Mug Rugs are Delightful

Mug Rugs are Delightful
Originally uploaded by quilterinagarden

A package has arrived at my house today! It contained the mug rugs for the Quilting Gallery swap. These were made by Lyn S. and they came all the way from Australia! She included a cute koala bear kitchen towel and a wonderful tall mug. The mug has cute little cake slices on it! Many thanks the mug rugs are just perfectly designed for me! I love them so much.

Lovely, aren't they!!

Red Scrappy Report

Cutting up a red charm pack

This week was my first chance to try a new die for the Accu-Cut machine.  It happens to be the machine that is made to cut paper, but I am giving it a trial run with fabric today.  It worked pretty well.  The only difference being that I don't use the template plastic over the fabric.   So sometimes the top layer of the fabric traveled with the roller.  For the smaller dies I don't think this is a problem, only an annoyance.  However, it might be a problem if the die was bigger and it could miss-cut the fabric that got stuck to the roller.  I am giving it the thumbs up because it worked well for what I needed cut today!

When I got home from school I whacked apart the trimmings from the tumbler block and used them to piece these crazy wedged style pieces.  I am using them for a pair of mug rugs.



Box of trimmed red pieces that I have to work with this weekend.

This little white basket contains my die cut pieces for a little tumbler pattern.  I really don't know what kind of quilterly project it will turn into, but I do know that I like to keep the edges untrimmed and then add a bias binding to gently accomodate the rippled edge.


The tumbler charms that I cut on the school accu-cut machine

 I was looking for something to back these cute little red mug rugs and realized that I was ready to trim up a backing for my Hazel Ilene Diary quilt and the left over edge just happened to be the correct size. 

A bit of stitching with some red embroidery thead has added the perfect finish.



Mug Rugs Ready for Service

It has been a fun Scrappy Saturday.  I'm off to check out the other participants blogs to see what they've sewn up with their RED scraps.  If you'd enjoy seeing some creative solutions for bits and pieces of red jump on over to the So Scrappy blog and start clicking on the links.  There is so much creativity to see.

Sneak Peek at the Mug Rug Swap

 It was really fun to use some on line photo editing tools.  Photofunia and Big Huge Labs are two of my favorite websites where I look for my ideas.  Aren't these nifty little pictures!!!

These are some edited photos of the mug rugs that I made and sent in the Quilting Gallery's recent mug rug swap.  They were so much fun to create.  I loved them so much I am recreating the thimble one right now and I have the pieces cut to make a second log cabin. 

I just adore the old fashioned appeal of the sepia tone.  I should take some photos of my Singer Featherweight and the little singer sewhandy machines.  They would look very vintage with this browntone look. 

One can hardly go wrong with the graphic quality of the black and white patterns and textures on this edit.  It reminds me of artistic zentangles.

Happy Valentine's Day

Enjoy a lovely Valentine's Day

I wanted to show you what arrived in my mailbox this weekend with the Saturday mail.  It was a lovely 3-D valentine shaped like a slipper with a vintage style heart tucked into it.  Isn't it sweet.  It was made by Cathy of  Hazelruthes's blog.  This is the second year that I have swaped homemade Valentine's with her and it is so much fun! There were wonderful chocolates too, but those are mostly gone.  I did however, save the truffle and I am going to have that later this afternoon.

Beautiful Victorian Slipper Valentine by Cathy J

14 inch block

I've been up to a lot of sewing over the weekend.  Some of it cannot be shown all the way because it was for the mug rug swap.  I'll try to get a little sneak peak post about it later this week.  But I won't show the entire finished pieces until they are received by the new owner.  They need to get popped into the mail today, since they are leaving the country!

The block above is block one in my next Thimbleberries quilt.  It was really fun to put together.  I'll be making another one in a reddish pink fabric over the next few days.

Red Scraps for February Sewing

This week hasn't had too much free time in it, so I have only located and started to iron my red scraps.  I'll be getting ready for a new month of scrap sewing and I'll be trying to use up my red leftovers.

For some reason, I feel very well prepared for a scrappy month of RED projects!!!

I think it is because I have been collecting red fabrics for a long, long time.  I've always liked red and white quilts, especially redwork embroidery ones.  When we are on a trip I usually bring back a shopping bag of red and white prints.  Some day I hope to make a redwork quilt.   

For almost a year now, I've had a plan to get a white wicker patio set and it just happens to come with red and white cushions.  I think this spring I should actually purchase it instead of dream about it.  I am sure I will need some table pieces and a throw or two to go with the settee.  Perhaps I should even get the rocking chair and that might need a throw pillow!

Getting back to the ironing.  Many of these scraps came from my biggest box of oddly shaped scraps.  You know, the one where you throw any old pieces that you cannot seem to throw out.  These kinds make the best crazy patches, because they are already so chopped up.  I like using any of the strip ones for the string quilting and the bits and pieces for crumb style blocks. 

I must get busy sewing now.  To check out what other sewers are doing with their red scraps hop on over to Soscrapy's "Scrap Happy" blog and visit the other blogs to see what they have already done with the red theme.