Finally, a machine needle book! Plus squishies, a blankie, and a thank you

First up, a needle book for my sewing machine needles!

Up til now, I had an unnervingly disorganized storage system for my machine needles; it was something like:

• Used, weird-sized, non-jeans needles were in the same tiny tupperware as my filled bobbins
• Jeans needles, both used and new, were in the little paper package I bought them in
• Old standard needles for foundation piecing were in one paper package
• Brand-new standard needles were in a different paper package
• My current used-but-not-old-enough-to-use-for-foundation-piecing needle always got put back in my machine so I knew where it was

Then since I wanted to make a sock skellington and so was going to open up a package of ball point needles, I neurotically needed to make a machine needle book to organize everything, first. Aheh.

I used two charms that I got from Hoosier Toni in Stitchery Dickory Dock’s Feeling Fussy Modern Fabric Swap. At first, I just wanted to keep them whole since the prints are so cute, but then I scolded myself that I must be bold! Must cut fabric! Thus, the super duper exciting exterior you see above.

I sewed pieces of ziploc bag on the inside to make pockets into which I could slip scraps of paper for keeping track of what needles were on which page. And then the part of me that is ever so slightly OCD breathed a sigh of relief. Machine needles organized, yay!

Next, a couple more baby squishies and a ribbon blankie for Mr. Yazoo’s expecting cousin. This time, I’m making tags for them so that his cousin knows they’re machine washable and such. I think it’s really cute when I receive Etsy stuff with nice wrapping and tags and things, but I’m too cheap to really put any money into making my own; this one’s made out of a Jamba Juice paper bag. (I haven’t put tags on the other two because I can’t remember what the baby’s name is going to be — the big squishie is for baby’s older brother.)

Finally, thank you to Crafty Staci, who sent me a super cute tea cup cozy thingoo since I was one of the winners of her giveaway! By this point, Cosmo was really antsy and kept grabbing things I was trying to take pictures of, so this is the best picture I could get of the cup cozy. 😀