A gift for a friend

A few weeks ago one of my closest friends visited from Georgia and brought me wonderful handmade gifts made by herself and her daughter.
I love handmade.
 I know how much time and love goes into handmade.
Teresa made this beautiful Vanilla Lemon scented candle.

So pretty...

Heather (her daughter) owns a goat farm in Tennessee and makes this yummy Orange Hand Scrub.

My house feels like a spa :-)

While Teresa was visiting she noticed a few of my mug rugs and said she had never heard of a mug rug.
I took that as an opportunity to make her one!

These little mug rugs are a quick afternoon project, but it always takes me forever to decide on the design, fabric, etc.
After I have chosen the design and fabric it goes together quickly.

Even hand stitching the binding on the back doesn't take long.

I feel like hand stitching your binding looks much neater.

Sometimes machine stitching in the ditch from the front is a guessing game to see if you have caught the binding in the back and it tends to look a little messy to me.

I don't always hand stitch my binding.
Depending on what I am making, I might choose to stitch the binding to the back first and then stitch it down on the front using a zig zag stitch or a decorative stitch.



I mailed it to her and she is already using it!

I sent her a note with it that said "A mug rug - just enough room for a drink and a snack".

Hummmmm…
Wonder which one is her drink and which one is her snack???
😂


Linking today to:
http://www.myquiltinfatuation.com/
https://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/

~ What's for breakfast ~

These were so yummy, I just had to share.
I had some bananas getting pretty ripe and blueberries left from Valentine's Day I needed to use.
I receive regular e-mails from Genius Kitchen and thought I would check them out first to see what I could find.
I found this recipe and thought I would give it a try.
They are super moist, quick to make and really, really yummy.
I gave them a definite 5 star rating.
Normally I slather my muffins with butter the minute they come out of the oven.
These do not need butter at all because they are so moist and flavorful already.
In fact, they are better after they cool or even the next day.
The recipe makes 12 muffins, so I thought I would try freezing a few to see how they come out.
They never made it to the freezer...
😏

Just check out all those blueberries....
Seriously, the best made from scratch muffins I've ever made.

Are you tired of seeing my same ol' pile of red scraps yet?

Well then, lucky for you, they are almost gone....

I love making Dresden Plate blocks, they are super easy, fun and very forgiving.

I used this ruler but you can certainly make your own pattern.

This is not a tutorial on the Dresden Plate.

There are many tutorials and printable patterns out there for the Dresden blocks, therefore, I won't bore you with another.

I cut a total of 25 pieces, but found I only needed 20 for my 12" Dresden Plate.

  I was able to stitch them quickly by chain piecing them.

Depending on the size of your "blades" and the size of your overall block you may need to cut more or less pieces.

After turning and pressing, I lined the blades up in the order I wanted to sew them.

Once all your pieces are sewn together you need to choose a base to pin them to.

I chose a pretty little polka dot fabric.

For the base I made a quilt sandwich using my polka dot fabric for the top, batting for the center and a backing fabric... all cut roughly 3 inches larger than my Dresden Plate.

Since this was not going to be an actual quilt and the back was not going to be seen, I chose muslin for my backing.

I then pinned my Dresden to my base fabric, batting and backing and used my 1/4 inch foot and stitched them in place.

Once my blades were all stitched down, I then stitched the center circle in place.

I squared up my block making it approximately 15 1/2 inches square.

Now I'm ready for binding...

I stitched it to the front, folded it to the back and mitered the corners.

I did try out my new binding tool .

It's pretty handy, but I found measuring my old way was just as quick and easy.

A word of caution if you purchase The Binding Tool...

It comes in two sizes, one for larger quilts and one for small wall hangings, rug mugs, table runners, etc.

I thought I could just purchase the larger one and use it for both...nope, it's not that easy because of it's size. The larger one is too big to measure the smaller projects. 

Anyhow, here is my completed project.

Looking at it now, I wish I would have done some quilting on the polka dot fabric.

Maybe the next one...

Because I wasn't exactly sure how many "blades" I would need for my original block, I ended up making 5 too many and you know me....

 Had to find some way to use those few leftover pieces.

Another rug mug, of course!

You will be happy to know I am running out of that same ol' fabric you've seen for weeks now.

