Mug Rug and A Winner

I decided to make a mug rug and try a new way of quilting. As you can see I reverted to good old straight line quilting. What a wimp. The pattern, Matchsticks is a freebie by Amy Newbold and you can find it at the Art Gallery Blog. It is basically a mini disappearing 9 patch. I won a prize at the Empty Bobbin Sewing Studio Blog while in Perth.

I won 3 patterns but it is the Studio Stitches pattern I want to make first. I got the pattern in a PDF format which is great because I got it straight away. I won a book last year which I didn't get at a different blog. It is very expensive to send things to Australia and I hope it wasn't sent and not lost in the mail.

Some Plans

I am going to join in Little Miss Shabby Quilty Stitches Stitch Along. It is a cross stitch based on quilt blocks and is sooo cute.For my floss I wanted to use what I have so I got out the latest Australian fabric I bought and am going to pull the colours out of this.

I also want to make a plus quilt using Australian fabric and some batiks simlilar to mug rug I made earlier. I saw a gorgeous quilt on Cabbage Quilts blog which has made me really want to make one. Unfortunately I am working full time starting tomorrow for 6 weeks so will probably not start it for a while.

Aurifil Block of the Month

I decided to do the Aurifil Block of the Month. January's designer is Brigitte Heitland from Zen Chic. I have used batik scraps with black background. I have so many batik scraps and fat quarters in these colours I have enough to do all the blocks but I am tempted to add a few spool blocks and make a sewing machine mat. Brigitte made a cute table runner with these blocks. Still undecided at the moment!

Christmas in Perth

We had a lovely family Christmas in Perth. It was so nice to spend time with family and friends. I love living here but we are so far away. Before we left for Perth I had a dream that when my mum opened her presents she was very disappointed and told me I did not get her enough [my mum would never do this]. So I quickly quilted a table runner I had made with Jelly Roll scraps from an old Deb Strain line to give her. I quilted it with straight lines which I love but the quilting dragged the quilt a little so I wasn't completely happy with it but I gave it to mum anyway. I figured she wouldn't care.

I love the racoon print in Tula Pinks Acacia line so I bought a charm pack. I decided to make something for B because she loves racoons. My husband was a little put out as he thought I should have made him something. I wanted to make a big cushion and used a European pillow for the cushion. I got the idea from the Crazy for Daises cushion pattern that was a web extra at McCalls quilting and changed the measurements so I used a charm square cut in half for each block. I used a couple of Kate Spain prints to keep the colours I wanted.