Mug Rugs

I have two Christmas parties to go to next week that are exchanging mug rugs. Here are the ones I made 

I had fun playing with selvages to make these. 

Melinda

Happy Thanksgiving to All

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, even the non-Americans.  I know the holiday isn’t celebrated outside of the United States but it is always a good thing to focus on what we have to be thankful for, no matter where you live. 

Melinda

Quilter’s Blog Hop Winner

I picked the winner of  my blog hop charm packs.  The winner is

Catskill Quilter5:47 PM

I am working on straight-line quilting a table runner that will be a Christmas present!

I have sent her an email and hope to hear from her soon.  Here is another photo of the charm packs.

Melinda

RIP–PT Cruiser

 

Bill took my car to Missouri to visit his family and came home in a rental car.  He had an accident on 70, just West of St. Louis.  Fortunately he was unhurt, but the car was declared dead by Geico.  Now I have to get a new car and I am not looking forward to it.  For right now, I am driving a VW from Enterprise while I collect $$ to pay for a new car.

There is still a lot to be thankful for – Bill is fine, we have insurance, I have some investments I can cash in on to pay for a new car, he made it home safely in the VW.

Melinda

Update on Design Wall

Here is what my design wall looks like today.

I got questions yesterday about what fabric I am using.  Here it is.

I am loving the blocks that I am making.

Here are my next 10 leader/ender bowtie blocks. These are 261-270

Melinda

Design Wall Monday–November 25, 2013

Something new on my design wall.  Here are half the blocks for a new quilt I am teaching.  I have the rest ready to sew – hopefully in the next few days.  I really like how it is turning out.  I am still working on the Scrappy Trips quilt – sewing the blocks into pairs but am taking a little time to make mug rugs.  I belong to two groups that are exchanging mug rugs next week so I need to get busy.  I made one this morning for a friend to give so still have my two to make.

For more design walls, go to Patchwork Times and check out all the inspiration.  I love looking at all of them.

Melinda

Another Hexie Ornament from Hexie Club

This one belongs to Karen.  She added the little bell – so cute.

Melinda

Gift

I received a wonderful gift at Hexie Club from Rosemarie.  She left it in my basket at the end of class.  I can’t believe how cute it is.

A bracelet with little tiny yo-yo’s.  I mean little tiny ones.  I love this gift and am honored to wear it.

Melinda

Sampler Savvy–Last Class

Here is Margaret’s quilt top – isn’t it great!  We spent Wednesday morning putting borders on it.  There is a border of the background fabric and then a larger border of the sashing fabric for the outside.  She was working on the last borders at the end of class.  I can’t wait to see this finished.

Unfortunately the other student still wasn’t feeling well and missed the class.  I hope to get with her to help her finish the quilt.

We will take a break for a few weeks until after the first of the year – I think I will take a sock knitting class on Wednesdays in December!

Melinda

Quilter’s Blog Hop Party

I am joining in the Quilter’s Blog Hop Party.  I have done this a couple of times before and always get lots of comments from new and old readers.  I will be giving away two charm packs of Charisma.  It is one of my favorite lines but I have come to the realization that I am never going to make anything from them so I decided to share.

I am willing to ship anywhere but need to be able to reach you.  If you are a no-reply blogger, either send me an email or put your email address in your comment.
Edit:  I forgot to tell you that I will be picking the winner on November 27 in the morning.
To enter my give-away, all you need to do is answer this question – What are you working on right now?  Tell me about your current project (or projects).  For me, I have lots of current projects but am focusing on my Scrappy Trips quilt and making hexagon pin cushions and Christmas tree ornaments from little hexagons. Here are a couple of pin cushions I just finished.  I used 1 1/2 inch papers for these. 


Melinda

Hexie Club at Tiny Stitches

We had a great time at Hexie Club.  Here are some of the projects that are being worked on.

First is Rosemarie’s quilt top.  She is actually making two of them.

She made a few ornaments before the class.

She started a star ornament in class.

The rest of the group focused on wreath ornaments.

Carolyn

Karen

Tanya

Carolyn had a couple more projects in progress.  First is a mug rug made from the pieced hexie from a couple of months ago.

And here is part of a purse she is working on.

It is such fun to sit and stitch and talk, and talk, and talk, and talk.

Melinda

Hexie Club Tonight

Here is a preview of the hexie club project for tonight.  A little ornament for the tree.

