Giveaway Prize

Lynn, if you want to be surprised by the mug rug you've won, look away!

Everyone else...check this out. :)

I muddled over quite a few ideas and pulled out many, many different fabrics before I settled on the Giveaway Day winning mug rug.  (And, truth be told, there was a point that I wasn't certain that I was headed in the right direction with this design.  Thanks to Mom and Benah for the encouragement.)  I wanted to work in as many of Lynn's likes as possible, but it also needed to work as a whole.  After messing with some other layouts, I came back to doing a small log cabin.  Largely because I heart them so much myself.  I wanted it to look kind of traditional, but not be just a log cabin square bound as a mug rug.

Choosing the fabrics was fun.  My initial plan was to work through the color scale of orange to yellow to green to blue and, ideally have the colors move from lighter to darker shades.  And it looked silly.  So I moved things around a bit until it felt right, and ended up dropping the blue fabrics out completely.  And then most of the green.  It just wasn't gelling right, and the mug rug was going to end up a massive log cabin square.

So, focusing on yellow and orange and a touch of green, I came up with:



And a fun green on the back, where you can see the quilting a bit better.



I hope it suits your tastes, Lynn!  :)

And the Winner is...

Thank you all so much to everyone who visited the blog and decided to enter the giveaway.  It was much more popular than I expected it to be and I'm thrilled that so many of you decided to follow the blog as well.  Hopefully you'll stick around a bit and enjoy it. :)

Before I announce a winner, I want to say that I wish I could have chosen everyone.  Seriously.  The comments that were posted were so much fun that I wish I could make a mug rug for everyone who took the time to enter, but I'm afraid that postage would kill me.  That said, I AM going to chose more than the initial randomly chosen winner.  There were a couple of comments that put such a clear picture into my mind that I can't NOT make those mug rugs.  I'm going to announce those winners in a second post, though.

So.  For the moment that you've been waiting for...

I used Random.org to choose a winner, but I'm not certain how to post the screen shot.  You'll just have to take my word for it.

Our winner is...#34, wooLynn, who said: "What a great giveaway! I like greens, blues, yellows, orange and natural linen but not red and no pastels. I would use it on my craft table maybe for coffee and a snack or to place my rug hooking scissors and hook. Log cabin with various widths or a random type of patchwork would be cool."

I'll be contacting you to get your address and I'll get started on your mug rug as soon as I hear back from you.  I'm really looking forward to creating a mug rug for you - the ideas are already starting to flow!

And, everyone else, watch for the second post.  I'm going to mull over the other entries and narrow down my favorites, then make another post later today.

Thank you all!

Giveaway Day!

Welcome, welcome to everyone who's visiting as part of Sew, Mama, Sew's May Giveaway Day!

Up for grabs today is your very own mug rug.  Don't know what a mug rug is?  By definition, it's a quilted piece of artwork larger than a standard coaster and smaller than a placemat, used as a resting place for a beverage and a snack.  But often used for many other things. ;)  (I'll be honest.  I have one next to my computer that I use as intended.  And one next to my sewing machine as a resting place for my scissors so I always know where they are.)

This mug rug will be made JUST FOR YOU, based off of a short list of likes.

What do you have to do to enter?  Easy-peasy.  Just post here on the blog with a few things that tickle your fancy.  "I love orange and hexies and want to use the mug rug as a resting place for my cat's food bowl."  (I'd be sure to add a waterproof liner!)  Or, maybe "Polka dots make me shout with joy and I really like anything round.  But I don't care much for blue."  Or even "Elephants are my favorite animals.  Ever.  And I kind of like stripes."  You get the picture.  Just make sure that I have some way of contacting you if you win.  Blog followers get a second entry, free of charge.  Just post again letting me know that you are.  (New blog followers welcome!)

Entries will be accepted from right now through May 25th (I'll close submissions in the wee hours of May 26th) and I'll get working on the mug rug as soon as the winner has been contacted and responded, so that it can go into the mail quickly.

Good luck and have fun with all of the giveaways!  (And be sure to check out my TWO giveaways at frog loves monkey!  You have lots and lots of chances to win there!)

Mug Rug Swap - Round 4

I got involved in the Mug Rug swap on flickr just in time for round two.  (And I'll have to look back to see just what I've posted about that...)  I didn't really need another hobby, but I think I might be hooked.  They're great.  Tiny little quilts, big enough for a beverage and a snack.  Relatively quick to put together, small enough that you can experiment and they have the potential to be stinkin' cute.

