Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

I am going to be taking a vacation from blog land for an extended period of time. Thanks to all who have come by and posted kind comments.

I am trying to reduce pressures and clutter from my life. If you need to do the same, try reading the book, Clutter Busting by Brooks Palmer.

May your Christmas be blessed and filled with joy and may 2011 be a wonderful year for you!

Liberated Quilting!

Wahoo! Tonya Ricucci's new book, Word Play Quilts, arrived via UPS today. So colorful and looks like it'll be fun to read and to use! Afraid all there is time for now though is to read it.

My First Mug Rug!

Just in case you don't know - a mug rug is just that - a 'rug' to set your 'mug' on. That isn't good English but you understand what I'm saying, right? I've seen so many cute ones that I decided I needed to try and make one/some. Here are a couple of links to view and see more: Sew I Quilt and Stash Manicure.

So the first question was, what fabrics do I use? Since we are in the Christmas season, I looked for some scraps I had from a quilt I made in January. I had some nice sized pieces left (enough for many 'rugs', actually) so just began there but cutting some pieces and sewing them together. I figured if I could get the first one done then the next would come easier.
I put a little pocket on this so you can put a tea bag and your spoon in it. I just made it simple and then did some ditch stitching then more straight line sewing.
I sewed the binding just as I usually do for a large quilt with hand sewing the back but if I practice a little more I think I could sew it all on the machine. I've seen some nicely done like that, but it only took about 20 minutes to hand whip the binding. Ta da! One mug rug finished. This little mat is 7.5" x 9". They can be much smaller, too, just to hold the mug and maybe a couple of cookies!! It was a fun little project, especially easy to use scraps and let them help with your inspiration.