Earthtones Girl

Yesterday was my dear friend Carolyn’s birthday.  We met today in a beautiful park in Hastings to chat and catch up and gossip and share our love of creating.  It is so restorative to one’s soul to spend time with people who love and accept you for all that you are.   Thank you my friend.

Here’s her birthday gift…A Mug Rug (aka a quilted coaster, but mug rug sounds so much more hip or 1950s depending on your perspective)

Of course I found the idea on Pinterest and had to make one.  People have whole Mug Rug boards!  It is also an amazing little canvas on which to practice and sharpen my quilting skills.

I choose the easy way on this one and used one solid piece of fabric but again imagine all the piecing and quilt block possibilities.

The size of the project also lends itself to fitting the bill for instant gratification.  I made this last night in 2 hours.  I probably shouldn’t have even taken that long but I did the binding by hand.  I still haven’t perfected machine binding yet.  But HEY…I can practice on these.  Can you guess what everyone is getting for Christmas?   All those teacher gifts, hostess gifts…etc.   All those people on your list that you want to recognize at the holidays but can’t/ don’t want to spend a fortune on.

Here’s my Everest addition.  A little applique, again more practice.

I call it an Everest addition because at 11:30 last night you might ask why I even bothered, because I could.  Why climb Everest, because it’s there.

Someone said you have to log 1,000 hours of free motion quilting to really feel comfortable and be good at doing it.  Yes, my Bernina has the BSR feature but I want to be good at this on my own.  Finally a use for all those free motion tutorials I’ve pinned.

In case you’re wondering, I only gifted the rug, not the mug.  I wanted to include one using this idea.  However,  I’m making her a second one and will have it ready by our next get together.

This mug is mine and was a stand in for the photo shoot this morning.  I bought it at Home Goods for $3!!  Gotta love it!!

I went to bed at 1am but who cares.  The look of happiness on Carolyn face made it more than worth it!!  Who doesn’t love something made just for them?