Dreaming of Greece - Project Quilting 12.3

 My entry for the Project Quilting Challenge 12.3 - Virtual Vacation is my dream of Greece. I normally go there every year, but now I haven't been there since 2019. Hope to go there soon.

I entered this little mug rug of 5" square from my Instagram account before the deadline yesterday, but decided to put it on my blog, also. 

It is always fun to work on small, fast projects in between the larger ones.

Keep on quilting!

 

Galentine's Day Mug Rug

As a brand new Island Batik Ambassador for 2018 one of my first challenges was to create a postcard or mug rug for Galentine's Day.

"Galentine's Day is a celebration of our best gal pals and lady friends, and is the day before Valentine's Day. Why shouldn't we celebrate our fellow females who encourage and inspire us?!"

I was supposed to use fabrics from the box that Island Batik is so generously shipping to me, but the box is still in transit and will not arrive until later this month. What to do then?

I remembered that I won a giveaway hosted by Joan of Moose Stash Quilting a little bit over a year ago. The prize was a stack of 5" squares of the Tide Pools collection from Island Batik! Yes, I had some of their batiks in my possession! I searched my stash and found the so called Island Stamp stack of squares.

With this limited amount of fabric I went searching for an appropriate pattern, and I found a free one at Craftsy. It uses only 5" squares, and it worked out perfectly with the fabrics on hand. 

 The back is a four-patch of the purple/green/aqua colors of the stack.

This is the assembled sandwich before sewing all the layers together.

After turning the mug rug right-side out, stitching around the outside edge, and adding some in-the-ditch quilting, it looks like this. My mug rug is 8" square. I like the 3D-effect of the folded flying geese!

 

The quilting shows off better on the back. I love the colors of this side of the mug rug.

I am now patiently waiting for my box of batiks, lets hope they arrive before my next challenge is due! If not, I still have an amount of the 5" squares as a backup.

My Dog Gone Cute

My first finish in October is this cute little Dog Gone Cute mug rug. Lorna over at Sew Fresh Quilts is hosting the quilt-along. I don't intend to make many of these dogs, because I am really a cat person. But I needed a mug rug to show off next week, so I thought of this pattern.

In the original (small) block pattern provided by Lorna, the dog block is 6" x 9". That's a little big for a mug rug, so I decided to make it half size. My dog block is approximately 3" x 4.5", and the whole mug rug is 6" x 9", a perfect size.

I quilted the mug rug with vertical lines, and avoiding the cute puppy face. That makes the face stand out from the mug rug. Due to the small size of the pieces, I had to embroider the eyes and nose, otherwise the fabric would have disappeared in the seam allowance.

I turned over the backing fabric for binding, and I think the pink/purple colors goes very well with the front of the mug rug. Isn't my little puppy cute?

(And, if you wonder: The mug will go on the right side...)

Mug rugs

I recently found this link to a tutorial on making mug rugs using the QAYG (quilt-as-you-go) method.

Here is the result of me playing with some strips of scraps: Two good-looking mug rugs of approximately 6" x 8". They are made to fit into a standard size envelope.

A nice, little project, and I think I would use this technique more. It is also good to know that I only used scraps (plus a little bit of thread...)

Keep on sewing and quilting!

Two Mug Rugs for Swap ready for traveling

My two mug rugs for the  Neighbours and Friends Live Here Mug Rug Swap, designed by the Stitcing Cow are now completed and ready for a long travel to Australia.

Here they are on the grass of my lawn on October 5. We have had a fantastic fall with temperatures way over normal, the fresh flowers popping up is an evidence of that. Normally we would have had the first freeze by now, but so far in October it feels like spring!

The mug rugs are a mix of appliqué and embroidery, with pieced borders for finishing. I hop my swap partner will enjoy them!

Mug Rug for Swap + Giveaway winner!

I have joined a Mug Rug Swap over at Quilting Gallery, and here is my first finish:

The swap is called 'Neighbors &Friends live here', and the mug rugs are designed by the Stitching Cow. I have yet to make another one before sending them off to Australia.

Now for the winner of the giveaway I had in the Rush Hour blog hop: Congratulations BarbCarol, I have sent you an email.

Celebrating a day off work

1st of May is a National Holiday in Norway. It is nice to get a day off work in the middle of the week. What else to celebrate the day with, but to do some quilting?! The result is a quite big mug rug in red, white and blue in the center panel; the colors of the Norwegian flag.

We are celebrating our National Day May 17, and this mug rug will fit in perfectly. I worked on my FMQ skills, and made a few flowers, and a swirly border around the white fabric with musical notes. Musical notes are just perfect for the backgroud of the hexagons, since May 17 is just filled with music from school bands in the parade in each city or little town in Norway. The black fabric in the outer border may illustrate all the balloons that are up in the air this day. I like the effect in the binding; small pink sunrises on red bottom.

The center panel is made using my Hex N More ruler. This is my first attempt using this one. I guess I will use it more soon, but this time on a bigger scale. (The hexagons are 2", and the mug rug is approx. 6" x 10").

Earlier this morning I would not have been able to take this picture on my porch, because when I looked out the entrance door it looked like this:

Snow in May! A thin layer, though.
My lawn looked like this:

I am sick and tired of the snow. Fortunately, it was all gone in a couple of hours. I want spring to come right now!

Look what I got in the mail today!

I have been participating in the Mug Rug Swap organized by the Quilting Gallery. The ones I made and sent were received in Washington State last month, and I have been anxiously waiting and checking my mail box often. Today, an envelope containing two beautiful mug rugs was waiting for me when I came back from work. When I opened the envelope, these two beauties appeared:

These two brightened up my day, and they should, because they came all the way from sunny California!

My swap partner, Sheri, did a tremendously good job, and I just love my new mug rugs! They are so nice that I am considering to hang them up on my wall instead of putting a coffee mug on them.

Mug Rugs for the swap

The two mug rugs for the swap (button on my sidebar) are now finished, all hand quilted. They will travel a long distance to my swap partner, I hope they will be appreciated.

It was fun to make these two little works of art!

If you want to see what other participants in this swap are making, check out this link.

Building houses

I have good progress in my house-building project in Bee In My Bonnet Row Along , by Lori Holt, row #10. I just love this Row Along!. Here are my houses (in poor indoor light):

Tomorrow I will sew them into their proper order in the row, and put on the borders. Then I will be finished with row #10, and up to date in the Row Along. The next row is posted this coming week, and I wonder what it will bring!?

I have started doing the appliqué for the first mug rug in the Mug Rug Swap, cute little owls! This one is still "blind", poor little one, but that will be fixed soon!

Lets see what I will be able to do during the weekend!

Mug Rug Swap

After being home a couple of days and getting rid of the jet lag, I have finally started sewing again. Lori Holt's Row Along, row #9, is being sewn right now. This is the row with the cute, twinkling stars. A picture of the row will be posted tomorrow.

Now, to comply with the title of the post, I will forward this invitation to the Mug Rug Swap hosted by Michele in The Quilting Gallery. Deadline for registration is tomorrow, January 28. I have joined and received my patterns, and will soon begin to make the two mug rugs.

If someone else wants to join in, there is still time!