It's for the Birds Blog Hop

Welcome to day 2 of  "It's for the Birds" Blog Hop!

Thank you so much to Madam Samm for all her hard work

and to our Cheerleader Mary for keeping us all up to date :)

If you are interested in joining in on upcoming hops

just head over to Sew we quilt to see what is on the horizon!

A few months ago,

I came across this darling coffee mug

and I immediately thought of my sweet friend Denise.

(who is also sharing her talents today -be sure to check out her blog)

I bought it and stashed it away for her.

Her birthday is this month

and I knew right away that I wanted to make a 

matching mug rug to go along with it.

She loves little birds

and this one seemed perfect for her.

I can just picture her sitting at her desk

enjoying a warm cuppa

and it brings a smile to my face :)

When I saw that Madam Samm had announced a bird hop, 

I signed up as quick as I could.

It was fun finding little scraps of fabric

that would mimic the design on the front of the mug.

I appliqued the little pieces using a blanket stitch

to secure them.

There is a bit of back stitching and a few french knots as well.

I know it's small but it took about 4 hours

 of hand stitching to complete.

I love working on a project with a particular person in mind.

It's a chance to pour my love into it

and I know that she will appreciate it :)

Happy Birthday Denise!!!!

Don't forget to check out all these other talented sewistas

who are joining in the fun today

and showing off their amazing "bird" projects!

http://sunshinequilting.blogspot.com

http://feltfree-p.blogspot.no

http://busyascanbe.blogspot.com

http://quiltdoodledesigns.blogspot.com

http://buzzingandbumbling.blogspot.com

http://patchouli-moon-studio.blogspot.com

http://ecoughlindesigns.blogspot.com

http://mywhittleadventures.blogspot.com

www.natilittlethings.blogspot.com

http://justletmequilt.blogspot.com

http://ncweekendquilter.blogspot.com

http://Selinaquilts.blogspot.com

http://saneandcrazy.blogspot.com

http://abis-scrapsoflife.blogspot.com

http://roseprairiequilts.blogspot.com

http://marlarockscrafts.blogspot.com

April Showers Blog Hop!

Welcome to day 3 of the April Showers Blog Hop!

I'd like to thank Madam Samm of Sew we Quilt for all  she does

and our cheerleader Erin of Sew at Home Mummy!

We were challenged to make a mug rug that showcases

something that inspires us in April.

For me it was this adorable fabric I found

 that has these darling egg cups on it.

Eggs make me think of Spring and new beginnings.

It also reminds me of  breakfasts

of soft boiled eggs sitting in the most adorable egg cups.

Being from Holland,

egg cups are part of everyday life.

I've not noticed it as much here in America.

At least not with any of my friends growing up.

But we always had them in our house.

We had several different sets with matching spoons.

I have a cute set of 4 that I found on ebay 

with silly faces from Germany

that I just had to buy for my 4 grandsons :)

Each one is a different color

and each one has a different silly face.

I guess I'd better get some girly ones

now that the 2 little princesses have arrived.

My mother has the most beautiful

wooden egg cups with delicately carved 

and hand painted flowers that rise up

and hover over the egg.

For this mug rug

I fussy cut a small portion of the fabric

that had my favorite egg cups

and added co-ordinating fabrics

for the top of the mug rug.

I back-stitched the outlines

and drew some flowers and vines

for embroidering around the edges.

That little chicken and lamb just get me every time!

You can click on the photo to see more stitching details.

This little chickie didn't make it to the front

because there wasn't enough room

so I added her to the backside :)

Now I have a fun little mug rug to bring a smile to my face

when I enjoy an egg for breakfast !

Don't forget to check out all the other amazing crafters:

Hayley @ Mrs. Pickles

Karen @ Sew Much 2 Luv

Mélanie @ Les passions de Cliodana

Cindy @ Quilt Doodle Doodles

Jamie @ Busy Bee Quilts

Judy @ That Other Blog

Regena @ The Distracted Domestic

Amy @ Domesticity and other Ponderous Things

Denise @ My Whittle Adventures

Heather @ a Reformed Heath'n

Marica @ ~Englating~

Coffee, Tea...or Owlie?

When I saw this Owlie Mug,

I just couldn't resist :)

It HAD to come home with me.

I knew that I wanted to make a mug rug

to match one of the owls on the mug.

The design was just screaming at me

to do an applique

and patchwork :)

"WHO" wouldn't love

their favorite beverage in this mug

with a treat (or two) resting on this fun little coaster?

FNSI and IHSW results :)

First - my FNSI results:

 I know I showed you pictures of Sweetwater fabric

and I said I was going to sew curtains.......but......

