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Mug Rugs and Applique'





Last night was Friay Night Sew In.

My Friday night sew in was shared with Linda, Buster (11 month old puppy), James (4 year old nephew), Steph and Jonny. I got some done before everyone arrived and I carried on once they'd gone home and stayed up quite late to make some progress on Christmas presents:

I started by finishing of a project I began last weekend at a class. It's a die-cut applique design of reindeers, bells and snowflakes and this was the first time that I have tried the blanket stitch on my new sewing machine - my old one didn't do blanket stitch! I was really slow, cause I was determined to be accurate, but I sped up as I went along. I wasn't planning on finishing the applique last night but the machine was threaded up and the applique foot was on so I went for it. I now need to layer it up and quilt it - I have bought some fine perle cotton and I'm going to hand quilt. Then I can make it up into a cushion. And I have the negative pieces from the die-cut so I can make a matching cushion! Maybe in time for next year!
Needless to say - the antlers and snowflakes were a little fiddly!

Then I moved onto mug rugs. I'm excited about these because I designed them all myself:

This one is for my Secret Santa at work. I have a mug to go with it that also has apples on it. The red fabrics are from the countdown to Christmas range - I have loads of leftovers from my quilt, and the blue and green were bought in Guernsey (I think they are Dunelm fabrics) I have no idea where the white came from. The apples are appliqued on (now I've learnt how to do it there's no stopping me) and the leaves and stems are embroidery. Just need to quilt and bind it! My deadline is Friday.
The second is for my manager - she loves Cath Kidston chintzy fabrics - this isn't Cath Kidston, but it is chintzy. I drafted my dresden plate petals after a lot of thought and assistance from Linda, then appliqued those on to the background fabric (I love applique). I've picked out the embroidery threads and still need to finish the embroidery. This one will be handquilted. Deadline is also Friday.If this one turns out ok, I'll make another one for Sheila to go with a lovely mug I have bought her and some beautiful chocolates. Another tight deadline as I'll need to send it in the post!
And then there's this one. I can't tell you who it's for and I can't show you too much of it before Christmas in case the recipient pops by: I'll share more about this one after Christmas because I'm quite excited about it. If it doesn't turn out how I imagine it, this may be all you ever see of it.
This weekend is my last empty weekend before Christmas so I need to make some progress on Christmas presents and start finishing some of them. Pop back tomorrow, when hopefully I'll have some finishes that I can share with you this side of Christmas!

I hope everyone else had a productive Friday Night Sew In! Follow the link at the top to see what everyone else has been up to.
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