Sweet Hearts Mug Rug

I finished my two January 2014 Patrick Lose machine embroidery projects.

"Sweet Hearts" Mug Rug Design has stippling too.

The first one, my "Party with Patrick" placemat, "Love Abloom" I blogged about previously (here).  

Bottom of mug rug…I sewed through all layers for this project.

"Love Abloom" turned out so sweet I decided to use the same fabrics to complete my first Patrick Lose Mug Rug Club project.    

Especially since the January "Sweet Hearts" Mug Rug has an appliqué heart design - it matches the "Love Ablooms" placemat perfectly. 

See I make mistakes…bottom fabric edge got folded over
and caught in satin stitching.

Easy fix this time I just cut it out along the satin stitch line.

This happened not once…but twice!

I've been hand sewing my binding hems on the last several project which looks very nice but it's not as quick as machine stitching it down.

Last night I felt lazy.

So lazy I wanted to machine stitch that binding down.  

"Sweet Hearts" Mug Rug for January 2014!

What do you think?  

Is this mug rug cute as a button or what!

I loved all the layers of fabric for the heart.

Matchy, matchy...

Anyways back to my bias binding...I turned over the binding on the mug rug and lightly glued the binding in place and then machine stitched in the ditch on top - first with white thread and then over again with yellow embroidery thread in a triple stitch.

  

Whew….both projects done!

It turned out nice and I'll definitely machine stitch the binding again.   

Practice, practice, practice...!

I've been sewing so much lately that my housework has been neglected.  

My stove and oven need a good cleaning along with our master bedroom and bath so I may have to take a few days off from sewing.  

One of these days I may get maid service again.    

Cleaning is NOT fun like sewing (or crocheting) !

Love Ablooming !

I may have to take my Janome MC 12000 in for repair.  

This week I received a curtesy call from my sewing store reminding me that my Janome sewing machine is a year old (already???) and they recommend an annual service check up.  

Isn't this blue bonnet fabric cute?

At the time I thought, " Is this really necessary?"  

I mean I had my New Home for 29 years and only had it serviced twice in all that time.  

But today I noticed that my bobbin isn't winding correctly.  

The bobbin winder runs at high speed for a second or two and then runs at very low speed regardless of the speed setting and stops before it is done winding completely. 

Look at the cute flower pot heart appliqué with fabric flange.
And see where I embroidered  "Love Abloom" in green thread.

I remembered at my last Embroidery Club session it did the same thing until the instructor looked at it and (I think) changed a setting.    

I tried changing some machine settings but no luck.

I don't know if the problem is with my machine's settings or if something is broke.   

If I take it in I will be without it for a week.  

With that in mind I figured I better get this month's "Party with Patrick" project completed. 

My sewing craft room.

January's project is a placemat called, "Love Abloom".  

It's a work in progress and the appliqué flower pot has an adorable appliqué red velveteen heart.  

I dug through my fabric stash and found red velveteen fabric that I've had on hand since the 1980s. 

See…it pays to keep stuff. 

I'm using lots of different fabrics with the color red.

You know how I love RED!

The binding will be in the blue bonnet fabric.  

So LOVE is A Blooming!

My Mug Rugs

These little mug rugs are fun to sew and perfect to practice sewing bias bindings on. 

I like both mug mats shown here and although my bias binding turned out better on the poinsettia one, both appliqués are part of Merry Minis Mug Rugs (here) designs. 

Patrick Lose has several excellent videos on bias bindings (here's one). 

Here's the link for the pattern for the Shining Star Ornament Mug Rug (here).  

This is a 13 inch square I cut for this bias binding.
You offset the "rows" by one row before cutting.  

For some reason after calculating the size of fabric square I needed for the ornament mug rug's bias binding I just had enough length.   Usually you want several inches more than the circumference of the mug rug to play with.  I don't know what happened on this one.  I even had Hubby look at my calculations and he said I figured it correctly.  For the poinsettia mug rug I increased the fabric square from 9 inches to 13 inches and I had plenty of bias binding length.  

I think the bias binding got twisted on the ornament mug mat too.  

I may rip it out and cut another bias binding. 

I've blogged in the past about joining my local sewing store's monthly Embroidery and Party with Patrick clubs last year and I'm signing up again for 2014.  

Yesterday I joined another monthly club.  

This one I joined on-line at Patrick Lose's website...it's a monthly Mug Mat Club.

Read about it (here).

These mug rugs will make cute gifts.

  

Once reason I like Patrick Lose's designs is because he mostly focuses on "celebrations"…like special occasions and holidays.

I'm not getting paid to write about Patrick Lose's machine embroidery designs either by the way. 

Just in case you are wondering!

Laugh for the day:

My Valentine Framed

I added several fabric flanges to my Valentine embroidery today.

As usual I used left over fabrics from my stash.

  

It's not easy to take a photo of my Valentine framed - those darn light reflections on the glass. 

This Valentine machine embroidery design, along with my other holiday ones I've framed previously, are included in this collection - Anita Goodesign Mini Collection "Holiday Tea Towels". 

I added some 3M Command Strips to the side of my cutting table to hang my plastic cutting rulers and squares. 

So much better.   

