Sweetwater Mug Rugs

Hello, Friends!

I'm almost ready for Christmas...how about you?

Earlier this week, the scene was set with some

beautiful snow.

I love to sit near the window with a cup of cocoa

and a little treat.

Hershey's Kisses are my favorite chocolate snack!

Not long ago...

Sweetwater fabrics blogged about a box of fabric

that I couldn't resist.

I ordered one almost before I finished reading the post!

The box of Christmas goodness arrived quickly, 
and I was not disappointed!

I kind of hoard collect Sweetwater fabrics,

and I took great joy in creating a few mug rugs

to give as presents this year.

I mostly used the fabrics that came in my box,

but I had some of this fabulous Feed Company plaid

that was just right for the bindings.

I had purchased this plaid mug from Pottery Barn

and I love the way it looks with each of these

black and red mug rugs.

Other mugs look pretty, too, though...

here's a classic pedestal mug, called Heritage,
 that I've had for many years, made by Pfaltzgraff.

I've got a sweet little Dept. 56 Scotties mug

that looks inviting, too.

This is how it looks with one of my favorite

designs by The Patchsmith!

Pattern: Scotties and Westies, available here.

Here's the same mug,

featured with the Sweetwater snowflake.

The designs by Sweetwater are so cute...

this snowman will bring cheer all winter long.

The snowflake design is so pretty and simple.

It sets off fabrics exquisitely.

I love the black and red theme,

but I also made up a couple of mug rugs

in aqua and red.

I hope this mug rug brings JOY to its recipient.

A little star will shine in the snow

all winter long.

I love the dash of aqua in that plaid binding.

These mug rugs will be given as gifts

to some special folks.

Stop by again soon,
for some more winter mug rugs,
made for more special people!

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Ric Rac...or Is It Ricrac? Maybe Rickrack?

I bet when you see this photo,
you won't even need to know what these things are,
edged in ric rac...you just know you like 'em.

{Am I right?}

It turns out these are little coasters!

See how pretty they are, even one at a time?

{My Cath Kidson mug is such a nice model!}

I spent some quality time with my ric rac collection
and made a whole bunch of these coasters,
for a custom order on my Etsy shop, eamylove.

I love the way the different shades of ric rac look
against the bright fabrics.

Mostly I used prints from Briar Rose
by Heather Ross.
I love the tiny grasshoppers on clover...

the cute bees...

and the bright strawberries.

There are even tinier strawberries on the fabrics
from Bake Sale by Lori Holt.

These colors are a bit less intense,
but still nice and bright.

I want to give credit for my inspiration...
I saw them here on the nanacompany blog.
If you would like to learn to make them,
Amy Sinibaldi has told me that they will be included as a project
in her upcoming book,
Sweetly Stitched Handmades!

{It's available for pre-order now and will be released in May 2015.}

My Etsy client asked me to make some ric rac edged coasters for her,
and they were sew much fun to create!

I love everything about ric rac,
except that there are so many ways to spell it!
Ric rac, ricrac, rickrack...
what a nuisance when I'm adding tags
 to posts and photos.

I'm running out of ric rac...must find more!!!
Anybody know a great place to buy ric rac?

I've picked mine up here and there and everywhere...
sometimes it's even on a clearance shelf.
Please let me know if you've got a good source!
If you do, I'll have more of these to show.

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Quilty Fun - Flying Geese, Chubby Chevrons, and Cocoa Cups

Last time I posted,

I promised to show my latest blocks

in the Quilty Fun Sew Along.

Here they are...all finished up!

First I made a whole flock of little tiny

Flying Geese!

I'm happy that I used the same green for all of the backgrounds,

even though my little green spatula blocks blended in

a bit too much with the background.

I was kind of scared to try making this block

the Quilty Fun way...

I've read mixed reviews about this method,

and the finished blocks are sooooooo small!

I decided to try just one block

using the technique provided in the Quilty Fun book.

Admittedly, I had very little fabric to trim away,

but my little blocks came out really well!

I just kept going,

and they all seemed to work out right.

I think the secret to my success was that I used

a spool of 50-wt Aurafil thread for piecing,

and it was noticeably thinner than the thread I usually use.

{I think I LOVE Aurafil thread for piecing little blocks!}

Another trick I tried was to use a hot iron with NO STEAM...

to avoid any distortion of those little wee blocks.

After my success with the Flying Geese blocks,

I was feeling pretty cocky...

maybe even over-confident!

It was really fun to choose the fabric pairs for the x blocks.

{Oops...I can see a little mismatch of seams there on the right. 

Oh, well...no one likes a show-off!}

The Cocoa Cups block was the easiest so far...

nice big pieces to cut and sew,

and those handles were really slick to stitch!

I think that this mug

looks a lot like a Cath Kidston crush mug!

On to the next block...

come back again soon to see mine!

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