Lots of progress, but not much to show...

In case you're curious, here's what I've been working on for the past week or so:

about 9 billion mug rugs, tops and backs, but no actual quilting has taken place yet...

fabric circles for a Christmas wreath...

Folksy Flannel quilt (but I need more yardage and am waiting for a sale or coupon, because I'm cheap...)

I feel like I need to complete something to feel a sense of accomplisment here. Also, I won't let myself start another quilt until all of those mug rugs are done.

Oh, but last night was Saturday and so I thought I'd get wild and crazy, put on pajamas, cozy up in bed at 10 and make a wishlist at Above All Fabric! Do I know how to party or what?? Remember getting the Toys R Us catalog and circling everything you wanted and dreaming about winning a shopping spree... ? Well that's what we have here. Melanie of Above All Fabric is hosting a giveaway for $100, $50 and $25 to her store! Visit her blog for details on how to enter yourself. I actually plan on playing the wishlist game a little tonight before bed too... it helps ease me into a happy slumber (no really).

I've always wanted every color of Sandi Henderson's Henna Garden print. That print has the ability to be awesome with just 2 colors. It always catches my eye and looks good with so many different fabrics. I'm also quite interested in getting my hands on some of Tula Pink's new Parisville collection. I love every color way equally... I want them all in a bad, bad way...

...okay, time for chores and then off to dream about fabric!

My First "Mug Rug"

I just discovered these little guys (remember, I'm still new here) and they are addictive. Therefore... everyone gets mug rugs for Christmas!

I probably have family members reading this now thinking "Oh great, what the hell do I need a mug rug for?" and the truth is that nobody needs a mug rug, but I made this one for myself today and every time I catch it out of the corner of my eye, I am filled with happiness! This is probably because I'm a fabric addict, quilt addict and made it with my own hands, but... have a look:





Are you filled with happiness too?? Look at all of those neat, tidy little squares. See that one next to the blank white one? Doesn't that fill you with JOY?? What about the tiny little hot pink polka dot scrap in the binding?!

No? Well then certainly the back of this puts a huge grin on your face...



Oh the sad reality is that I will probably get far more joy out of making these things than my family members will receiving them, but I gave up on the equal-value-gift-card-exchange years ago ("Oh you got me a $50 gift card to Lowes? Well I got you a $50 gift card to Home Depot!"). We've been doing handmade xmas gifts for years now and it helps us enjoy Christmas more (I am easily stressed and find the holidays to be pretty draining... and I'm a cynical pessimist). I hope it helps a few others enjoy Christmas more too... ? I mean really, if you want something at Home Depot, you'll go get it yourself, right?



Ahhh... a nice little piece of comforting, creative success :)

Nick's Quilt

Double shabam! Another finished quilt! This one has sat around without binding for a few weeks. I made it for my husband and while it's not necessarily "manly", I don't think anything about it is soft or feminine. The main focus was on the color scheme. My son's shirt happened to match, so I let him get in this pic (like I had a choice).



I used the Turning Twenty pattern (but did the 12 fat quarter version), which I love! The instructions for cutting and constructing these large-scale blocks goes so fast, and I like any pattern that can show off a lot of the fabric design.

This quilt is full of whimsy and nature. It has birds, birdcages, birds IN birdcages, hummingbirds, moths, bees, guitars and owls. I love every single print in this quilt.



I wasn't sure about this binding. In fact, I actually started binding it with Kona Ash. I was attempting to machine bind, even though I know I don't like it (machine binding, that is), and it got pretty ugly. I ripped it all out and rather than go to Joann's and buy more Ash, I grabbed this really bright Bella turquoise I had on hand. I didn't have quite enough, so I threw in a couple of scrap pieces from the quilt. Each one ended up near a corner. If you look on the right edge of the quilt in this picture you can see where one just happened to end up on the same fabric print. I like that.



I quilted this with wonky lines about an inch apart and I LOVE it. My favorite so far. Actually, I quilted straight lines 2 inches apart with masking tape and then did a wonky line down the middle of each of those. I don't like marking lines on my quilts, so I'll pretty much always be using something else as a guide. This worked well, I think.



The backing is Kona Coal and I had planned to piece some of the scraps into the back, but I got lazy. No good excuse here, but I think there's plenty going on in front for interest. My husband seems to really like it; he slept with it all night <3

Treetop Fancy quilt!

Shabam! Out of nowhere! If I don't blog for a couple of days I guess it's safe to assume that I'm busy completing a project. Introducing: my Treetop Fancy Quilt!



I made the quilt top for this a couple of months ago when I was first starting out but was unmotivated to move further. I thought I didn't like the fabrics, but I lovc them now! Too bad this quilt isn't for me; it's a Christmas present for my in-laws (I don't think they know about my blog). I am really happy with how this turned out. The best part is that I didn't use a pattern. I knew I wanted to make a stacked coins quilt, and I just went with it. I had a Moda off-white jelly roll, so I used that for easy sashing.



I also tried something else new this time: wavy line quilting! So easy and so pleasing to look at. I just quilted a free-form wavy line down the middle of each coin horizontally. I finished the quilting in about an hour.



I think my most favorite part about this quilt is the backing: a print! It's like 2 quilts in one. The fabric is actually from the Fairy Tiptoes line, but since it's Tina Givens, the colors matched perfectly. I bought it on sale for $2.49 a yard so it was like under $8 for printed backing!



I totally forgot to measure this, but it's lap size. Probably should have taken a picture of the entire back too...