Mug Rug Mania

How 'bout those mug rugs?  It took me a while, but I finally got a few done and I can see how they can be addicting. But let me tell ya, they do NOT use up any scraps!  It made barely a scratch in the pile.  Guess I could be making these until the cows came home and still wouldn't use up piles of scraps. 

 Here's what I've done so far..

The table runner that never was....I figured I could make a lot of mug rugs from these fussy cut cardinals.

This is my first foray into the selvage world...I've been collecting them ever since I saw what Karen from Selvage Quilts was doing with hers!  Taking baby steps here... now there is nothing that gets thrown in the trash...evah!  It's a sickness I do believe.  

I made another one, but forgot to take a photo. I had a PJ party and we made these and forgot to take those pictures as well.  I'm either hot in taking photos or not. Seems to be no happy medium.  I'm thinking great little gifts, for no reason!

If you are looking for a basic tutorial, Terri at Sew-Fantastic has a great tutorial....and great mug rug. Man, the possibilities are endless.   Look for links to the Flickr pool or other blogs featuring more mug rugs.  The best thing about them, they are done in less than an hour! Woo hoo!

A PJ Pillowcase Birthday Party

What a fun way to celebrate your 10th birthday!  

Miss Special K had her 10th birthday recently and her mom and her were trying to decide what they could do special for her birthday. She wanted a slumber party, but then what?  I suggested they make pillowcases.  10 is a good age to begin girls sewing (some are capable younger than that as well) and the bonus is that it can be done in an evening and they get to go home with a USABLE project.

K and I went to JoAnn's to choose fabric, there were going to be 7 girls, including her, so that meant picking out 21 fabrics!  It takes one fabric for the main pillowcase, a coordinating one for the edge and a contrasting one for a flanged trim.   It sounded easy and fun going in, choosing what each girl might like.  But after a while choosing all those combinations became tedious.  K finally wore out and said they really didn't need the trim!  I ended up choosing them for her.  The problem was that we were making these out of nice flannels, and the selection wasn't as great.   We bought the fabric and I took it home and washed it, pre-cut it and make a little bundle of the coordinated sets to make it easier.

Birthday night rolled around and the girls were wound up!  They carpooled to my house/studio and came barreling in laughing and joking and just being girls.

They were excited to learn a new skill.  They took turns choosing which fabric bundle they wanted, and K was pretty close to being accurate in her assessment of her friends likes and dislikes.

I had all the machines ready, threaded and the speed turned all the way DOWN!   I demonstrated how to lay out all the pieces and carefully pin the layers together.

 And then to the machines.  No one, besides my granddaughter, had ever sewn by themselves.

So it was quite the experience and I was pleasantly surprised how well they really did.  Although I was glad my daughter came to help.

Teaching 7 young girls at one time took several hands.

 And of course, once done, K wanted me to embroider their names on them.  So while the girls played games and ate dinner and cake, I embroider their names on the pillowcase ends with my embroidery machine.

What a fun night!  One of the parents contacted me the next day, after her daughter went home, and asked what have I done?  Her daughter now wants a sewing machine for Christmas!!

And she got it too.  I think we might try to start a 4-H group with them this summer, and sewing is on the agenda.

I'll be posting a tutorial on making these Pillowcases.  They are SO simple and there are NO raw edges anywhere and NO serging or zigzagging the edges. It's like Magic!  Come back in a few days to see how to make these Magically Easy Pillowcases.

Making placemat purses at the PJ party

Last Friday I hosted another PJ party at my Studio and we made Placemat Purses. They are SO quick and easy, and make great gifts! Some couldn't stop at just one!

Sheri made two.........

Chele

Faye

Sam

Nicki

Emma..made another one with quilted black fabric

Natalie
made another one but got away before I could grab another picture

And mine.......Sheri found these placemats at Home Goods and so graciously let me have one. We used big wide handles and secured them with an ultrasuede tab.I embroidered my initial on the placemat before sewing it together. And had to CAREFULLY sew the tabs on to avoid the shell buttons. I removed the end buttons so I could sew it together.

I'm working on a quick little tutorial...

PJ's, tornados, aprons and the Pantry!

What started out to just a fun PJ party at my Studio making the Four Corners Apron got sidetracked when one of the gal's husband called and said that we had tornado warnings in our county and it was tracking right near us. I could hear the tornado sirens as I ran over to the house, and asked my hubby to turn on the TV and sure enough, there were tornado warnings and we were told to go straight to a basement or an inside closet. I ran back to the studio, told everyone to hurry over to my house where there was a basement. We sat down there for 1/2 hour watching 2 waves of threatening weather go right by us. We heard there might have been a touch down about 4 miles from here, but we don't know for sure. They told us on TV to go to an inside closet...so hubby thought it would be funny if we all huddled into the pantry and he took a picture. Obviously the threat of a tornado was gone and we could have some fun. But dang..it took us away from sewing for about an hour. And then I couldn't find my camera to take a picture of the finished aprons! They were cute let me tell ya!