanent ink! This could ruin the look of your motif. Don't cut out all of the little pieces just yet.

You still need to fuse them onto your fusible webbing! Cut around the motifs leaving a small border so that you won't have to waste too much fusible. Now iron the fusible onto the fabric and then cut out around your shapes.

Repeat as needed until you have all pieces of your motif cut out. Now arrange them on your potholders and iron them down. Looking good already!

I always like to sew down the pieces I have fused on with my machine. I think it is good practice as with too many washes the glue from the fusible is liable to come undone and your work of art will be ruined. Also there will be fraying. Yuck. Here you can see I am sewing around the doll with a contrasting white thread. It really made the motif stand out.

You can skip this step if you want. After sandwiching all of the layers together (top-batting-denim-denim-batting-bottom) I serged the edge of my potholder so that all of the layers would be held together before I bound them. This ensures that I follow my shape and that the potholder doesn't turn out wonky. If you don't have a serger you could also baste the layers together.

Now to the binding. Sew the strips of binding face down onto the potholder. This is the bottom edge of my potholder (no motif). If you have not cut on the bias you may want to clip your fabric in at the corner so that it will turn more easily. Just don't clip too far! You will need to make sure that where you start sewing on the binding you leave enough that it can be turned under so there will be no raw edge showing where the binding meets.

Now flip your potholder over and fold the binding over the edge and under itself to create a beautifull finish. Sew along the edge of the binding. If you like you can make a loop by looping the binding around the corner. You will have to remember to do this when you are first sewing the binding on or you won't have enough to do so. A clean edge is also a nice touch on a potholder so you may want to try that too.

Don't worry if the topstitching on the front doesn't match the seam on the bottom. This gives your potholder character!

And there you have it - a beautiful potholder or set of potholders!

It is nice to be able to customize the decor in your home and this is one way to add a personal touch in your kitchen. They also make wonderful gifts!

Enjoy this project and keep enjoying those lovely summer days. I would love to see any versions that you yourself whip up. Ciao for now!

Shadow Play and Matryoshka Mayhem

I spent quite a bit of time working on my Matryoshka dolls today but had to go outside as it was absolutely gorgeous! Aren and I went for a walk around the neighbourhood and had some fun taking shadow pictures. Actually I believe that he didn't want to have his picture taken until we decided to take pictures of our shadows. Then he took about twenty or so. Hilarious. On the way home we took a detour and stopped at this local coffee joint Bean Counters. It is a really cute little place and they have delicious smoothies. Mine was Wildberry with Cream and Aren had Mango. Yummy!

A couple pictures of my outfit since it is impossible to see what I wearing in my shadow.

I haven't worn this skirt in a while since it had a small tear and was a bit too big in the waist. Finally this morning I took a few minutes and repaired it so it would be good to go. I'm happy I did since it is such a nice skirt to wear in the summer.

Aren not wanting his picture taken.

And finally a sneak peak at some of the Matryoshka dolls I have been working on! That is the new Olfa cutting mat that Aren bought me as an early birthday gift underneath. He also bought me an Olfa ruler today which was 50% off! I am extremely excited about using these two items as I have been wanting (and needing) them for quite some time now.

Stay tuned for more Matryoshka Madness.

Also - please help! I don't know what to get my Dad for Father's Day....

Newest Matryoshka from Elena Beytane

What a wonderful sunny day it was today. Hopefully this keeps up for the Father's Day weekend we have ahead of us. Today I was very busy sewing and crafting more Matryoshka suprises for my upcoming Etsy store (I am pretty excited about this!) and felt like I should share some Matryoshka with you.

The following two sets of dolls were hand painted by Elena Beytane from Russia. She is the same artist that painted the last set of dolls I posted about. I had ordered these just before I left for camp last time and they arrived last week. I was thrilled when I opened the package!

They look so cute together on the bookshelf. I am thinking that I will need to set up a special shelf just for Matryoshka... or there will be a set in every room in the house! That would probably be alright with me.

These are some pictures from Elena's Ebay site where I bought the dolls. They are much more detailed and give you a better idea of what my new dolls look like. The little egg shaped one is so cute! I like how the three little dolls nest inside all together - it looks cozy.

The detail in the eyes is breathtaking. There are a lot of people selling Matryoshka online but I haven't been able to find too many with such beautiful painting, especially with regards to the face. Some are way too formal and stiff (so real they are fake), others are too cheezy, and then you get the "hand painted" faux dolls.

A last look at the ladies. I hope you enjoyed these dolls as much as I do and if you are looking to buy your own I would suggest Elena Beytane as your artist of choice. Check her out on Ebay.

Ciao for now!

Where the heck have I been?!?!

