Merry Christmas!

In the last minute rush of things, I finished these mug rugs.

Aren't they cute!

A little smaller than I usually make mug rugs but they turned out great anyways, and my friends seemed really happy with them!

I added some decorative stitches along the borders and cross-hatched the center with invisible thread.

May your Holiday be filled with Joy!!  

(I just had to share this picture of our girls!)

TGIFF - Teacher's Gifts!

I have been showing you sneak peeks of the wall hangings I made for the teachers here and here.  

TA DA!!!  I am happy to say they are done!

They were machine pieced and machine appliqued using a button hole stitch and black thread.

All that's left is to make a small label for each of them.

I am really happy with them!

And thrilled they are done ahead of time!

The patterns are from the Be Attitudes book by Art to Heart.  I love this book and will definitely be making more of these mini-quilts.  They are the perfect little gift!

I am linking up to TGIFF which is hosted by M-R over at Quilt Matters this week.  Feel free to go check out some other great finishes!!  

p.s. M-R is also having a giveaway which is definitely worth checking out! 

A Finish, but not a quilt...

Unfortunately I got hit with a nasty, nasty cold a couple of weeks ago so no quilting got done.  I have had a lot of trouble getting back into my sewing room actually.  Last weekend my husband finally put up my design wall for me and some small bins I bought at Ikea to help organize my sewing room, however, I was called in to work 3 days this week (I do substitute work for the EAs at my girls' school).  No sewing... :(

I have managed to finish reading Jennifer Chiaverini's latest book though: The Wedding Quilt. 

I was lying on the couch, coughing my head off, one night, I thought it would be great to have The Wedding Quilt and get started on it.  I didn't really feel like heading off to the book store to get it though.  Luckily, my husband has a Kindle e-reader.  I kindly asked him if I could borrow it.  He got the book and within 5 minutes I was reading, didn't even have to get in the car!  I think I can definitely get use to that!  

I absolutely love Jennifer's books.  I get so involved and really want to go to Elm Creek Quilts.  It's really too bad it is a fictional place.  If you haven't read her books, I highly recommend them!  

I am off to embroider some labels now!

I am linking up to TGIFF over at Quokka Quilts.  Head on over and check out some great finishes!!

A Challenge - TGIFF

Just over a year ago, my quilt group had a paper bag challenge.

We each had to put a total of a meter of fabric in a paper bag.

We then brought our paper bag to one of our meetings and each pulled one of the bags out of a box.

My bag had a half meter of a black batik with rust colored maple leaves on it, as well as 2 fat quarters of coordinating batiks.

I had quite a few scraps of batiks that would go with the fabrics from my bag.  So I started looking through my books and magazines for a pattern.

I found this pattern in the book Charmed and Dangerous by Heather Mulder Peterson.  

And so was born my Batik Star.

You can see that I used the black batik with maple leaves as the inner border, and points for the star.

My mom did some amazing custom quilting on it.

My mom's feathers are gorgeous!

I love those little pebbles and asked her to use those for the background filler.  Isn't it effective?

And here it is in our living room! 

I am SO pleased with this wallhanging!!  Thank you Cheryl for the lovely fabric!

I am linking up to TGIFF.  Please go check out other fabulous Friday finishes.

Catching up!

I've been trying to catch up on some quilting projects this past week.  Didn't get any quilting done the first week of November as I was working all week and preparing the big Pirate birthday party for my now 6 year old daughter.

It was really nice to get to sit at my sewing machine and get back at it.

With all the UFOs or WIPs I have, you would think the last thing on my mind is starting something new, but, my quilting group is planning an exchange in January so I am starting to work on that.  We will be exchanging strips... anything from 11/4" to 2 1/2" in width.  The plan is to make a "Garbage Quilt".  My grandmother will be giving us a demo on this quilt next week.  She has made a few of them.  It is basically a scrap quilt where you sew strips diagonally to a foundation piece.  I will post more about it as time goes on but for now, here is the small pile of strips I have cut out so far.

There are 6 members in our group so I have to fill 6 large ziploc bags with strips... still have a long way to go!

I also worked on the Christmas gifts for the teachers.  Just a sneak peek of these.

They only need embellishments and labels.  Almost done!!

I also attended a Guild meeting last Tuesday.  I hadn't been yet this year.  I had planned to sign up for this year's challenge but thought for sure there wouldn't be any kits left.  Surprise!!  There was one left!  

This is what was inside!

The theme is "All Creatures Big or Small".  I have to use various techniques to make a wallhanging or wheelchair quilt, and include these 4 fabrics in the top of my project.  After a LOT of surfing on the net and discussing with my husband and mother, I think I have an idea of what I would like to do.  I am actually pretty excited about it.  I need to start drawing it out soon as I would like to do most of it by hand.

So that's what I have been up to!  Think I will head up to my sewing room and cut more strips!