Mug Rugs for Christmas

I really like my DIL's family, so I try to get them each a little something for Christmas.  She has 3 siblings and a BIL.  This year I found monogrammed mugs at Joannes (60% off) and thought I would make a mug rug for each.  I finally started using some of my boxes of stash strings-YES!

Just a couple of coffee cards and make a bionic bag for my DIL and I am done with the presents I need for the Seattle family.  Utah family's presents were delivered on Thanksgiving.  My goal is to have everything bought, wrapped and decorated by this time next week.  I am close!

Finish Along 3rd Quarter Goals

Because the little Thistle that is lovely enough to run the FAL lives in Great Britain-I missed the due date-time issues-so, this time I will have this post ready to go.  Problem this time is that the window for entries is 7/7-7/14.  We get home from vacation on the 13th and I am worried I'll miss it again. We'll see. So, this quarter I have lots of things to finish up:

Lizzy needs to be pieced, thread painted, quilted and bound

Blue Baskets needs to be trimmed, quilted and bound

 Christmas Squared  needs to be quilted and bound

Star Light needs to be quilted and bound.

Tree Skirt needs to have quilting finished, binding attached

Mug Rugs  quilting and finish bindings

Baby Boy quilt:  I have cut it out-needs assembling, quilting, and binding

Sweet Pea:  stitching, basting, quilting, binding.
 

Makena's pillow needs to be painted, quilted and stitched into a pillow.

The blouse will be the back of the pillow-the buttons and button holes are already in it!

Nickle Colored Sky needs to be pieced, basted, quilted and bound

This is a 2 year UFO.

A 16 patch quilt for Tedi

My niece is getting married.  I can't be at her wedding but I am putting all my love for her into this quilt.  She likes neutrals and simple design.  I collaborated with her mom and she thought the 16 patch would be a good match for Tedi and Jeff, her husband to be.  My first 16 patch and first low volume quilt.  LOVE LOVE LOVE 8, count them, 8 inch blocks.  I haven't done a fast easy quilt in a very long time-I need a quick finish on something.  I got 10 done in 2 1/2 - 3 hours just taking my time.  Wanda has a tute on her blog..  You'll find it under "tutorials (20)" on the right side near the bottom.  She made a whole series of these so I trust her tips.  All but one of the fabrics will be batiks-the silver gray multi-toned in the middle far right is a frosted fabric and it gives the pretty flat batiks a little zipideedoda.  I think I will make it 6x8 blocks or 7x9, either way, less total number than clue 1 of Bonnie Hunters QAL:) NOT a complaint-just an observation.

2 1/2  inch strips

I am trimming and sewing the end scrap (you get 2,   8 inch finished squares out of 2 WOF strips.) into matching placemats as I sew the squares:

I'll just add borders and bind

House is clean after New Year's party and we were in bed by 11pm after watching the ball drop in NY at 9pm we toasted the New Year and prayed the New Year in -then, because it is an Old Geezer game night, everyone went home by 9:45.  The dishes were all in the dishwasher and house put back together by 10:15.  I put 2 of 5 boxes of Christmas decor away this morning.  Will do 1 box a day until it gradually disappears.  It is time for my nap!  A good start to a New Year.

Last Minute Fill-in

I was at the Crazy 9 Patch taking a purse making class on Saturday.  Class cost 30.00, handles and hardware cost 27.00.  Thankfully I pulled everything else from my stash.  I broke 5 needles because I used a pair of skinny size 10 levi's that I have been saving for 30 years to get back into. HAHAHAHAHA.  They even had zippers at the ankles-remember those?

only 3/4 finished-don't want this to be a UFO

Used the bottom of the pant leg as a pocket for a water bottle to stand upright-works  beautifully!

I don't use large purses but I always take a carry on bag when I travel-this will be it!  It will have black leather hardware with silver accents and a stiffener in the bottom.

So, back to the Crazy 9 Patch-while I was struggling over this purse, the owner, Martha, said that the demonstration she had lined up for Wednesday night for the Back Country Quilters meeting had cancelled and she wasn't sure what to do.  So, I told her about the Scrap Users System I was using and the binding tips I had gotten from Cynthia England and Sharon Schamber and she crowned me the fill-in demonstrator-so, this is what I came up with:

Bonnie Hunter's Scrap Users System:

2" and 2.5" now have their own drawer and are piled in color groups except for batiks which I have kept in one pile

1", 1.5", 3.5"(light, dark and neutral), 4"(light and dark pile)

5" blocks and 5" long strips for Nickle Quilts

Random strips

2.5" strips: Christmas, warm, cool, and nuetral

I cut off the label strip plus abut 1/2" to use for something sometime:) 

Triangles, diamonds, and bricks for flying geese

one reorganized drawer-pastel brights

Drawer not organized-still work to do!

Binding tips:
Sharon Schamber uses Elmers Glue to glue down her bindings before sewing.  I iron my binding over after sewing it to the right side.  Then I add a thin strip of glue closer to the crease than the edge and then iron it down-voila! A stabilized binding with no pins to draw blood.

I glue opposite sides first then the other 2.  I glue edge of binding 1/16th of an inch over the stitching line

Cynthia England uses the glue down but then added the stitch in the ditch from the front.  For many projects this method works wonderfully.  I have always stitched my bindings by hand, but not everything I make is an heirloom and I need that time for doing other things at night.

Then when finished gluing I turn it over and stitch in the ditch (on left) You can look at my last post to see the backside  of the Celtic table topper

The Rug Mugs above were pulled from my scrap users piles.  The cardinal was from an unused part of a tree skirt panel, the tree made from leftover triangles and the rest from skinny strips.  The strip to the right of the tree was a trimming from a Christmas pillowcase.  It took me all of 45 minutes to put this together including quilting and I am slow.

The back is 4, 4" squares from SUS (Scrap User System) and 1 strip.  The backs of the others were 5"squares and a strip-I like this one better.

Lastly, I am going to share the idea from the Terry Waldron workshop for a pillow back.  This was the dress I wore for 11 years-once a year for graduation when I was a counselor (we wore a cap and gown over it) this dress had the buttons in the perfect place to attach the awkward shawl.  Terry suggested a mans shirt for the back-great idea as buttons are all done-now I just need to make the front:)

Better get to work!!! Blessings to you today!

Mug Rug Swap

I signed up for the mug rug exchange before I knew I needed to go to Seattle for 2 weeks so I thought I had plenty of time to complete them.  They took longer than I planned but they are done with the deadline looming tomorrow.  I think they are really cute-I can't wait to get mine.  I will use them for my afternoon tea.  Going to the longarm rental tomorrow to rent a few hours on the machine.  I have the Le Moyne Star table topper and my friend has a queen size quilt.  We will be there awhile:)

Winter Birdhouse Mugrug-The Patchsmith

Two Owls Rug Mug-The Patchsmith

I have made a decision to put away the pies and tarts quilt until I finish the Home Sweet Home-then I will pull it out for handwork at night.  I just have more projects going than I can stand-I want to get something completed!

I am learning a lot from the Dear Jane experience.  My tiny squares are definitely getting more accurate.  Spent 4 hours on Saturday to finish 2 squares-but they are almost perfect if I do say so myself. I used strip piecing-so much more accurate than individual blocks-faster too!

4 1/2 inch square Dear Jane Blocks-black/tan 9 block=3/4 in. and tan/cream=1/2 in

I also bought some Dear Jane material when I was in Seattle.

mostly 1880's/Civil war

And I had some favorite books spiraled so they can lay flat-under 4.00 each and so worth it for the books I use a lot!

Kinko's!!