Scrap Play and Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome. Today I'll share with you the scrappy mug rugs that I made for my son's niece. She loves playing with mug rugs, so what could be easier? They are so much fun to make. I also have more Floral Fusion blocks. It's looking very cool 😎

Scrappy Mug Rugs

At the last Common Thread Quilt Guild meeting, I picked up a lot of fun scraps. With only a couple of additions from my own scrap bins, I made 5 mug rugs. They are so cute!

Five mug rugs and friends

I used four of the scrappy fabrics for the centre and then added two or more borders to finish them off. I used the envelope method again, so no binding needed. I got the order of the fabrics right but managed to inverse the backing of the last two mug rugs. It's a good thing that the back of those fabrics look fine.

My last two mug rugs have backing that is the wrong side of the fabric.
Good thing they still look fine 😊

Here are the five mug rugs. Aren't the fabrics cute?

Cute animal fabric

Gotta love those sweet flamingos and the border fabric

Alice in Wonderland scrap looks great

A couple of gorgeous sloths. 

The centre of this mug rug was a strip of black and white fabric sewn together. It made for a great mug rug.
 

Neutral mug rug

Another fun shot

More Floral Fusion Blocks

I've made a few more Floral Fusion blocks. Here they are all together. I have no idea how I'll organise them since I don't think that I want to make a full quilt. We'll see.

All the blocks so far

My two blocks 8 don't have the best contrast but I think that they'll look fine when everything is together. Otherwise, I'll just make more!

Block 8

Another Block 8

Block 1 and 7

Block 2 and 7

What I learned

• I was really happy about getting my pillowcase method done properly until I noticed that the back fabric of the last two mug rugs was backwards.
• I'm lucky that they look fine - the colour is just less sharp.
• The Floral Fusion blocks are doing well. I was a little disappointed in the look of the blocks 8. I thought that they would pop more. You can blame the problem on value. It looks like too much of the fabric has the same value. I'll have to watch out for that.

Related links

• Journals and blocks on Free Motion Mavericks, September 12, 2024
• Floral Fusion and hand-stitching on Free Motion Mavericks, September 05, 2024
• Floral Fusion Sew Along

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties including The Quiltery's Floral Fusion Sew Along. Check them out after you've linked up below! Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Midweek Makers, Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off The Wall Friday, Beauties Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2024, Oh Scrap!,

I'm linking up my neutral mug rug to the September's 2024 Table Scrap Challenge. There are no leaves but the colour is right!

I'm also linking up my mug rugs and friends on Jetgirl's Favorite Finish for September.

Free Motion Mavericks    

Welcome to week 499 of Free Motion Mavericks! Thank you to all who linked up their projects. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Both of our featured quilts were part of the Island Batik: Adventurous Appliqué Blog Hop. Both quilters used the Edge-Coloring Appliqué method. You can watch a video on their posts.

First we have Quilting Gail. Gail used her machine's fancy stitches for the appliqué. What a great quilt!

Six lovely appliquéd pieces

One of the many lovely butterflies

Brenda of Songbird Designs appliquéd her whimsical Floral Fauna. What a beauty!

Floral Fauna by Brenda

Look at all of those flowers making up the butterfly!

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Table Scraps Challenge on Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 462 of Free Motion Mavericks - our last linking party for 2023. This week, if you don't have anything new to link up, why not link up a favourite post or quilt? It doesn't have to be free motion quilted, just a excuse to join in the fun 🍷🍾🎄🥳

A colourful scrappy mug rug

December's colour for the challenge is rainbow and the letters are S, H, and E.

Do you remember the teal scrappy improv runner that I made for my brother's birthday? Well I had pieced a mug rug with the same fabric but never got it finished....so here it is. To add something special to it, I used some of my Jag's fancy stitches. I added them to my sampler page and quilted up the mug rug with different stitches and variegated thread.

Colourful scrappy mug rug

You can really see the stitches clearly from the back. That was a lot of fun 😊

Back of the mug rug - what fun stitches!

There's not much to say about the construction except that I stitched it and then removed the batting from the edges. That left me with some backing fabric that I then trimmed and sewed down to make the binding.

Stitched mug rug

I had originally decided to cut the binding to one inch, but that was too wide. I ended up cutting it to ¾" and then folding it twice and stitching it down. 

Batting removed to make the binding

You can see the different stitches that I used (click the image for a closer view). My binding is really not great but it will stay together!

Rug mug stitched with fancy machine stitches

This is the stitch sampler page that I added to while I played with the stitches. I made several pages like this at one time, but got bored! At least I'm adding to it when I play with stitches....and when I'm really feeling smart, I'll even sample the stitch before I use it 😃. The two complete rows on the left were made before I stitched the binding on my niece's t-shirt quilt last week.

