Pay It Forward: Reveal (at long last!)

Back a long (long) time ago, I signed up for Pay It Forward and for my trouble I got a beautiful 241 tote bag from Toni.  I subsequently posted and got my 3 people to make for - Michelle @ The Quilted Tortoise, Erin @ Billy Button Design and Deb @ Life on the Selvage Edge . So far, so good. But my pregnancy and all the issues I had put paid to my reaching my deadline for sending out my goodies late last year, and though I tried, I really couldn't find the energy to finish those projects. The 3 ladies were very understanding and gracious and as soon as I started to get some sewing energy back, I set to finishing their projects as one of my first priorities.

Michelle @ The Quilted Tortoise

Now that their gifts have been received, I can finally do a little reveal. Anyone following me on Instagram will have seen some of my pictures of these earlier in the year, so you can skip. But for anyone else who wants a little bit of eye candy, here are the 3 circles mug rugs that I hand quilted for my recipients.

Erin @ Billy Button Design

All were stitched using Perle Cotton #8. The pink/red ones used a single variegated thread. The blue used an aqua variegated thread, and a combination of a number of other blue shades to try to balance it a little.

These were made using a sew-along tutorial by Rachel of Contented and if you haven't tried hand quilting before, this is a fabulous project to start with - its very straightforward and the instructions are great, and you end up with a lovely mini quilt at the end. This is one of my go-to projects when I need something special - very enjoyable sewing and a big impact because of the ripple effect and texture of all the stitching. I hope my recipients enjoy them as much as I loved making them :-)

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.

Bank holiday weekend sewing...

It's been a very chilled out weekend here. The sort of weekend where you plan to baste a quilt and get a start on quilting it but instead find yourself indulging in a little bank holiday weekend mid-afternoon snooze on the sofa! What a nice treat!

But I did get a little bit of sewing done. First up, I am in the middle of making another Circles mug rug. I love working on this on the sofa in the evenings. This is for one of my very best buddies, who when she saw the original I made for Felicity last year, asked me to make one for her at some stage. Last week, I was too tired from work to do any major evening sewing at my machine, so I quickly appliqued on my feature fabrics, and then I worked away on it here and there while watching tv. It's almost done now and I am loving the pink and dark, almost purplish tones on the Ash grey.

I also made a start on the long awaited quilt for my little boy D. He has changed his mind about a billion times about what he wanted. But when I saw this quilt in the Block Party book, and showed it to him, he was sold.

I have cut my blocks smaller than that pattern, as its to be a lap quilt, and have made 2 blocks up to try them out...here they are. No surprises that my little man is a train fanatic! 

Aren't they fresh and gorgeous? He thinks they are cool, and to be honest, so do I. I am going to sash them in Kona Coal..I think...although I might use a bright aqua or blue instead. I will decide when I get a few more done.

Lastly, I made up some little coin purses for little girls to sell. These are about 5 x 4, and are perfect for little ladies to keep their coins in, or even their little treasures...my little lady uses hers to cart her Moshi Monsters around in! 

If anyone is interested, there are full pics over on my Facebook page and you can contact me via email or on FB if you want one.