What should I show you today?

Wanna see another mug rug? I did one yesterday.....and I'm pretty sure it'll be going to my sister-in-law for her birthday. She's a tea/latte (did I spell that right????) and loves big mugs. I love match-matchy stuff, so naturally I had to try to match the mug as well as I could even though you can't see it so good on the first pic:

Let's see if this helps:

Looks good, huh? Hey, what wouldn't look good with one of my famous monster cookies??? One of these days, I might have to cave and give you the recipe. LOL Everyone LOVES them!!! BUT, back to sewing........

About 2 weeks ago, I discovered (being the angel doll swap mama and all) that we would need an angel quilt for a very special lady. Her partner was unable to fulfill her obligations and was kind enough to let us know ahead of time, which was wonderful. After thinking about it for probably 45 minutes, I knew I couldn't send her one of the ones I already had finished, but had to make one especially for her. Call it a challenge! I wanted to depict her in fabric. I studied her flickr stream, discovered what she liked, and hoped that I had my bases covered. You tell me! Think it looks like her?

She touched my heart when she said she had to get herself a red with polka dotted coffee mug and it'd be perfect! How cool is that?

What should I show you today?

Whatsa Mug Rug?

Have you ever heard of such a thing? Not me!!! ('Course, I'm old and don't get out much anymore......BUT, wouldn't you know it, they are having a mug rug swap on Flickr and NATURALLY, I had to join.) The swap hasn't even really started yet, and partners haven't been assigned, but I just HAD TO try my hand at this. Now, I'm a Diet Pepsi girl, so don't have lots (like ANY without dumb pictures of cars on them) mugs, so had to go shopping. Awwww....what a shame! I was all over, but TJ Max seemed to be the best for variety and expense. Thursday I picked up two and yesterday, I made this:

Now the really funny thing about this is........I made about a million cute doll quilts, right? Some that took 3 whole days. This crazy little thing took about 3 hours, start to finish, and it made EXPLORE on Flickr today. What's with that? None of my doll quilts did! Goofy! (But, guess who'll be making more?) I was back at TJ's yesterday. Anyone need a new mug with matching rug???

This is all I can show you!

I know you are going to be disappointed, but this is all I can show you today!

What, you say? Tomatoes? I know you're saying, hey babe, this is a sewing site......we're here to learn stuff and see new things......why are you showing us those dumb tomatoes? Well, actually, I have been really busy, I mean really busy, but I can't show you anything. I made an angel quilt for the doll swap (hopefully, the last one) but this was for a special person and since I found out that she needed one before the swap deadline, I thought I'd make one especially for her. If I post it, she might know it's for her and the surprise will be over.

Then, I made 24 teeny tiny 3.5 inch Halloween minis for that swap, but since the sign-ups aren't even over yet, I can't show you those either. So, besides the 12 quarts of pickles that I put up two weeks ago (and you never know, pictures of those might be forthcoming yet), you'll have to settle for the picture of my daily pickings of tomatoes. I sure wish I could share them. I'm almost "tomatoed out".

Chickenfoot #3

I really wasn't going to do it. I figured I'd done enough... and there are so many mamas....and I had no idea how I'd get everyone on..... until FlossieBlossoms gave me a brilliant suggestion that even had me laughing! Oh man, I don't know what I would do without her sometimes!!!! And after that, I just HAD to make another Chickenfoot Quilt for this DQS round. I actually was going to go another route until I started drawing and realized that this way would be the easiest and use the space I needed to at least show 6 of the 12 mamas in their glory. First, the drawing......which, incidentally almost took me one whole day:

Then of course, onto the tracing, fusing, and ironing.........I don't think I've shown you this mess before and this was only one place when I needed to sit down for breaks. My kitchen island looked just as bad, as well as the floor where all the schnibbles fell with the breeze from the back door.

Here, I'm in the process of fusing the pieces to the backgrounds. I mainly do all of that first and then sandwhich the whole mess in order to free motion applique stitch and quilt.
Then, I showed my first sneak peek on Flickr:

And the next day, I posted this:

One more sneak peek the next day (I do tend to get carried away, I'll admit!):

Then today, my friend, Shirley and I met Susan (aka "Chickenfoot") at the quilt shop for a day of shopping and lunch and I gave her this quilt to add to her growing collection:

I think it sums it all up in a cute 21 by 19 inch package! Note that since I'm the oldest, I have no egg shell residual but do have my halo since I am the official angel mama, you know.......(besides, since I made it I can make myself look good. LOL)