MUG RUGS: Great things come in small packages

Six friends and I decided to do a MugRug swap! Sew fun!! This is what I have received so far... definitely some very happy Happy Mail! Aren't they wonderful?!

I can't share the six different ones I made b/c not all recipients have received theirs and I don't want to spoil any surprises. I'll put pics up when the swap is over.

by: Marianna

By: Rosemary

By: RosaR

I love every single one of them! Thank you so much, ladies.

Until next time, I am off to my local sewing circle for a couple hours of stitching and chatting. What are YOU up to today?

Linking to Connie's Tuesday Linky Party: HERE

Quilty Hugs,

SNOW ARRIVAL. . .& now there are 3..oopsy, 4!

Another little snow person flew in today all the way from Pennsylvania. Thank you, Beverly! He is so cute. Your hand applique and embroidery are wonderful!

SP from Beverly

The new little guy is playing nicely with Feisty and Melty, up on the wall. And, now there are 3 - oopsy 4, forgot Twiggy - with 8 more to come.

Feisty by Frummie

Melty by Pat from FL

That's all for today, sew until next time: I'll be prepping a few DJ blocks and finishing up a design I'm working on - shhhh, it's a secret! What are YOU playing with today?
Quilty Hugs,

TWIGGY GETS A FACE... and off they fly

The first 7 SnowPeople are ready to fly off to their new homes. Here are three of them:


SnowPeople Swap



 



Their faces are all embroidered free-hand so no two are alike. And they will all have their own 'personalities'. Do snowmen have personalities? lol

This guy seems to be waving "bye bye" or maybe "hello"

Linking to Connie's linky party: FreeMotion by the River

Sew... until next time: I am off to my sewing circle to embroider the last few SP faces. What will YOU be doing today?

Quilty Hugs,

TWIGS it is! Thank you, everyone!

TWIGs is hands-down the winner! THANK YOU so much, everyone. I really appreciate your input. It helped a lot.

Lotsa lotsa TWIGs for SnowPeople Arms

All the twigs are cut - now just to fuse and sew them on. But, not tonight. This ol' gal is beat!

Thanks again to everyone - bloggers and quilters are sew wonderful! Until next time, I'm off to beddy bye right after I have one more piece of pie!  What are YOU up to?

Quilty Hugs,

TWIGS or BRANCHES??? That is the question...NEED opinions, Please!

The SnowPerson has 'evolved' a little bit since this morning. I changed his/her arms. What do YOU think... TWIGS or BRANCHES?? Which look better to you?

SnowPerson with TWIG arms

BRANCH arms

Prototype no longer in the running... but I do like the Bird on the Hat

Your opinion would be very much appreciated as I am having trouble trying to decide.  Thanks a bunch.

Sew, until next time... it's back to cutting out SnowPeople parts. [does that sound too gruesome?!]. What are YOU up to?

Quilty Hugs,

SNOW PEOPLE in the making & fresh Apple Pie!

The Snow People Block Swap 2012 is happening, thanks to our organizer Rosa. Thanks, Rosa! My little person, below, still needs a face and a few other things. *g*

SnowPerson - the first prototype

I've been busy drawing and making various SP parts. Now it's time to assemble my *snow* into people. My Sizzix will be used to cut some of the embellishment bits... at least that is the current plan.

Swedish Apple Pie

I was craving something sweet last night. Since I had 1/2 box of lovely green Granny Apples in the fridge a Swedish Apple Pie sounded good. Only takes a few minutes to put together and throw into the oven. NO crust to roll out - love that! It's hard to believe that something so simple can taste so good.

Swedish Apple Pie, no crust

Sew... until next time, I will be playing with more snow. What will YOU be playing with?

Quilty Hugs,

Florida SNOW In California

Now is this a feisty little SnowPerson or what?! He is so cute! This block is from Frummie. And now there are two: Melty [by PatH] and Feisty [by Frummie].  He is all beautifully embroidered and appliqued. Love him. Thank you, Frummie!

Snow Person Block by: Frummie S.

Until next time. . . I am working on SnowPeople parts - wow, that sounds gory! ... what are YOU working on?

Quilty Hugs,

NO, I didn't fall off the edge of the planet!

Sew, I've been MIA for almost a whole week! Sorry. But, nope, sure didn't fall off the edge of our Planet, just pulled a couple of muscles in my back and legs, so have been in bed. Would have much rather been sewing! But, let's talk about fun stuff:

"Melty" by Pat H. of FL - SnowPeople Swap

Today is an extra happy day! A sweet friend - Pat from FL - sent me one of her darling SnowPeople blocks. His name is "Melty". Too cute.  We are both in a swap with 11 other quilters. Can't wait to see how others interpret the theme of SnowPeople.  Thank you, Pat! Just love your block!  Look close at the edges... Pat has excellent machine applique skills.

This is a 'quickie'... I'm just checking in. Sew, until next time, I will try to behave myself and NOT move large pieces of furniture by myself, or leap tall buildings in a single bound. lol. What are YOU up to?

Linking to Connie at: Freemotion By The River... hop on over and see what others are up to!

Quilty Hugs,

MINI ARRIVES!!

A Friendship Embroidery Mini Quilt has arrived at my home all the way from Tasmania, Australia! It is so pretty. I love everything about it. Thank you, THANK YOU to Jenni for making it. Jenni even put hanging sleeves on the back and a label! Look close for the darling little kitty buttons Jenni added. Really high on the Cuteness-Scale! Jenni wrote a lovely note and included a picture of where she lives. Lovely.

