Mug Rug Swap Adventure 3 - Finished

I am glad to say that I am slowly - ever so slowly - getting caught up on neglected projects, and pretty much on time too!  The theme for this round of the Mug Rug Swap Adventure swap is holidays and everyone could pick their favorite.  My partner wanted something non-traditional in both color and design.  When I was perusing fabric.com last week, I saw this fabric and thought it might work well for what I had in mind.  The fabric is a border print called "Love" (imagine that!) and is by Clothworks.  On the front, I pieced the border on one side and used the medallion motif on the other.

On the back, I fussy cut the lovebirds from the companion fabric, pieced in the unused borders  from the border print, and bound them in a scrap of green from the pinwheel quilt I made last year from "Moda's "Summer Basket of Flowers".

I wanted to FMQ it with hearts, a subtle reminder of the holiday in question, but after I took out the quilting for the fourth time, I gave up and just did a stipple or meandering FMQ pattern.  My FMQ obviously needs more practice.  

As Valentine themes go, I think this one qualifies as non-traditional.  I hope Ms. Partner likes it.

Belated Birthday Pinwheels

Today, I am visiting Beautiful Daughter #1 and Dear Son-in-Law and their adorable Abby-girl.   Even though I have seen Beautiful Daughter #1 recently, I haven't been able to give her the last of her birthday gifts - not enough room in my luggage.  So this is her gift.  The fabric is 2 Summer Basket of Flowers Charm Packs by Moda, and the design is just a basic pinwheel.  It was more fun to make than I thought it would be.  I hope it will look nice in her guest room.

Today we were busy here.  We went to breakfast, then to several garage sales, and then to a fabric store (imagine that - the two of us in a fabric store!!)  We exercised a great deal of restraint, however, and bought only what we needed.  We came back and made some banana bread, cored and peeled a ton of apples (Beautiful Daughter has such a neat tool for this - it was fun to use and went so quickly!) and made applesauce and 2 apple pies.  I made some banana bread, but it was a little dry.  It might have been the altitude, but....

Then we started to organize Beautiful Daughter's sewing room.  Her sewing space is a corner of her laundry room, so space is at a premium.  We made good progress.  And in between, I got to play with Abby.  She is such a little character.  I had a blast.  All in all, a fun, productive day.