They're off my cutting table but still within reach. 

Happy Sunday Evening to all!

Tonight is another episode of "Downton Abbey" and the start of the third season of "Sherlock".

Great shows to enjoy! 

❤️ My Valentine ❤️

I'm starting on my Valentine decorations now that Christmas is over. 

Easy peasy to machine embroider this one.

Well, that is easy peasy after months of practicing on my new Janome Horizon Memory Craft 12000.

I will add fabric borders to this design and frame it to hang for Valentine's Day.  

And in the meantime I machine embroidered/appliquéd another holiday mug rug.   

This one is another Patrick Lose design I purchased on line.

It's a pretty poinsettia design named "Merry Minis Mug Mat" (click here to purchase).  

I used fabric scraps in my stash.  

I just have to bias bind it.

Patrick Lose has a wonderful video (here) on how to sew a bias binding.

He even tells you on to make a bias binding with a small square of fabric. 

I like both of these projects because I used fabric in my favorite color... RED!

Shining Stars Banner & Mug Rug

I must be getting better at embroidering and appliquéing because I finished my latest "Party with Patrick" project in two days.  

It's a cute small Christmas banner called "Shining Stars". 

But... I almost ruined the banner. 

I can't believe I did this!

I had finished everything except the binding and grabbed my rotary cutter to even up the edges.   

You can imagine how sick I felt when I saw that I had accidentally sliced through the border fabrics and batting about 1/4 inch in on one side. 

What to do!  

I sure as heck didn't want to start over and I didn't want to rip the cut side border out and replace it.  

Turning a mistake into an enhancement!

I finally decided to take the same border Santa Claus fabric and cut a flange for each edge and layer it over the existing border covering the cut area completely.  

I added a decorative quilting stitch in gold thread over the flange folded edge to tack it down on top.  

I figured the binding would fold over to cover the cut backing fabric underneath.  

Last step is to hand sew the binding down.

My flange solution added interest to the border and turned my error from a potential disaster to a positive enhancement.

Project saved!  

I like using the Santa Claus fabric as the background fabric for the mug rug.

This design was so easy to do I whipped up another one to use as a mug rug.  

I was ready to sew on the binding when I realize I didn't cut the binding on the bias as I should have because the mug rug is a round shape.

Errrrr….. 

So I set it aside and will cut another binding on the bias.

   

This will be a round mug rug when I am finished.

These little mug rugs are so cute.  

This one I'm keeping for myself.

Everyday I take down more Christmas decorations.

The trees will be the last thing I put away.

Sorry I'm still showing Christmas stuff.

I know most of you are sick of it and have moved on.

So you will be pleased to know that today I embroidered a Valentine Heart that I will frame.   

⛄️ Holiday Hot Pad ⛄️

I thought I had blogged about this "Party with Patrick" project by Patrick Lose:

Holiday Hot Pad 

But I discovered I hadn't. 

I decided to buy the digital design (here) for the Christmas light bulb - that way the machine does all the work sewing the satin stitches.  

I added the bulb's light rays radiating out from  each light using one of my machine 's built in quilting stitches.

The back with the centered quilting design and stipple fill.

And I couldn't stop there.  

I had to add more of my touches so I stitched an embroidered quilt and stipple design on the back. 

This design came with my Janome Memory Craft 12000. 

I like the red fabric border.  

It sets the front and back off nicely.

One of the ladies in our embroidery club gave me the nicest comment:   

She said, "I should be very proud of my work.  

It was very well done and anyone would be thrilled to receive it as a gift."

It's too pretty to use. 

Today is a sew day for me.  

I'm starting the next "Party with Patrick" Christmas project - "Shining Stars".

Have I encouraged you to sew?    

I hope so.

It's a rewarding and fun hobby. 

Still Christmas Here...

I must make one of these for next Christmas!

Oh, yes...it's still Christmas here. 

However, I did start taking down some of the Christmas decorations today. 

Most of you probably will agree after a while it looks more like clutter than decoration and then I'm ready for a cleaner look.

In the meantime we're enjoying the cold weather by staying indoors - it's too cold to tackle the outside Christmas lights yet. 

Isn't this Mickey & Minnie Mouse bedding cute!

I've never seen it for sale though at any Disney store.

Yesterday I went to my monthly Embroidery Club. 

We downloaded this beautiful snowflake design to machine embroider and then ironed on crystals to enhance the design.

I may take this piece of fabric and make it into a  cute little bed pillow!

  I picked up my "Party with Patrick" project pattern for December.

My sewing store hosts these monthly events but it appears you can also join the fun on-line too (for a fee).   

The project is a Christmas Banner called "Shining Stars".

Luckily I already bought the digital pattern for the ornament.

I won't be able to use the banner this Christmas but I should have it made for Christmas 2014. 

I picked out my fabric fat quarters yesterday and I'm anxious to start the project.

As far as crocheting... 

I decided to try my hand at crocheting an "Elf on a Shelf" soft toy.  

So far the legs and main body are done. 

Pattern and information (here).

All the little kids are crazy about the "Elf on a Shelf"!

Have a wonderful day and stay WARM!

We are having single digits here in SE PA!  

Burrr…...