I didn't have enough fabric to make the style

of curtains that my daughter in law wanted :(

I did, however, 

have a project that needed my attention.

2 of my grandsons needed me to replace

some of their little felt dinosaurs 

that had been loved to death :)

You can read more about the dinos here.

So I cut and stitched these little guys for them.

They were super happy to have 

their "Kung Fu Dino Posse" complete again!

Now for my International Hermit & Stitch Weekend result:

I finished my "America" by Little House Needleworks

It is stitched on 32ct evenweave over 1 thread.

I love to stitch super tiny crosses over 1.

It looks so compact and bold.

I changed out all the colors to what I liked

that I had on hand.

And last, but not least

some of the Father's Day fun

that I was working on:

Every year I made a special Father's Day card

for my hubby.

It's his favorite thing 

and he looks forward to it more than Christmas!

You can see some of his previous cards here.

This year I went with Despicable Me :)

(I love me some Minions!!!)

Took me an entire day

to cut out  those tiny blue overalls

and those goggles were tricky too!

Those are our 4 grandsons and 2 granddaughters.

He loved his card!

Now I have another year to start

planning his next card :)

I also made some mug rugs for my hubby

and our son and son in law.

I used fabrics to match their offices

and phrases that they each use

that would make them smile :)

I baked up some chocolate chip cookies for the Dad's at church.

I found these great free printable labels on the net.

Gotta love the Internet!

All in all it was a busy weekend.

We had a fabulous Father's Day with all our children

and grandchildren :)

Hope yours was lovely too!

Happy Day and Happy Mail!

Yesterday was a Happy Day indeed!

Our little princess Sofie turned 1 year old!

(although I'm not really sure how that is possible

because I haven't aged a bit since she was born :)

We spent a wonderful day at Disneyland

to celebrate with her Mommy, brothers,

Auntie, cousins and Nana (of course)

She's going to have a fabulous birthday party

coming up in the next few weeks.

And as for the Happy Mail.....

 I received this super fun and colorful mug rug

from my swap partner "Cass the Coolest"

all the way from Australia!

Thanks so much Cass! I love it!!!

And if that wasn't enough,

today I received some beautiful linens

that I ordered from Crazy Annie's Stitchin.

She was having an awesome sale

so I got these at 35% off!

( I strive to never pay full price for anything!)

Also my wonderful hubby bought me

a walking foot for my sewing machine for Mother's Day

and it arrived today too!

I can't wait to play with it!

Last but not least,

this is a fun summer sampler by Bent Creek

 that I am currently stitching.

I'm using buttermilk linen instead of the

dirty linen they used.

I purchased all 4 seasons of the "soapbox" designs.

I'm hoping they will all be cute when they're done :)

Happy Monday!

I had such a lovely weekend with my family :)

I hope you all did too!

I finished the mug rug for my swap partner

and it's on it's way to Australia now.

I hope she likes it!

I also finished up a fun little cross stitch pillow.

"Support our Troops" by Erica Michaels

Stitched on 28ct linen over 2 threads.

I found this backing fabric out in the garage

along with some other patriotic fabrics

that I used a lot

when I was making raggedy ann dolls years ago.

This is the needle book I stitched for my Mom.

I know she'll love the Delft tile look :)

I found this needlebook kit on ebay.

It made me laugh to think

that this pattern was designed in Scotland

and it's a classic Delft tile pattern from Holland

being stitched by a woman born in Holland

who now lives in California

and it's being mailed to a woman in Germany

who married a man from Holland

that now lives in California

but is on vacation in Germany where she was born.

Makes perfect sense right?

Scraptastic Tuesday :)

As you can see,

 I'm still trying to use up every tiny morsel

of my Hometown scraps.

This 6" Dresden was supposed to be

 part of a pillow for my living room,

 but I decided to make a mug rug for my Mom instead.

I love to give random gifties.

It makes me happy :)

Hope you're all having a lovely Valentine's Day!!!

Boo to You!

 I probably should be doing something else today, but I found myself suddenly inspired to make this Halloween Mug Rug. The fun Halloween print fabric was included in a giveaway I won a few weeks ago over at The Sunflower Patch (Thanks Celynn!) and the "boo to you" patch came in the mail yesterday from my Sweetwater Label Crew  for October. I love getting new labels and patterns every month! These fabrics and the label just seemed to scream out to me that they needed to get together :) I cut the body of the spider out of one of the scraps and then embroidered on his 8 legs and the thread he's hanging from. I went into my scrapbooking ribbon stash for the skeleton twill tape. This was a fun little project. Perfect for today when I really don't feel like doing too much of anything :)