Modern Mini Quilt Challenge

I just stumbled across the Modern Mini Quilt Challenge at Ellison Lane's blog.
 I see there is a mug run option so I am going to enter this cute little mug rug I made.
What do you think?

I think there may be voting at some point so hop on over to Ellison's blog and check it out!

Have a Happy Saturday!!

~XOP~

Better Late Than Never...Right?

That's what I thought anyway. I had designed a mug rug for my DD1. She is the one that hatched the pea fowl that now reside at LTW's farm. I did the owl, then the two birdies (which I gave to DD2) and I had this one drawn, fused and actually stitched. All I needed to do was the free motion quilting (UGH). I decided to do it today. I started it and them PTM called. We wanted to meet up at JoAnne before the snow storm hit. I needed some thread for the purple project and a little sparkly purple, which I found.

We managed to get what we needed and just in time too because as we were leaving the snow was coming. I shoveled and then came in to sew. I sewed for awhile and then went out and shoveled again. I think we got 6 inches. DH shoveled yet again and he said there was at least another 3 or 4 inches. SHEESH!! Now we are waiting for the sleet and icy rain.

Alright, enough about all that, I'm sure you would like to see the peacock mug rug right? Here ya go! Front and Back!!


I think I am in LOVE with my Valentine Peacock. I may just have to make him bigger and make a doll sized quilt. (In my spare time, ROFLOL)

I did work on the purple project too and got it finished. Too dark for a photo tonight so you will have to wait until tomorrow. Have a good night and if you have to go out tomorrow, drive safely!

Fusible Applique and The Blanket Stitch

I was making my mug rugs and I thought, maybe you would like to see how I did that so I put this little guide together. Let me know if you find it useful.

I like to use fusible webbing, Steam-A-Seam II lite, to be exact. I have found it makes an amazing bond! Better than the other brands I have tried. I thought I would show you some of the tricks I have learned about doing fusible and the machine blanket stitch around the applique. So here we go, ready??

I usually begin with some kind of drawing like this one for my Valentine Birdies.
I then place the drawing on my light box (or you can use a sunny window) and trace my design onto the fusible. SAS II has the web bonded to one side and loose paper on the other. You want to draw on the paper that is bonded to the web as the loose paper side will get discarded, as you will see. Remember that you need to make your tracing in reverse to orient it correctly on the finished quilt. I usually do my drawing, and then turn it over, put it on the light box again and trace it on the back side. Then I lay the fusible on top of that and trace the design onto the fusible paper. I sure hope that makes sense! Now you can cut out your design. You should NOT cut on the line when doing this,just about a fourth of an inch or so away. The amount you leave around the line is not critical as it will be discarded, you just use more fusible and fabric if you leave more.

Here is where I used my scraps. I had a charm pack of Giddy that I actually cut into scraps since I didn't have anything suitable for strings for this project. I cut a few and sewed them into new "fabric" like this:

Once that was done and my applique shapes were roughly cut out I was ready to place them for fusing. Using SAS, I peeled off the loose paper and then was able to place the shapes as desired on my new fabric. One nice thing about SAS is that it is kind of sticky and will stay put on your fabric, which is nice when you need to build an applique (like add eyes or wings as I am going to do here).

When I was happy with the placement I followed the manufacturer's directions and fused it to the fabric. Now you are able to cut out your pieces on the line. I cut out my pieces, peeled the paper off and you are ready to place your applique on your background. I built my birdies and the strip below them and when I was happy I followed the SAS directions and fused them to the background.
(I forgot to take a photo of this with the birdies but you can see what I mean with the owl)

Next up is doing the blanket stitch around the applique. My machine has a blanket stitch on it which I find very convenient to use. You may need to check yours for size etc before beginning your project. I generally use the preset numbers on my Bernina when I do it unless I am doing something HUGE or really, really small. Having the needle down position is really helpful too for neat work.

When I begin, I like to stitch until I get far enough away that I can stop and look under my piece.

Here is what it looks like from underneath.

If you pull on the thread from the bottom the top thread will be pulled through via a loop. I use a pin to go through the loop and pull the top thread through to the underside.

Once you have both threads on the underside you can tie the threads together to make a knot.

Now you can continue stitching until your stitches meet back up.

At this point you can cut your threads and pull your top thread to the back side like you did with your starting thread and make a knot. You continue like this until you have all your pieces stitched around. For areas that are really teeny tiny, I sill start with a few straight stitches and then go into the blanket stitch or if they are amazing tiny, I will just straight stitch around them. I sometimes like that look better for the place like the eyes on my owl. I straight stitched around those. I also did a straight stitch on the birdies legs.

Lest you think I do all my stitching alone here are two of my helpers.

I chose to do the embroidery by hand on the birdy piece but I wanted the heart to show through on the back of the finished piece so I did not stitch around it until it was all quilted.