We should have fun!

Melinda

Design Wall Monday–November 18, 2013

Today on my design wall is my Scrappy Trips blocks.  I have made 64 of them and have started sewing them into 2’s.  I think I am really going to like this quit when it is finished.

I used batiks for this quilt – any and all batiks.  There are some duplications but I don’t think more than 2 or 3 of each strip. Once I get them sewn into 2’s, I will put them into 4’s and then I need to find space to lay them out.  I am not going to worry about it until I have blocks of 4.

For more design walls, go to Patchwork Times.

Melinda

Progress on Scrappy Trips–Blocks Done!!!!!

Here are the last four blocks for my queen sized Scrappy Trips.

Here is the whole stack of 64 blocks.

I am mixing them up and sewing them into sets of 2.  Once I get that done, I will make blocks of 4 and so on.  Hopefully it won’t take too long. I am just starting sewing them together.

Of course I made more bowties while working on the scrappy trips.

Looks like I need to press them a little better.  I now have 260 blocks that will finish at 3 inches.

Melinda

More Progress on Scrappy Trips and Bowties

I am almost done with the Scrappy Trips blocks.  Here are blocks 51-60.  Only 4 more to go.

As a by-product, here are 10 more bowtie blocks which makes 250 so far.

I went to the shop tonight for a couple of hours like every Friday night with the Quilt Til You Wilt group.  They had a surprise for my birthday.

Melinda

Magical Slice and Dice

I taught the first half of a Magical Slice and Dice class yesterday.  It is always so much fun to see the fabrics that are picked out.

Here are Margaret’s fabric and her first three blocks.

Here are Patrick’s.

I am also making a new one out of this fabric.

I didn’t get a chance to actually sew any blocks so I don’t have them to show.

I took a couple of the quilts I have already made as examples.

This one is not yet quilted – it is made from a fabric called Wake the Dead from a Day of the Dead line.

This is a somewhat out of focus photo of the first quilt I made from this pattern.

The pattern is by my sister, Robin, and can be found here.  My quilt is made from the same fabric as one of the samples on the cover of the pattern.  It is a fun pattern to work on and makes a great quilt.

Melinda

More Progress on Scrappy Trips

I am now at 50 blocks finished and only 14 more to go.  Here are blocks 41-50.

As I am sewing, I am working on my leader/ender project – bowties.  Here are 10 bowties and I now have 240 done, only about 600 more until I can start making a quilt!

I work on them until I have 10 on the mini design wall and when I get 10 done, I pin them together.  When I get 5 sets of 10, I put them in a sandwich bag.  So far I have 4 sandwich bags plus 4 sets of 10 waiting for 10 more to go in a bag.

Today is my birthday – we are going out to breakfast then I am teaching a class.  Tonight we are going to Longhorn for birthday dinner.  Should be a good day, even if it is cold.

Melinda

More Scrappy Trips Blocks

Here are blocks 40 - 45. Only 19 more to go,  

Tea and Birthdays

I have had tea the last few days – not a cup of tea, but full High Tea.  Yesterday was at Jan’s house in celebration of three November birthdays.  Jan set a wonderful table and we all brought tea type things to eat.

Here is a close up of some of the goodies.

We had lots of sandwiches – smoked salmon, egg salad, cucumber and cream cheese, homemade pimento cheese (thanks Charlie) and olive with cream cheese.  We also had scones, lemon curd tarts and little éclairs.   In addition we had a couple of salads, wine and tea.  Yum!

Another tea today, this time at Tea Leaves and Thyme in Woodstock.  We also stopped at The Whole Nine Yarns and Sew Main Street.

My birthday isn’t for two more days but I have already enjoyed celebrating it.

Melinda

Design Wall Monday–November 11, 2013

More scrappy trips blocks on my design wall this morning.  One more and this will be 40.  On to the next 24 and I will be able to piece the top.  I am getting anxious to get this one made.  I think it will look great on my bed.  I am thinking of allover feathers for quilting.  I have been wanting to use what I learned in Kimmy Brunner’s class that I took in Houston.  By the way, my box of stuff arrived from Houston and hopefully I will get it unpacked this week.  Lots of goodies in there.

My scrappy trips is all batiks – I still have lots more strips that can be used.

For more design walls, go to Patchwork Times. 

Melinda

Make and Take

I am teaching a full day at the shop. We are making 5 different projects. Here they are.