If you notice, I didn't quite have enough left and had to piece my binding on this mug rug.

Now I'm on to another pile of scraps!

😊

Linking today to:

http://www.myquiltinfatuation.com/

https://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/

And another...

Continued from Tuesday's post...

I still had tiny little scraps lying around the sewing room floor and couldn't let them go.

I began picking them up and just stitching them together haphazardly until I had sew together about a 5" x 8" piece.

I cut a heart out of paper a bit smaller than the one I used for the
 No Point Star block.

I was able to squeeze 4 hearts out of that scrappy little 5" x 8" piece I had sewn together.

Now, what to do with these scrappy little hearts?
I stitched together a quick little "base" using 5 by 5 inch squares and 2 inch wide sashing.
I then used my new 505 Adhesive Spray to temporarily place my hearts down while I ran a zig zag stitch around each one.

I do really like this 505 spray despite the can says it is only removable by dry cleaning.

(I did e-mail the company to ask about the dry cleaning, but I never got an answer.)

 It holds really well. I used it both to hold down the hearts for stitching and to sandwich my fabric and batting.

I added my binding and it's complete and ready for hanging.

All from scraps off the floor and a bit from my stash basket.

Thanks for looking!

Linking today to:

http://www.ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com/

http://yesterdayontuesday.com/

http://www.thededicatedhouse.com/

http://www.gingersnapcrafts.com/

One thing led to another....

After my last (not so perfect) small quilt project, I thought I would try something a bit less "pointy". 😉

Scrolling through Pinterest I came across this No Point Star tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew and thought I would give it a try.

While still trying to put a dent in my fabric stash, I came across some scraps I thought would be perfect for a little scrappy February block.

I cut out my fabric as she instructed for one block and started chain piecing.

I followed her instructions and it went together really quickly.

I then decided to just stitch a quarter inch around the star points, center and around the border.

It looked a little boring to me so I decided to add a few hearts in each corner and the center of the star.

I cut a star from paper and drew around it with my disappearing ink pen.

I just followed my lines and...

WALLA!!

I have hearts.

All I needed to do was dampen the fabric to remove my drawn lines.

I added the binding and it's complete.

I can use it as a table topper...

hang it...

or use it as a (rather large) mug rug.

Which leads me to my "another" project.

As I was cleaning up my mess I spotted the little triangles I had cut off to make the star...

Couldn't let those go to waste, now could I?

They were such tiny little pieces.

Perfect for a mug rug.

Isn't it amazing what you can do with the tiny little leftovers if you just take a second look before tossing them in your trash bin?

Have a great day!

Linking today to:

http://www.esthersquiltblog.com/

http://www.myquiltinfatuation.com/

https://www.quiltfabrication.com/

http://www.ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com/

http://www.gingersnapcrafts.com/

~ A gift for Lindsay ~

Do you know someone who always has those perfectly filed and painted nails?

In my world, that would be Lindsay.
Her nails are always beautiful.

Since Lindsay does her own manicure and has hundreds of nail colors already, I thought she could use a jar for her cotton balls.

After all, who doesn't need something cute and personalized to hold their cotton balls.

Am I right?

Or, if you need a personalized housewarming gift instead, you can check out my cookie jar wraps here.

Speaking of Lindsay...

I made these Christmas ornaments for her and her family using my new Cricut Maker.

In fact, I made personalized Christmas ornaments for a few others too.

So much fun...

Linking today to:

http://yesterdayontuesday.com/

http://www.thededicatedhouse.com/

http://www.ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com/

https://www.loulougirls.com/

Sweet comments and a little February sewing

Apparently, I didn't think the whole thing through before deciding to answer your comments via the comment section rather than my usual e-mail.

 I received so many sweet compliments on my last post and then realized I just can't pop in and add another comment to answer each one.

 I needed to add a "reply" button.

 Duh???

I tried several tutorials to add the reply button in the comments and nothing worked. 

I contacted Blogger for some help on Saturday and they still have not answered.

Anyone have any suggestions?

I am stumped.

In the meantime I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to write such sweet and encouraging comments. 

Even though I spent a good deal of time trying to figure the whole reply button thing out, I did start a little February/Valentine sewing...

Just need to add a few finishing touches...

Be back soon.