Stitch samples

For the holiday season, I bought some Twining's Gingerbread Tea. It's black tea with ginger and cinnamon. I'm not a huge tea drinker, but it's really good with maple syrup! 😋

Mug rug, tea and chocolate. Yeah! 

I wrote a post yesterday about the Best of 2023. I took the opportunity to go through the year's projects to see what I accomplished. For the 2023 ABC Table Scraps Challenge, I have one WIP (work in progress - Swirling Leaves 3) and there is a mug rug that was for February but was finished in October and never blogged about. Unfortunately the December mug rug is missing, but I'm not redoing this photo.  

This year's 2023 ABC Table Scraps Challenge

What I learned

• Using the fancy stitches wasn't difficult, unless you have to stop and start over. Depending on the stitch used, that can be pretty tricky.
• Trust me when I say that you do not want to have to pick these stitches out!!!!
• I used one of the stitches for the t-shirt quilt. The first corner was difficult because the machine got stuck, but the others went well. I though that it would be the same here, but I didn't realise that working on a much narrower binding wasn't the same. The corners were harder to fold on this smaller quilt and binding.
• I'm happy with my mug rug and I'm sure that my brother will like it. It was a Scrappy, Happy Endeavor

Related links

• A Scrappy Improv Runner Reveal at Free Motion Mavericks, September 28, 2023
• Secret FMQ and T-shirt Quilt Update on Free Motion Mavericks, September 21, 2023
• Best of 2023 Linking Party, December 26, 2023
• T-shirt Quilt Finish on Free Motion Mavericks, December 21, 2023

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many linking parties. Why not check them out, after you link up below? I'll be linking up to the Joyful Quilter's December 2023 ABC Table Scraps Challenge when it opens, as well as Midweek Makers, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, Patchwork & Quilts, Finished (or Not) Friday,

Project details

Colourful scrappy mug rug

Made for the December 2023 ABC Table Scraps Challenge

Size: 7" x 8"

Material: commercial cotton scraps, variegated thread

Technique: improv piecing, quilted using fancy machine stitches

Free Motion Mavericks

Gail reminded us that the 2024 Stay At Home Round Robbin is happening again soon. Here is one of the quilts that she has made during the challenge. Check out her post if you're interested in participating this year!

One of Gail's previous SAHRR quilt

Thank you Melva for linking up to the party. Here is Melva's mini, Star of Wonder. 

Melva's mini, Star of Wonder

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Joyeux Noël - Merry Christmas

Hi, I would like to take a few minutes from preparing digesting Christmas supper to wish you a Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noël and a happy holiday season!🎄I am so grateful to have all of you in my life.😊

Last minute Christmas quilting

This week I finished a couple more Christmas scrappy mug rugs. These two went to my son and his girlfriend. 

Two scrappy rug mugs

Some minor FMQ

FMQ following the fabrics' patterns, including Stars!

Blue Christmas fabric for the backs

These two, slightly smaller mug rugs went to my girlfriend.

Two scrappy Christmas mug rugs

Some free motion quilting - with ivy leaves

More free motion quilted ivy leaves

The back of the mug rugs

We've had a couple of winter storms. This one was on December 16th. 

Winter storm as seen from inside 😊

Prayer Flags

I've been wanting to make Prayer Flags for a while now. I thought that finishing them with FMQ would give me some much needed practice. I was finally able to put them up today since the heavy winds have subsided. I'm sending prayers to the Universe for Peace, Joy, and a Merry Christmas through my prayer flags. 

Flags on the snow since it was too windy to put in the trees yesterday

Peace - Inner peace, Serenity and Paix

Wishing for a Merry Christmas (Joyeuses Fêtes)

This one is for JOY (joie)

I'm finishing up with my favourite holiday character - the Grinch!

A Grinch tapestry made a very long time ago!

What I've learned

• Although I'm retired, my life has not slowed down. It seems that living in minor chaos and stress has become a habit that I need to break!
• I want to make more time to visit my friends now that I'm not working full time, but this is also something that needs to be worked at!
• This year I promised to try to not be a Grinch about Christmas. I must say that I didn't enjoy the rushing around to get ready (as usual), but I've had a lot of fun in the last two days.
• As you know, I've spent a lot of time FMQ the Version 2.0 quilt. There is a possible finish before year end!
• If I want to finish Version 2.0, I'll be working on it and FMQ full time after Boxing Day. Wish me luck!

Related links

• Surviving the Holidays (aka 10 strategies for surviving the holidays), December 20, 2021

Linking Parties

I'll be linking up these cute mug rugs to the 2022 Table Scraps Challenge as well as many fun linking parties. Let's check them out 😊. Patchwork & Quilts, Off The Wall Friday, Put your foot down, Peacock Party, Beauties Pageant, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2022, Midweek Makers, Sew & Tell, DrEAMi!, My Corner of the World, 

Sun flames, swirls and rail fence blocks

Hello and welcome to Week 410 of Free Motion Mavericks. I'm glad that you stopped by. I free motion quilted (FMQ) some flames and swirls to the sun in the middle of the Version 2.0 quilt.