I hope this has been helpful! Come back on Friday. I will be having a giveaway of my Giddy scraps and my scraps from making the owl mug rug too. You will need to visit my Stash Manicure post on Friday first and then come here. You will need to comment BOTH places to be eligible. Have a wonderful day!!! XOP

Oh Boy Do I Have A Lot To Share

Let me start with yesterday. I went to the gym for 2 hours then home for a shower, which I really, really needed!! DD2 came home and we went to get our nails done. I had a pedicure and she had a mani/pedi. We used to do this when she was in high school before all the big dances. It is a tradition we both still enjoy doing. I was always so happy that she wanted to be with her mom and we never missed a dance! We had to go to the phone store and get her a new phone too. That took forever! She is now the proud owner of a Droid X and loves it!! She has an interview in NC at a university for graduate school (second week of Feb). They are flying her down there and everything! She has an interview at Purdue the first week of Feb, too. Lastly she has a phone interview with the University of Maryland sometime soon too. Looks like graduate school for her!! We are so proud of her

I was going to vacuum but Mosen was guarding the vacuum so I had to wait (still haven't done it, LOL) What's up with that crazy cat anyway??

I didn't do very much yesterday after that so I won't bore you with the details. On to today!

I did the usual, laundry, cleaning etc but in the afternoon, I managed to get my mug rug finished. I LOVE it!! Now I will show you front and back if you promise not to make fun of my quilting. My FMQ is not the best but I think it came out pretty well.

After my arm got tired (patting myself on the back ya know?) I decided to work on my 12 Days block. It is such a cute block! A house all decked out for Christmas.

You know what that means?? It means, for today, I am totally caught up on all my BOM commitments!!!

Last but not least, I have to thank you all for leaving comments on my blog and on Stash Manicure. It was enough to get an invitation back!! That's right boys and girls, I will be guest posting again on February 11th. Mark your calendars, grab a cuppa and let's see what I can come up with for you all.

Friday Night Sew In

Last night was the FNSI. I took the day off work. I went to the gym in the morning and did Zumba then PTM and I went to the Sally Ann (Salvation Army) thrift shop. On Friday and Saturdays the ticket color of the week is 5 items for $5!! I got some more silk and linen. In addition all linens were 75% off!! I scored some GREAT vintage linens. YESSSS. Then we had to decide what to do after we were done (2 hours later). I drove home and gathered up the things I wanted to work on and then met PTM at my favorite place for lunch. (No shower either...EW!!) We then drove to her place to sew. There were a couple of things we wanted to work on and we managed to get quite a bit finished or or least loads of progress made.

PTM and I are working on Mug Rugs for a Mug Rug contest being held by Madame Samm on her blog. If you are creative you should think about doing it too. It is supposed to represent you. You all know that I love aqua and green, strings and owls so here is what I came up with.

I still need to stitch around all of the pieces, and then quilt it. I was just pleased to get it this far! So what do you think? I was a mug rug virgin!!

Next up for the night was to put together my Birdie Stitches block for that BOM over at Little Miss Shabby's blog. Any of you guys doing it? I finished my stitching on Wednesday night and put the block together on Friday night. I used Dream On for my fabric.

I'm lovin' how it came out! I can't wait for the next one. Are any of you participating in this BOM? If you are not but want to just drop in on LMS's site.
Most of you know my long arm quilter friend, LTW right? Well with all her quilting she doesn't really have time to piece. She had her mom stitch out the blocks from "Over the River" and she pulled all her fabrics and then she handed them off to me! I have several of her WIPs (which are now my WIPS!!) So all that being said, after dinner, I worked on all the flying geese required for this quilt (66 of them). She did the stitching in dark blue on a light blue background. I think these came out well. Now I need to put them together and cut the inner blocks. Never ends does it?

I finished and then it was around 10pm. PTM worked on something *super secret* so I can't share it with you at this time, but it is super cute!! She managed to get her 4th LC block done and just has her last 2 to do to catch up. I dragged my sorry butt home and went to bed!

I almost forgot to tell you about the contest the other day now didn't I? There was a woman there that had done the A Tisket A Tasket (the free BOM from Bunny Hill). How could I compete with that? I think there were 7 or so quilts and mine tied with 2 others for 2nd place. A little disappointing but hey it is what it is, right? I am thinking of submitting the quilt to a magazine. The kitties in the center are Vogart so I need to see when they were produced. If 70 years have passed they are in the public domain, so I am trying to find that out. If any of you happen to know the answer to that let me know?? I'll be working on that.

The drawing for the giveaway is tomorrow. Since some of you put all your comments together, I will go through and make a list and number them that way. I will notify the winner sometime tomorrow, once I get the ginormous list done, LOL.

Well, enough blabbing for one night. Have a wonderful Saturday night and I'll be back to announce the winner on Sunday! XOP