Wow, it's been a month since I posted anything over here. Things have been a bit hectic — starting a new job weeks before Christmas leaves little time for blogging. I haven't checked my Google Reader in a couple of weeks, but I wanted to pop in and share a mug rug I made last month.
What's a mug rug? It's "an oversized coaster for your mug or glass or cup and has room for a cookie on the side!" according to the moderators of the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap on Flickr.
OK, well it's not my mug rug. It's a gift for the lovely Julie of Sew Jewely (formerly Jewel's Arm Candy). Julie and I "met" when participating in the JaybirdQuilts/ORB Hexagon Quilt-Along. We both used Glam Garden by Josephine Kimberling. (On a side note, I think it's kind of awesome how two quilts in the same quilt-along and using the same fabric line can turn out so different. Here's my hexagon quilt, and here's Julie's.)
Julie's mug rug measures about 5¾"x8½".
Julie had a giveaway back in October to celebrate her 100th post. I entered, and even though I didn't win, Julie sent me some fat quarters of Innocent Crush, just 'cause she's awesome like that. Since we bonded over mutual love of the Glam Garden line, I decided to use my last bits of Glam Garden to make this little mug rug as a thank-you to Julie.
For the back and binding, I used this coordinating Mingle dot that was included in the pre-cut bundles (a jelly roll strip for the binding and a layer cake piece for the back).
Anyone wondering how I pieced this baby? I did it entirely by hand, using the English paper piecing method. I was inspired by Malka Dubrawsky's Modern Baby Quilt, which is featured in her new book, Fresh Quilting. Though I own the book, I decided to assemble this tiny homage my own way.
I made this mock-up using Adobe inDesign and printed it on card stock. Then all I had to do was cut out the shapes, baste my fabric around them and stitch them together. I put the petals together into hexagons, pieced the hexagons into rows and then pieced the rows together. I hope that made sense to all. If not, I'm glad to post a tutorial. Just let me know in the comments!
I have about 10 days to finish up gifts before I head to my parents' house for Christmas, so I don't expect to have any updates on the blog until 2011. I'll keep updating Flickr in the mean time. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Solstice, what have you. See you in the new year!
... I love handiwork! I love how portable it is, and I love the fact that I can both be productive and spend the day on the couch watching TV.
To make my handiwork a bit more portable, I made this little needle book. I'd been wanting to make one for a while. At the November Austin Modern Quilt Guild meeting, I saw one that our secretary, Mitzi, had made, and I knew I had to make one for myself!
How cute is that? I seriously couldn't stop looking at it after I finished it. I can't take credit for the design, though. I adapted it from an embroidery design I found after searching "free embroidery pattern" on Flickr. I got some super-cheap pieces of felt, some coordinating embroidery floss and black perle cotton from Jo-Ann's and went to town.
It holds a bunch of needles as well as some embroidery floss, and my needle grabber sticks in there pretty well, too.
I'm linking this post up with Fabric Tuesday. Hop on over to the Quilt Story blog to check out some other fabric crafty goodness.
I'm just popping in with a sneak peek of a little gift I'm working on.
I completely missed the Blogger's Quilt Festival, but sometimes life happens. (I didn't even have time to write up a post about an already gifted, photographed quilt!)
I'll be back with more crafty goodness (and hopefully some good non-crafty news) later this week!
I have been procrastinating lately. I haven't touched the Geese and Coins quilt since my last post. I've just about given up on having it done for the Blogger's Quilt Festival. I would have to have it done, photographed, and posted by Friday.
To distract myself by the lack of things I've accomplished lately, I have a lovely assortment of bee blocks coming my way! October was my month the Bee in my Bonnet virtual quilting bee. I sent out some jummy Robert Kaufman Christmas-themed fabric, and pretty much asked my fellow bee members to go to town. Here's what I've seen so far:
Amazing, right? My bee members graciously allowed me to post their photos, please click the links above to see each photo in its full glory on Flickr.
I'm going to add a 2" red or green border to each block. Here's a sketch I made last month before I shipped off my fabric:
Just as I was about to publish this post, Julie H. posted this beauty to Flickr:
I haven't made my own block for this quilt yet. Actually, I haven't decided if I'm going to or not. Julie F. made two blocks, so I may make one myself for the front and work the extra block into the back, or I may not make a block.
I'm thinking of doing fairly simple, sparse quilting on this one so I can have it ready to snuggle under after Thanksgiving, and so I still have time to work on Christmas gifts.
I finally got the body of the quilt top assembled. Now I just have to make the borders. This thing is huge! So huge, in fact, that I couldn't take a picture of the whole thing. It's going to finish at about 64" x 80" (that's more than 5 feet wide and 6½ feet tall).
Now those are some teeny geese! I'm thinking of replacing some of the 2" squares in the border with these little two-geese units I made with some of my "waste" from the big geese. I have a bunch of these half-square triangles (two for every goose... 340!) that I'm hoping to make into some quilted throw pillows.
ps: If you have any advice on how I should quilt this thing, please share :)