Quilt designed and made by: Jenni K., Tasmania, Australia, Oct 2012

Jenni made and included two NeedleCases. She said one is to keep and one to share with a friend. How sweet is that?! I can hardly wait to hang this gorgeous quilt up, but want to finish the re-do in my sewing room first. It will look fabulous, but I want its new home to be on a clean and freshly painted wall. Yippee Skippee. I am so happy that I just don't have words to express it!

Friendship Embroidery Mini by: JenniK.., Tasmania, Australia.

Until next time. . . what are YOU up to???

Quilty Hugs,

MINI EMBROIDERY QUILT. . . Done

It's finished! The little quilt I've been working on for the Friendship Embroidery Mini Quilt Swap is all done. Soon it will be on it's way across the Big Blue Pond to it's new home somewhere in Australia. Sure hope the person who receives it will like it and enjoy it.

"Friendship's Offering" by Cyn;-) Forrest for the Mini Embroidery Swap

The poor little thing looks a bit washed out... I took the pic under incandescent light. Maybe waiting for daylight would have been better.  For a little bling, I stitched mini rick rack in the binding seam sort of like a flange.  The heart appliques are YoYo Hearts. They were fun to make. I like how it turned out.

On the back are Fast Finish Triangle Sleeves -- many thanks to the AAQI site that shares how to make these.  I put them on the top as well as the bottom of the quilt. To hang, just slip a stick or rod of some sort under the triangles and hang.  And to keep the quilt always hanging straight and flat against the wall, lay another stick - even a chopstick will do - in the bottom triangle sleeves.  The "label info" has been penned on the triangle sleeves with Pigma Pen. Unfortunately it doesn't show up in this photo, but it's there!

Embroidery design by Lena of the Stitching Cow; stitchery by Cyn Forrest

The center stitchery was quilted as it was embroidered. I usually work with a thin cotton batt behind the background as I am embroidering - it gives nice dimension to the stitches.  This was a fun project to do. More so because two local friends also participated and we cheered each other on. Nice. Many thanks to Lena of the Stitching Cow for her wonderful line drawing for the embroidery design, and thanks also to Michele at Quilting Gallery for putting the swap together... thank you ladies!

Until next time. . . I hope you have loads of time to stitch up something wonderful.

Quilty Hugs,

YO-YO HEARTS 4 MINI

A little bling never hurts, so I'm making a few YoYo hearts for the Friendship Mini. I hadn't made these in so long I had to get out the directions.

Fabric and Heart Maker Tool by Clover ArtNo.8704

Stitching completed - popped out of disc/plate

First heart - just pull up the stitching thread and ease into shape

2nd Heart: secure thread by taking a small tuck to improve shape. Not a part of package instructions, but improv is always good, eh?

2nd Heart - this one has a little tuck in the back, then secure thread end

You be the judge: do you like Heart #1 or Heart #2 better? Does it really matter? Do they both look like hearts? There might be tiny little beads in the center of the hearts when I stitch them on the quilt - the washable kind.

So, this is what I am working on today. Hope to finish it by tonight. Until next time. . . . what are you making today?

Quilty Hugs,

MINI EMBROIDERY & MENU FUN

The Friendship Embroidery Mini Quilt I'm making for a swap is almost finished.  It still looks a bit plain... there will be a few more bits added, then a little more quilting, a binding, a label and done. Hopefully this will go into the mail by Monday. Sure hope the recipient likes what I've made. It's hard to guess what someone else is going to like. Fingers crossed.

Friendship Embroidery Mini Quilt Swap - in process

Missy snoozing and relaxing under the front window... nothing can relax as completely as a kitty!

Your camera WOKE me!

Until next time. . . I'm headed back to my sewing machine  to bed! What are you up to?

Quilty Hugs,

MENU FUN:
Doc says, "put more veggies into your diet!". What he really meant was A LOT more! So I've been experimenting by changing up some things I've cooked for years.  In this case, spaghetti sauce. There are so many veggies in here I call it the "Kitchen Sink" sauce. It was tasty. I served it with 1/2 Cup of whole wheat pasta & 1 Cup of this veggie/tomato concoction. It was great. So now-a-days instead of 2 cups of pasta and one cup of sauce, it's a smidgen of pasta and tons of veggies. Totally vegan. My body seems to like it.

Spaghetti: Super Veg-a-sized!

MINI EMBROIDERY - A Near Disaster!

Too bad I didn't take a picture of this little embroidery as it was last night.  I gave it a quick dip into a bowl of cool water to remove the Solvy and laid it on a clean white towel to dry.  Later I noticed the puple floss  had RUN -- there were little 'splotches' on the background!!  Oh sheesh.

Friendship Embroidery Mini Quilt Swap

 I grabbed a Shout sheet, a squirt of All and crossed my fingers. It had to soak all night before it came out. Whew... a near disaster avoided. I am Happy Dancing that the Shout worked! But, lesson learned; next time I will TEST the floss before using it!

I'm off to the San Diego Quilt Show today with friends. We are going to take the train! What fun. Until next time. . .

Quilty Hugs,

WIP Wednesday: Friendship Embroidery Mini Swap

Several people around the world are signed up for this little swap. It is a cute and fun project. Below is a pic of my progress so far. How is everyone else doing? I hope to get my offering into the mail in about 4 days.

Friendship Embroidery - design by Lenna Green of the Stitching Cow

NO tracing... just print design, lay on foundation & stitch. Dissolves in water. Love it.

Until next time. . . what are you doing today?

Linking to: Freshly Pieced: WIP Wednesday.

Quilty Hugs,