Peppermint Twist Table Runners and Coasters with Baskets

I used a tutorial by Twiggy & Opal called Peppermint Twist Table Runner to make two table runners, one for my sister and one to keep.  Here is mine pieced.  I love all the different red and white fabrics and the white fabric was printed with tiny white snowflakes.

And here it is quilted and bound.  I was very brave and quilted it free motion with white thread in all kinds of swirls in and between the candy and then matchstick quilting in the borders.  I originally left the red solid border plain but felt it needed something after, so I used red thread and quilted a straight line 1/4" in from each edge.

I even like how it looks from the back.  My sister's had different backing fabric and a binding pieced from all of the red fabrics.

The bonus Coasters pattern turned out quite large, more mug rug size.  The one on the right was made following the tutorial and the one on the left was the size I ended up making.  To make them even easier, I folded the backing over to bind them.

I also created a basket to hold the coasters and made three sets.  One set I gave to my MIL to be and one I gave to my cousin Pam and one I kept for myself.

Here's a picture of mine which also shows a quilt I made several years ago although it is partially hidden behind light fixtures..  You can find more details on this Scandinavian inspired quilt here.

Here's my sister's on her Christmas dinner table.

I had fun making all the cute candy blocks and would make this pattern again.

Merry Christmas!

I didn't mean to be away from the

blog for this long, but everything I was

sewing since mid November was for

Christmas presents and I didn't want

to give all the secrets away..... 

Here's a little taste.

Details to follow.

Mug Rug

I made a Mug Rug this morning just for fun.  The two coordinating fabrics were left over from an iPad cover I made for my daughter.

Here's the back which shows the simple outline quilting I did.

And here's a picture of it in action.

The square in the centre of the mug was fussy cut at 3.5" and the rest of the mug was made with 1.5" strips.  The Mug Rug finished at 10" x 8", so a little on the larger side for a Mug Rug.  Good for a cup of tea and a little snack too!

Friday Finishes (3) and Starts (2)

Yesterday I finished the Heart Lattice cushion cover.  It turned out fine for something I made off the top of my head.  I quilted it on the diagonal down the centre of each lattice but it didn't seem like enough so I quilted it again on each side of the diagonal lattices which made this nice pattern on the backing fabric.  I was using up some old polished cotton since it will never be seen.

I bound it with the same fabric as the  background.  Here's the finished front.

And here's a picture of it in a chair from the front and also a shot of the envelope back. 

It was a really dull day so the pictures are kind of dull too unfortunately.

Here's the Bug Comfort quilt all quilted and bound with turquoise leaf fabric and all washed and shrunk up nice and snugly. 

The Bug Mug Rug turned out pretty cut too.

And here are the flannel backs.

Here's a close up of the quilting on the quilt.  I quilted loops all over it like the bugs and butterflies crawling and flying everywhere.  And look, the butterflies on the backing flannel have loopy trails too.

I was happy that I was able to capture "Live Life Green" and the frog on the back of the Bug Mug Rug.

And just because it's so yummy, here's another shot of the texture in the quilt.

Since I was on a roll, I sewed some more bits and pieces of left over flannel together so I have a backing ready for the next quilt.

And speaking of next quilts.....  Today I kept seeing Tree of Life blocks as I was reading my favourite blogs and my friend Marilyn is making a Tree of Life Quilt, so I decided I need a Tree of Life block too.

It finished at 23".  I think I will trim it down to 20" and make another cushion cover.

Several Productive Days!

From Thursday, when my Dear Jane Group met, until yesterday morning, I have pieced five more Dear Jane blocks, but they deserve their own post.

Yesterday I got out two Valentine's Day themed table runners and decided I also need a Valentine's Day Cushion cover.  You can see  the heart table runner here and the X & O table runner here.  After playing with graph paper and a lot of cutting and sewing (157 pieces to be exact) I ended up with this 19.5" cushion cover which I should be able to get quilted and made into a cushion cover this week.

On the weekend, I was digging through my "kid" prints looking for suitable I-Spy fabrics to make sample blocks for an I Spy Jar quilt our guild is going to make.  I came across 22 disappearing nine patch blocks that were left over from making a baby quilt as well as a few left over scraps.  I decided there was enough fabric to make the minimum size premie quilt for our local hospital.  Last night while I was skype sewing with my friend Marilyn, I got the pieces put together.  It ended up 23.5" x 25.75" and I was able to put the last two blocks together to make a little mug-rug.  I had also pulled out three strips of different bug fabric and decided I could make an I-Spy Jar block.  A full post on the I-Spy Jar blocks is also in the works so this is just a sneak peak.

This morning I got some left over flannel fabric pieced.  It made me happy that these fabrics have bugs and butterflies on them so they go with the top fabric.

I also got the mug rug quilted and fabric for binding picked out.

Isn't the bug mug rug cute!

Tea Mug Rug

I saw this scrap of fabric on the give-away table at our guild meeting and immediately envisioned it as a cute mug rug.  I told myself I could have it if I brought it home and made it right away so that it wasn't added to my scraps.

I was able to cut it up so that I could add the selvage to my selvage collection, which I am actively collecting with a project in mind so this does not count as adding to my scraps.  I used the two long flowery strips to go around the main tea design to become the front of the mug rug.  I cut one strip to add to my Bonnie Hunter's Leader Ender Quilt and the rest I pieced together to start making the backing fabric.  The remaining bits were too small to save.

I auditioned some scraps from my stash and decided on the darker print to finish out the backing and pieced a scrap of batting.

I did a quick bit of quilting using painter's tape as a guide with my walking foot.

And here it is bound with the same fabric as I added to enlarge the backing.

Sometimes, rather than working on something big, it's nice to make something small for a quick finish and sense of accomplishment.  Since I also had to use some fabric and batting scraps from my own stash I think it was a good deal.

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday

Mug Rug Challenge & Santa Log Cabin Ornaments

Last night was my sewing guild's Christmas Party.  We had lots of good food and played some fun games and had a Mug Rug Challenge with prizes.  Here is my mug rug along with some sewing related mugs which were part of the prize packages.  (I did not win, but had the mugs to put the prize packages together):

The reason all the buttons were dumped out is everyone was given a button and used it to vote by dropping it in a cup beside their preferred mug rug.  I made the wrapped candy mug rug from a free pattern which you can find here (http://fortworthfabricstudio.blogspot.ca/2015/11/peppermint-twist-table-runner.html)  It is by Jayne from Twiggy and Opal.  The main pattern is for a table runner with bonus coasters.  I would like to make the table runner too.

I also made some Santa Log Cabin Ornaments to go in the prize packages using 1" strips so I believe these were 6" square before two sides were sewn up to make a cone shape.  I forgot to take any photos while I was constructing them and just made them up from a picture I had seen:

Here is a close up of one so you can see the detail:

One mug rug won by quite a large margin and two tied for second place.  Here is a picture of the winning mug rug courtesy of our guild's photographer:

Unfortunately, I do not have pictures of the runners up mug rugs.

One of the games we played involved everyone standing in a circle holding a fat quarter of fabric while someone read a story aloud filled with the words  "left" and "right".  Every time these words were said, you passed the fabric in your hand to the person on either your left or right.  (For example:  Jane still had not found the right piece of fabric in order to finish her quilt and there were only ten days left until Christmas.)  The narrator had to stop a couple of times when too many lefts and rights were said close together to straighten us out and several people ended up with three pieces of fabric and others had none.  It was a lot of fun and you went home with a different piece of fabric than the one you had brought in.

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts for finish it up Friday ( http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.ca/2017/12/gingham-quilt-complete.html)