Swaps are fun!

This wonderful mug rug was made for me by Dawn, who is guiltquilter on Flickr, for the Christmas Scrappy Mug Rug Swap. There is no way a mug will ever get near it - it is going on the wall in a place of honour.

And for the photography types, that picture made it to Explore on Flickr.



Look at those embroidered reindeer, even Rudolf with a red beaded nose - they are beyond cute.



The trees are decorated too, with carefully placed beads.



And here is the whole package, Dawn really spoiled me - she was a great partner to draw.



This is the close up of a corner of the mug rug I sent Dawn. This swap was not secret, instead we were assigned partners. As a result, the pictures we posted as we went were only sneak peaks.



This is another sneak peak. You can see the fmq star I made. I think you might see those stars again on another project soon.

And here is the entire mug rug. I paper pieced the tree using this a free pattern from Forest Quilting. I  thank Karen from Laughter in Quilts for the inspiration. She used the tree in her wonderful table runner (do click that link and take a look, it is wonderful) for the Modern Christmas Table Runner Swap and pointed out the source of this lovely pattern.

When I made this mug rug, my plan was to just make the tree. But as I looked at it, I realized that it was unlikely anyone would put a mug on it. So I added the 1" patchwork squares which make a big enough surface for my large size mugs.  This fabric is 12 Days of Christmas by Kate Spain and was the left over scraps from the Wonky Christmas Stars Quilt I started last year.

By the way, this photograph also made it to Flickr's Explore - pretty cool.

I am working on the hand quilting on the Wonky Stars Christmas Quilt and will soon show it off, but hand quilting is slow and my fingers hurt.

Come back tomorrow, as I will have a couple of give aways for the Sew Mama Sew give away week.

Best,

Leanne