Flames and Swirls

Last week I finished the Free Motion Mavericks post by showing you the Sun that I stitched with the walking foot in the middle blue section of the quilt. The section is not quite finished but I did add flames extending between the sun's points and then swirls in the middle of the sun.

This first picture isn't as pretty but does show the FMQ well. Between each point in the sun is a flame. I was very nervous about stitching in such a large area so I drew a few flames on the paper template that I had created. It only took a few to figure out that I wanted the flame to start outside of where the Sun's points intersected.

Sun with flames and swirls

After finishing the flames, I FMQ just inside the circle of the sun. It was much more wobbly than the original Sun stitched with the walking foot but I just wanted to highlight the circle. I then started stitching the swirls. That went fairly well since each swirl wasn't that large. The design also allowed me to stop often to get my barring. 

Another look at the Sun, the flames and the swirls

When I finished the FMQ, I started cleaning up the threads in the back. I discovered that when I had used the walking foot and had jumped to the next flame, the stitching was starting to come undone😲. I thought that I had added a few stitches in place but obviously not enough. The easiest thing to do was to FMQ over the original circle and take a detour over the small triangles where the sun's points intersected. This helped to highlight the Sun's circle as well as stitch over those threads that would have undone.😊

Making Rail Fence Blocks

This week I also made rail fence blocks for Cynthia's (Cynthia Brunz Designs) charity quilts . At the end of November, she asked if quilters could send her some dark blue and brown or tan rail fence blocks. You know how I'm accuracy challenged, so I thought that making blocks would be easier than making a whole quilt.  

I might have been mistaken in my assumptions 😊! Getting those rail fence blocks to finish at 5½" x 5½" took a lot of hard work but was probably a very good exercise for me. Of the 14 blocks that I made, 12 are good enough to send to Cynthia. Two were a whole ½" smaller, so I kept those and made two mug rugs. I did learn a lot and I'm including that below. 

First mug rug

Second mug rug

Two lovely mug rugs

I quilted them differently, with the walking foot, to see the effect. The top mug rug was stitched more or less in-the-ditch, while the mug rug below was stitched perpendicular to the piecing. It really gives a different effect. 

What I learned

• Drawing the sun flames on the large paper template was a great idea. It helped me understand the scale of the flames and figure out where to start and finish them relative to the points.
• I used a Frixion pen to draw the first flame on the quilt. After that I was confident that I could do it without the marking.
• I was a bit upset when I saw that the thread at the beginning of the Sun's points were unravelling. I just ignored it while I finished up the swirls and then realised that FMQ over them would solve the problem. That is what I do when I come to the end of my bobbin thread. I just stitch over a part that is already stitched and then keep going - so that's essentially what I did. I checked the back of the quilt, and it's going to be fine 😊.
• As for the rail fence blocks, I was very careful in the sewing and pressing of the blocks, so the problem has to be in the initial cutting of the fabric. 
• I did as Cynthia suggested and made the block length longer so that I could trim them, but my problem was with the width. After trimming a couple of blocks, that's when I realised that I had a potential problem. From then on, I was very accurate in my sewing. I'm really happy that only two blocks didn't make it.

Related links

• Lori Kennedy, Sunshine variations
• Lori Kennedy, Free Motion Machine Quilting 1-2-3
• Oh Scrap! Something to keep me Busy, Nov 27, 2022

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun link ups. You may want to check them out...after you have linked your blog below :-) Needle & Thread Thursday, Finished or Not Finished Friday, Put your foot down, Peacock Party, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, Oh Scrap!, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2022.  

Free Motion Mavericks

We are starting to have a real party with FMQ and other posts. Remember, you don't have to do FMQ to link up! 

Karen made a lovely personalized ballerina quilt for her granddaughter Livia. She did some lovely FMQ flower swirls. It's really lovely.

Karen's lovely quilt for Livia, her granddaughter 

Melva finished her Pieces in the Garden Row Quilt by FMQ 5" clam shells. The quilt is based on the story of a "Bride's Quilt" and was her November OMG. Find out the significance of the various blocks by visiting her post. It's really lovely in front of the small chapel/shed. 

Melva's Pieces in the Garden Row Quilt

Rebecca is wowing us all with her mixture of digital quilting, FMQ and ruler work on her Jingle quilt. Here is the border that she is FMQ. Amazingly enough, it turns out that FMQ is faster than both the ruler work and the individual digital quilting!

The borders are FMQ on Rebecca's Jingle quilt

We also got to check out Raewyn's finished big Boxer floor cushion cover. The kids are going to love playing with this cushion! 

What a great big Boxer floor cushion cover!

It's now your turn 😎

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter