Mug Rug Making Time!

It's time to have fun with mug rugs!

Recently , an overseas friend,  Amanda, from The Patchsmith,  began  selling her original (and totally cute ) designs on Craftsy .  When I looked at her patterns on Craftsy,   I immediately fell in love with her Scottie Dog Mug Rug Pattern!! 

                                        Amanda's Scottie Dog Mug Rug   - The Patchsmith

And I knew I wanted to make this for my mother. Years ago, she bought a little sweater for my daughter,  then just  a toddler, that was red with a cute Scottie Dog applique on the front.  I think Amanda's mug rug brought back that fond memory.

I went to look over my fabric stash, and found that I had some  black and white fabric , with some gold scrolling in it.  It was actually part of a holiday fabric line by Moda.  After digging around more,  I decided to make it a Christmas Mug Rug. 

                                   About ready to cut out the dog applique...  

Amanda's directions are clear and easy to follow!   I used the Moda fabric for the doggies, and  some past year's JoAnn holiday fabrics for the rest. 

             I picked the plaid fabric for the back, as well as for the doggie coats.

                               I handstitched the binding to the back side...

                                 And then  added a red and a green button!

                           The doggies are ready to go in the mail to my mother!

As soon as  I made the mug rug, which made up QUICKLY,  I wanted to make another one!  But, I had to take a break , to get our son organized to go back to college.

When I told my sister, Amy, of  AmyMadeThat! , what  projects I made for the week, she told me that she just made the same mug rug for my mother's friend, who has a Westie dog (A West Highland Terrier ).  (This poor little Penny  is very sick.  ) 
            So , there we had a Sister To Sister Mug Rug Challenge, without even trying!

                                         Amy's  Scottie Dog Mug Rug
 (I am totally jealous of   pretending not to notice her mug that coordinates with her mug rug.)

                                
I like all 3 versions!  What do you think?   Go on over to check out Amanda's  and Amy's blogs to see how talented these two are!  (Amy also has an etsy shop and sells patterns on Craftsy.)

I have another fabric variation  for a  Scottie mug rug in mind already.  I am going to try to make some for Christmas gifts early .

I am  so thankful for all of the new friends that I have met through reading blogs,  sharing pictures on Flickr, and now writing on my own blog. On top of all of that,  I  just fell  into a "lucky spell" .    I really never won anything before.  

A few weeks ago, I commented on one of my favorite blogs,   Annie's musings , telling Annie that I thought,  " ME! ME! ME! "   I should be the recipient of her beautiful , but still un-named,  fabric postcard with a flower.   
Guess who she picked?!   Yes,   lucky- ducky ME!   

                                                 I named this precious work of art-
                                                  Black-Eyed Susan Joy.
She has a tutorial describing how she makes her fabric postcards, and then how she actually can MAIL them through our postal system!   (Go see her blog to see what an amazing artist she is!  I love her designs!)

                      The back side is actual paper-   with a note from Annie to me!
(I asked her to mail it in an envelope, because we had bad weather for a long time  , and I didn't want any part of it to get  wet or ruined in route.)

Thank you so very much, Annie, for your generous gift! I treasure it!   I will think of you and smile every day when I see my postcard in my Sunroom!!

That's not the only thing  I won ....

I'm off to my sewing room!

Using Texts Fabric Block 1

Blocks using  Text in the Fabric  Block #1

Today is the day to officially post my blocks for  During Quiet Times  Texting While Sewing Contest!  I am a beginner at paper piecing, but have fallen in love with all that you can make with it.  And I can't believe how imaginative people are with their paper pieced designs!  Go on over to look at all of the beautiful work!

The contest  guidelines were to make 12  inch blocks, incorporating text fabric in creative ways.
I knew what I wanted to make as soon as I saw this pretty fabric on Fabric.com.  
It was called French Post Cream  by Michael Miller.  I loved the romantic colors and style of it immediately.  Then I remembered seeing a rosebud paper pieced pattern online. It was a design by Cat Magraith, which I enlarged.                                                

                                              Rosebud on postcards

I want to make it a mini wall hanging someday soon.

I had so much fun making this block!    Part 2 to follow....

I'm off to my sewing room!