Circles Mug Rug

Last night I finished the binding on my second Circles mug rug, and the sun came out for some pictures this morning. I'd almost forgot what the sun looked like!

It feels like I haven't been finishing too many quilting projects here lately, so it feels really nice to have a ta-dah moment!

The circles are appliqued on, and I used a variegated perle cotton to hand quilt it. I still am in love with Rachel's pattern for this. This is the most fun to hand quilt and following the shapes of the interlocking circles makes it interesting to work on. The fabrics are a mix of scraps from my stash plus a tiny bit of FMF, and the binding is a Hope Valley print.

I got a little picture of my new label in action for you too. These are double sided.  I'm really happy with how they turned out, I got them here.

The mug rug is a present for one of  my best friends, so I'm hoping I get to meet up with her soon to give it to her.

Hope you're having a good weekend! I have a great giveaway on Monday, so don't forget to pop in to visit then.

Pay It Forward!

Back in September, I saw a post on Toni's blog about Paying It Forward. I was lucky enough to be one of the first 3 people to comment and then promptly forgot about it! I even forgot to put it on my Winter Stitching list (along with the quilt I finished at the weekend) because...well....because I just had so much stuff on there.

Then, on Friday evening, I got in from work on a dark, wet, miserable Cork evening to find a surprise package waiting for me, all the way from Indiana. I opened it to find this beauty:

Woohoo,  my very own 241 Tote!!!  I can't believe Toni made this for me - I had been looking at the pattern earlier in the week, debating whether or not to buy it. I really love the fabrics she paired together - they work so well. And its beautifully made - with a lovely pocket on the inside which I just could not get a decent photo of in the indoor lighting. (Even the photos I did get were challenging!)

She also included a fabulously thoughtful gift - some of the new Denyse Schmidt FQs from Joanns, rightly guessing that I would not be able to get my hands on them here in Ireland. And some chocolate, yum yum!

Thank you so much Toni, I really love my PIF gifts and think you did a fab job!!

And now, for my part. Here's the deal:

1.  I will make a little gift for the first 3 people to comment on this post. It will be delivered to you some time in the next 365 days and will be a surprise :-)

2.  By commenting, you are commiting to take part in the fun of in Pay It Forward yourself by making something for 3 readers of your blog!

3.  You must have a blog to take part.

4.  You need to post about Pay It Forward on your blog once you receive your little something so as to keep the fun going.

So....want to take part? Just leave a comment :-)