Scrappy Mug Rug Swap- The Holiday Edition- Completed!

I got the most wonderful package in the mail from my friend, Friedazzzzz, in TX. She not only made me one mug rug, she made me 2! And one of them has Nosey Parker on it, isn't it adorable? She's under a tree, with a mouse and some presents, I just love it. AND she included a coordinating mug and a hanging, twisty penguin, such a wonderful and cute set!

The other mug rug is also exquisite, the ornaments on it are pieced and just so perfectly, too! I just love this whole set and my husband was marveling at it, "Even the tissue paper matches" he said, a few times. lol Her quilting and all the little touches she added just make this mug rug a piece of art!

Even the backs are stunning! I love these fabrics she used!

Thank you, Frieda, for making our 2nd mug rug swap such a huge success for me! I just love everything you made for me and sent to me, you are a peach!

I'll have to do another blog post to show you what I sent, I have more trouble using IE with Blogger.... and my computer guy doesn't want me to download Mozilla, which I LOVE. Grrr. This has taken me twice as long as it should have and I got only half of what I wanted to post, to show. lol

Furze Castle Kite Festival- the mini house quilt I made...

Furze Castle Kite Festival-

My partner has received the mini house quilt that I made for her, so now I can show it to you. It is so funny- she and I were both working on castles at the same time, but neither one of us knew it! How's that for being in-tune with each other?

Hedgehogs are also known as Furze-pigs, hence the name of the castle. A small moat surrounds the castle and it's guarded by man-eating, venomous manatees. OK, not really- but that sounded really tough, didn't it? There is a kite festival going on all the time and you can catch glimpses of the kites in and amongst the mushroom trees in Flyagaric Forest.

This quilt is 12" wide and 13" tall. I know, I can't quite seem to stay in the guidelines, but I needed that extra inch at the top. :)

The door flips down to expose the interior of the hedgies' living room. There's a fireplace, a comfy chair, a floor lamp and a clock. The door itself is held closed by hidden magnets and a metal piece inside the door. Chains, of course. :) A spiderweb in the upper window.

Close up of Mr. Manatee, one of my favorite features in the entire quilt. His face turned out even better than I had hoped since I botched it up initially. By making that 3D piece, it not only saved his face, it made it! His eyes and nostrils are 2 different sizes of seed beads. And blush always brings life to a critter, I've found.

I had a helper when I was working on the label. Nosey Parker doesn't seem too thrilled with it, does she?

The label. I was kind of stumped as to how to make a fun label for this. So I drew a little map of the area and tacked it down at the top. When you flip it up, you can see the personal info of who it was made for and by whom, where, when, etc.

Did you know that Nottingham was really known as Snottingham, originally? They eventually dropped the "S". And Flyagaric is another name for Amanita mushrooms. Hence the Flyagaric Forest. Hedgies love watermelon, so I gave them their own patch. And what castle doesn't have its own maze?

I added a festive bunting to the castle at the last minute, but I'm not sure I would keep it on there if this was mine. Karen is welcome to remove it if she'd like. It's almost too cluttery for me and you know how I love color! It spells out "go fly a kite". :)

Thanks for looking at my mini quilt.

And this is the mug rug I'm making for my swap partner in the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap 2, Holiday Version. I'll be putting letters on the tags to spell something out, but can't show you that until later. I couldn't think of a good way to quilt the white parts, so I stitched gold snowflakes all over it, by machine.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Mini quilt swap- Fabulous House Mini Received!

I got the nicest, cleverest mini quilt in a swap the other day! The theme was "house" and my friend Karen, Fun & Comfort Quilts, made me a super-cool POP-UP sand castle, is this neat or what? May I present "The Cat Pirates' Sand Castle"?! If you click on her name, you'll be able to read about the process of making this little delight.

This is the back, the fabric and the label are just wonderful! Oh, did I mention the dimensions? It's a mere 6.5" square when folded up! Amazingly small and precious! Making small things is much harder than making large things, if you weren't aware of that fact. Your own fingers can get in your way so much, it's very challenging.

And she included ALL this booty! Flannel skull fabric, which I love, a cute card, a rubber stamp set of a bird house and 2 sweet birds, CHOCOLATE, and some lovely fabric scraps and borders. I love it all! See the little sand castle there in the middle, folded up? NEAT!

When you open it, it's like magic! Oh, see the rock path? I've used that same fabric in the mini I made, too. In fact, Karen asked me for a tiny piece to use in this, I had no idea how she'd use it, but it's perfect here!

In each window is a different cat in some kind of swashbuckling, pirate-y pose. This one is my favorite- he's swilling grog, man. lol My kind of cat.

They're all super-cute though and one is in a dress, that's Nosey Parker! She looks like a pirate's wench, too. :) If you look at my Flickr photostream, you'll find photos of all the wonderful cats in the windows. Karen printed them out onto fabric and sewed them in, she's just a wonderfully creative lady!

Here it is again, for your viewing and drooling pleasure! I just love this, it incorporates everything I love so much- castles, 3D, cleverness, cats, the beach, pirates, I swear I almost hyperventilated when I opened it! I can't believe that people take all this time to make me the most wonderful of things! Thank you so much, Karen! I will treasure this forever!

And since it's a swap, I've made a little quilt for her, too. I can't show you yet, but I will soon, it's on the way to her now. Here's a little peek, though, of one thing that's in it.

I couldn't be happier with what I got from Karen, she put a lot of thought, time and effort into this, thank you so much, sweetie!

Placemat swap is over- again!

The placemat quilt swap is over, again. This time, my partner was Julie and she made me TWO fabulous placemats and a set of matching coasters! They are just wonderful and so colorful. We decided to both make wonky, liberated placemats out of Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

Here are the two she sent me- I wasn't expecting two, that was a shocker! How generous of her!

And this is the back of them-

I'm really pleased with these, they suit our kitchen/dining area just beautifully! Thanks so much to Julie! I love 'em!

And this in the ONE I sent her- I feel like a cheapskate! I did send her 2 fat quarters of KF fabric, I hope that counts for a little something! This is the front-

And this is the back- the leaves are the label and they snap off so when you lay it on the table with the other side up, there won't be 2 lumpy spots. The funky birds are taken from an image I found online.
Edit- I was just informed that the bird image is from the work of http://mrsmoenpatterns.blogspot.com/2010/02/funky-fowl-pattern.html 

I need to go check her stuff out, I like her quirky style!

The solid color is a shot cotton and it's soooo pretty! Made by weaving hot pink and turquoise threads together, it changes color and it's just too cool.

I had fun making this, and making it reversible MAYBE makes up for it not being 2 placemats. That sneaky Julie! lol Another successful swap, yay!