...so I'm still going with the swap. ;)

This is a blind swap, so I'm not at liberty to name my partner just yet.  Soon.  For now, I'll say that I was a little bit stumped on what to do for her.  She gave some really great information and I didn't expect to get stuck, but I did.  I latched on to her love of "kitschy" and decided to run with it...only, how exactly would SHE define the word?  I did some flickr stalking and fabric eyeballing, and ended up with this selection:

(Warning: crappy night time cell phone photos ahead!)



The Alexander Henry chicken fabric was something that I came across at Joanne's and didn't even realize what it was.  But it tickled me, so I abandoned my previous kitschy idea and let the rooster lead.



I was pleased.  Sort of.

I posted the pictures as a sneak peek to the group (which is suggested).  It was well received.  But it just didn't feel quite right for it's intended owner.  I stalked some more.  I eyeballed some more.  I went back to my original plan (and ended up with another Alexander-Henry-found-at-Joanne's fabric), and then abandoned it again.

I settled on bunting.  Because it's kind of fun, the design appeared very clearly in my head and (most importantly), my partner says she likes bunting.

I posted another sneak peek.





These photos were also well received.  And I have it on good authority that the person I'm making this for will be pleased.  So I'm ecstatic.

My original binding plan (polka dots) really, really, really didn't work out.  WAY too busy.  So I settled on black.  I think it frames it nicely.

It's kind of hard to tell in the photo, but I've quilted the front with big fluffy clouds.  It seemed to fit. :)



The back is quilted separately, straight lines.  I didn't figure I could go wrong with a little straight line quilting.  And I totally stole the tagging idea from some of the other swappers.  Had a stamp made up and heat set the ink on twill tape.  Brilliant.  Tagging is normally pretty stressful, but I love this.  It's easy-peasy, and I think it's super cute, too.


And, this time, I've gathered a few things to round out the package.  In addition to the mug rug - which I hope she enjoys! - I'm sending a mug, some teas in flavors that her profile suggests that she'll enjoy, a tin of sentimental candies and an Arizona-themed postcard.  Can't wait to see what she thinks of it!

Mug Rug Finish!

(First, I know...I totally dropped the ball on NaBloPoMo.  But that's not the point of this post.)

Because I don't have *quite* enough on my plate, I decided awhile back that I REALLY wanted to take part in the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap.  I watched the last round come to close, drooling over all of the terribly creative and oh-so-cute things that people thought up and I HAD to get my name on the list for the holiday/everyday round!

This is a blind swap, so I know who I'm making for (though I can't say yet!), but not who's making one for me.  Very exciting!

I was lucky to be somewhat familiar with the photostream of the person who's name I was given.  Not saying any more than that so that I don't drop too many clues, but I was at least vaguely familiar with some of what she's done recently.  It was kind of cool to see that I'd drawn her name. :)  And the questionnaire thing we filled out gave me some ideas that I probably wouldn't have come up with strictly from looking at her photostream.

After a bit of thought, I knew which fabrics I wanted to use, but hadn't entirely settled on an idea.  Tonight, I cut into the fabrics with a plan in mind...and then watched the mug rug take shape on it's own.  It's totally not what I had initially planned to make, but it just came together so nicely that I ran with it.



Given the green stripy fabric, straight line quilting seemed the best fit.  I did a stitch-in-the-ditch at the edge of each white strip and then eyeballed the interior stitching lines so that they wouldn't be quite even.  It seemed like a good idea since the green stripes and the robot are both a little bit wonky and not-straight.  It's backed and self-bound in the green fabric.  My initial plan was to hand stitch the binding in place, but I kind of liked the idea of visible, light stitching.  Doing it by machine kept the stitches even and, I hope, seem a little more "robotic".

Or maybe I'm just talking out my ear.

At any rate, I'm pleased with how the mug rug turned out and I hope that my partner likes it, too.  We still have a few days before it has to be in the mail and I'm contemplating a holiday themed mug rug as well.  (She didn't specify one way or the other.)  I've got an idea for that one too, but the way this one took off on it's own, I'll have to see what happens when I start working with the fabric...

(This mug rug finished at 7 1/4 by 9 1/4 inches.)