Mini Quilts
I haven't kept track of how many mini quilts I am making this year...these are the ones that are either mug rugs, candle mats or fabric boxes. I haven't made any small table toppers yet and may not get into them the way I did last year with the disappearing 9-patch pattern.
The only official mug rug swap is from Craftsy that I purchased. Their pattern with the quilter's color choices. The binding is pinned and ready to hand sew sometime today or tonight for certain.
My partner requested Fall-ish colors, so I pushed it a little with the Monarch butterfly on top for the Butterfly cottage. The flowers are also more fall-ish in color and I tried to get a more subtle color for the grasses as well.
The Cottage on the Hill was fun because I could make the trees look like they had those vibrant Fall colors I remember in MN. My partner is in MN. Also, I used a larger patterned fabric for the backs & echo quilted the tops.
Other projects I am whipping out are 9" Halloween Candle Mats. I know that not everyone burns candles and these are a little bit too large to use as a mug rug. However, they simply add to a person's Halloween decor. My pics don't always show the pieces as being squared, yet they are. All of these seem to look a bit short on a corner or wavy.
Gotta be the camera angle. I read somewhere that a well-done blog needs a camera that takes superior quality photos.
The other mug rug pattern I am working with is using that Dresden Plate template. These are going to be Thanksgiving turkeys when I finish. This is the only picture I will show of these two which are destined to be Pay It Forward gifts. I need to draw out a body, head, and wattle for them. Right now they are simply sewn onto the background fabric. After making the batting sandwich, I will do more of the echo quilting, which really works nicely on mug rugs.
While I did learn some things with the Craftsy MR swap, I am still not a fan of making specific patterns for a swap. There are endless options out there to try and these are just a little like a kid's coloring page. I wish they had selected something more sophisticated. It was fine, however, because I had scraps that worked for it.
Guess it comes down to my resistance in following rules. I agreed to this pattern when I purchased it, yet find myself whining all the way through. Maybe I have simply evolved past this kind of project and hope I learned my lesson. Or maybe, its like those mystery quilts where I have to follow rules and not know how it will turn out. In both cases, the only choices a quilter gets is to select her fabrics. The rest is following those rules. Like the kids say, "you git what you git and you don't throw a fit".