I am sure most of you are wondering if I fell off the face of the earth.... I have heard that comment made a few times this past week. But no, I am still here! Things have been a little hectic this last week at home, and I guess I did fall off the face of the earth for a while there at camp.

A lot has happened since I last posted. For starters I made it out of camp - yay!

It's always nice when flying in sunny weather. Hopefully I will get a few pictures without any clouds so you can see the terrain. There is actually a point in the trip when you can see Suncor or Syncrude (not sure which one) from the air.

My beautiful flowers! I have been spending a lot of time cooking this week, although we've been BBQing as well so that takes care of some of the work.We've been having all sorts of yummy food made with fresh veggies. Baked potatos, mashed, zuchinni tomato tart, salads, BBQ Corn, carrots, Banana Bread (I've been baking again already!), Stir Fry, and of course we did go out for our favourite - Sushi.

That was on Saturday night. It was my friends Wedding Shower in Edmonton so we drove over early in the morning so we would have time to do some shopping (IKEA!), I went to the shower and then Aren and I went out to dinner and drove back home. It was a long day, but totally worth it to see the girls again.

In a hilarious mishap we drove to suprise my sister Eliza at work but found out she was at the other location. En Route we were stopped by a Policeman as the light turned green and told that we couldn't proceed because there was a parade. We ended up waiting 45 minutes (the parade had just begun) until  were able to drive through. The parade had a woman wearing duct tape over her nipples and a man in sequin short-shorts.

Moving along - this is a part of a project that Aren and I worked on this past week -you will never guess what this is for (or maybe you will) but I will be posting about it later on.

Some lovely Matryoshka finger puppets I am working on. I made the pattern today, cut out five and now I need to sew them together and be sure they fit. Obviously you all know that I am obsessed with Russian Dolls and I figure that there must be plenty of people out there who are just as obsessed as me. Therefore I am thinking about opening an Etsy shop to sell Matryoshka themed items as well as my other crafts/sewing/artwork. We'll see how it goes....

I planted these babies yesterday but it is a little chilly outside right now so they are "chillling" in the living room for now. Hopefully the weather will pickup a bit over the next few days.

And here we have another top secret project I am working on and will be posting about in upcoming days. So now you know that I have been busy/procrastinating with posting but am still alive and well.

Hope you all have been doing well and enjoying your summer, let me know what you think about the Etsy idea - I could use your input! Thanks guys :)

Russian Nesting Dolls, Flowers and Excuses

Hey all! As my lovely sister pointed out in her comment on my last post - I haven't posted in quite some time. Blame it on the internet being slow at camp, multiple shopping trips once I got out of camp and general procrastination. I am however, back!

Last month I started checking out E-Bay (which is actually SUPER cool by the way) for the first time and found some awesome stuff. Among other things I found a woman selling hand painted Matryoshka (Nesting Dolls). They were absolutely stunning and so I had to make a set mine.

These are the dolls I bought! They are so cute in real life and the seller sent them really quickly too. In fact Aren had ordered some computer parts from in Canada and my dolls from Russia got here first! Hahahaha.

Back and side views. These pictures are from Elena's site on E-Bay.

Hand painted and signed!

And now my lovely Matryoshka dolls in my own home. I am in love with them!

I think that everyone should have some of these, and obviously the quality is amazing. I am already trying to convince Aren that we need more than one set.

In other news, I will be working on more projects and stuff now that I am home so look forward to more posts!

These are the flowers Aren bought me last week for when I got home. What a sweetheart!

If anyone has new craft ideas or has found some info on an awesome site - let me know! Now that I have some time on my hands I want to tackle some new projects.

Painted Matryoshka Box

Lately I have been obsessed with Matryoshka dolls {Matryoshka Hot Water Bottle}. I don't quite know why really. I've always loved them (blame my Dad who got a set from some Russian sailors when we lived in Churchill) but now I love them even more, if that makes sense..... So I was doing my taxes at the tax office and next thing you know I was thinking about nesting dolls. Once I got home I went straight to the computer and started looking up pictures of dolls, things with dolls on them etc. Well the next day Aren and I were out shopping for some fabric to recover the kitchen chair cushions and I decided that I NEEDED to paint a Matryoshka. So I bought this little paper mache box and some wooden eggs (you'll see them in an upcoming post) to paint stacking doll style. First I primed the box with a couple of white coats. then I began painting on my little Russian lady.

This is at about the midway point in the painting. Very plain, no decoration yet.

Here is a little close up of the doll. I admit that it is not nearly as nice a face as you will find on many of the actual nesting dolls, but for me it will do just fine. To give an idea of size, the box is 3 1/4 long by 2 1/4 wide.

Here it is all finished!

Varnished and ready to go. I am happy with how it turned out. I left the base white so that the doll really stands out. Hope you enjoyed seeing this fun craft!