April Showers Mug Rug Blog Hop!

Hello Everyone!

Sorry I have been gone from blog land the last month.  I have been busy traveling for work and then getting sick - twice!  First with a respiratory infection while I was in Atlanta and the second time last week with the stomach flu-yuck!  Also, I had to throw in my husband's 50th birthday and party!  So, I have not had much time for crafty fun lately.

I did make up my mug rug for this grea April Showers Mug Rug Blog Hop.  I went a little different for me.  I was trying for modern spring.  Not sure I hit the mark or not, but I do love the colors and the fabrics.

Also, I tried to do machine binding - guess I won't be doing that again, it's just not as nice as hand finishing (I'm a bit wonky still with this technique).

April Showers Mug Rug Blog Hop

Some buttons for whimsy

Please visit all the other wonderful blogs in the hop today!

Hayley @ Mrs. Pickles

Karen @ Sew Much 2 Luv 

Mélanie @ Les passions de Cliodana 

Cindy @ Quilt Doodle Doodles 

Jamie @ Busy Bee Quilts 

Judy @ That Other Blog 

Regena @ The Distracted Domestic

Amy @ Domesticity and other Ponderous Things  

Denise @ My Whittle Adventures 

Heather @ a Reformed Heath'n 

Marica @ ~Englating~ 

The entire list of bloggers in the hop can be found here.  A big thank you for Mdmn Samm for putting this together!

 

Aunt Pitty Pat Spring Mug Rug Swap

I participated in another one of Aunt Pitty Pat's swaps! Her swaps are so much fun.  Here is what I sent.



Plus a few other things like a hummingbird mug, some fat quarters and some quilting pins.

Here is what I got from Janice my partner!  Isn't it adorable?  thank you so much!







Thank you Aunt Pitty Pat for another fun swap!

Rainy Weekends

I'm very grateful that last weekend I planted my garden.  This weekend it rained and rained.

I've been working on a few little projects...some for fun and some for a swap I'm doing.  Both have required some stitching.


In this little bugger, I see one wayward square I need to fix and line up, but the stitching is coming along.



Yesterday while the hubs was at the gun show, I scurried down to the farmers market to see what could be had for some canning before the rain started.  I found tomatoes for $1/lb.  Granted these were the ugly ones, but still good and fresh and not bruised.  I brought home 10 pounds.  I decided I'd give my hand a try at making homemade pizza sauce.  We eat a lot of homemade pizza at home. Figured I could make them that much better.

Ten pounds of tomatoes takes a bit to blanch, peal and puree.




But in the end I got 12 jars ready to go into stock for pizza making.

Aunt Pitty Pat's Mug Rug Swap

Originally uploaded by amysgreatadventure

I recently participated in the Aunt Pitty Pat's Mug Rug Swap. My partner was Cathy and she wanted a blue and white theme so she could use it longer than a Christmas colored one. This was so practical of her.

She sent me this adorable snowman and Mug with a them being Peace. I really just adore it. She sent along some great coffee and beautiful tin and recipe of her favorite sweet treat. I really think it was all so very thoughtful.

For her, I sent my snow flake themed mug rug and I hoped she enjoyed it as much as I did making it.

Mug Rug Swap

This is my assortment I'm working from to choose what to use for the mug rug.

So I decided to branch out from apron swaps and try a mug rug swap. To be honest I had to google around to find out what that was. Also, Aunt Pitty Pat had a link to a fabulous flickr photostream of amazing mug rugs.

I bought a mug yesterday but am second guessing it as "the" one for the mug rug inspiration. I think I'll go see what my favorite local gift shop has on hand before I start the sewing.

I'm a bit excited to sew this up just so I can try out some of my new found quilting skills. Not that I'm all that, but maybe I can re-purpose the sawtooth star skills somehow. I hope my partner and I get to email each other so we can know more about each others likes and dislikes. It really helps to create something they might actually like and use.