Machine Embroidery a Mug Rug

 

Good Morning My Sweet Embroidery Friends!

My how I'd love to have you stop in for a cup of coffee with me so we could catch up on all the latest and then spend a peaceful morning stitching away.  Fun, fun, fun!!!

I'm sure you have heard of these little placemats called "mug rugs".  If you haven't, just do a Google search for them and you will find many.  They are a miniature placemat meant to be used with just a drink and a snack, or in the instance of breakfast, coffee and a pastry.  They wash up easily in the laundry and are good to go the next day again.  I've made several and what I particularly enjoy is taking them outside and sitting on the patio to enjoy the start of my day.  Coffee, prayer, listening to the birds, there is nothing better!

In the above picture is my mug rug that I put together with jelly roll scraps.  This is a great scrap buster project.  My sewing machine has some built in lettering which I used to stitch the wording.  Then I pieced it all together with a scrap of quilt batting.  The pink border is the backing.  I cut the backing 1" larger all around and brought the backing to the front and tucked the raw edge in.  Then either whip stitch it by hand or use the machine and stitch closely to the edge.

This little cutie is a coaster from Oma's Place.  It is made in the 4 x 4 hoop.  I feel like it is a little too small to be a coaster plus I'm afraid it will get lost on its own, but take a look below....

It was the PERFECT embellishment for my mug rug!  Love it!!  One more little secret...It is one of her freebies!  Can't beat that. 

Just a few stitches to hold it in place and good to go.  :-)  A clever way to make a machine embroidered mug rug.

 

 

Finally, our youngest, Timothy, turned 16.  And yes, he's learning to drive.  Yikes!  His birthday was the day was the day he and Mike returned from the Boy Scout jamboree.  They didn't get home until about 10:45 at night so we only had a short time to celebrate.  Tim has a sweet tooth so Emily and I made up a candy buffet which he thought was fun.

 

Embroidery blessings to all of you!
Nancy

 

Machine Embroidery Mylar Butterfly on a Handtowel

Hi Friends,

Yellow is my favorite color!  Second favorite color is green.  They just make me smile.  In fact, most of my house I've painted in a soft butter yellow and our bedroom in a soothing spa green.  Actually, I love all pastel colors.  You all wanted to know that right?  :-) 

At our local sewing center, I took this class in which we took a hand towel and stitched two rows of fabric casing.  One row was at the top of the towel and the next was four inches down from the first.  Then   grosgrain ribbon was strung through the casing, the casing was gathered and then the ribbon stitched in place.  There is a final matching decorative strip sewn three inches up from the bottom.

You can see here how the hand towel attaches to the oven door by tying the ribbons on each side in a bow. 

Finally, rather than stitching directly on the terry cloth towel, the design was stitched onto cotton and then the white cotton stitched onto the towel.  There is also mylar under the butterfly wings.  This towel has been washed numerous times and the mylar still shines.

The digitized image was given to me by our instructor who informed us she had received permission to pass this image onto the class, but honestly, I don't know who to give credit to for it.  If any of you have seen this image, leave me a comment or send me an e-mail and I'll be happy to give a shout out to the designer.

I hope you are all staying cool this summer and finding a little time to sit down at your embroidery machine.

Summer blessings to you,

Love,

Nancy

Machine Embroidered Desk Organizer

Dear Friends,

Where is summer going?  I even feel like spring flew through here and I missed it!  Never have I felt time pass so quickly.

 

First there was Katie and Eric's wedding, and now lots of boy scout activities.

Mike and two additional leaders took 24 boys to West Virginia to the National Jamboree for boy scouts.  Our boy scout council didn't get their patches in until the day before so here I am with 3 others at the boy scout office stitching away to help get our men, young and old, ready to go.

My sweet Tim.

 

Today I want to show off a desk organizer I made in a sewing class at Ryan's Sewing and Vac in Albuquerque. 

A few years ago there was an "as seen on TV" commercial for a fold and go desk organizer.  I don't know if it is still on the air as I haven't seen it in some time.  Our instructor designed one of her own and taught us.  I, of course, took advantage of a blank spot above the top center pocket to do a bit of embroidery work.  When it is folded closed, it is held together by an elastic pony tail band and a button.  Clever!  The pockets are made using Pet Mesh.  This is a pet screen you can get at Lowe's or Home Depot where they sell window screen.  It is a fibrous screen with a plastic coating on it.  I've actually seen some beach bags made with it and it stitches easily with the sewing machine.

My decorative butterfly embellishment.  The design is from Embroidery Library.  What I have stored in it are stabilizer scraps.  The pockets hold different types of stabilizer, wash away, cut away, tear away, etc.  When I have a scrap of stabilizer that I know will fit in my smallest hoop, I save it here.

My garden is getting into full swing now.  I'm picking tomatoes, pole beans, peas, spinach, radishes, carrots, kale and herbs.  Take a look at this yellow beauty that decided to come up as a volunteer!  A bird must have dropped a couple seeds as I have two plants.  I'm going to cover them with mesh and hopefully harvest the seeds soon.  There are also some cucumber and zucchini making an appearance but too soon to pick.

For now though along with the vegetables, the plum tree and grape vines have been providing us, and the birds, with some yummy goodness.

Blessings everyone,
Nancy