Block Addiction

I love trying new crafts and new patterns, so participating in various block swaps are a great way to indulge. One of my quilt guilds has a block of the month - make one (or more) blocks with their pattern of that month and get a ticket for a chance at the drawing to win all of the blocks.

Flickr has a bunch of virtual quilting bees which can be addicting. I finished the two mug rug swaps but am still enjoying the block bees. One of my favorites is the Modern Stash bee where two members each month choose a pattern and color scheme and we make and send them the blocks.

This is a Liberated Churn Dash done in pinks. We were given a link to a tutorial and it was so much fun to make!

The second block this month was done in Spring colors. We had a link to a bunch of fun pinwheel tutorials to choose from. The ladies end up with a dozen blocks - how great will they all look together?!

The side result of the many blocks I try? I am amassing a stack of orphan blocks!
What do you do with your orphan blocks?

Mug Rugs!

Even though I have a large quilting to-do list, I like smaller projects that are deadline and theme oriented. Thus, the mug rug swaps provided a bit of instant creative gratification. I just finished two mug rugs for two different swaps.

The first was for the Scrappy Mug Rug swap. My partner (who didn't know who was creating for her) is a terrific quilter with great taste, so it was easy to choose fabrics. I just hope she didn't judge my quilting and binding skills!

This was actually the smaller of two I created. I didn't photograph the larger one (that actually came out better.)

The second mug rug was for a swap through the Quilting Gallery and had a french country flavor to it, as the recipient indicated that she liked the french country red color.

It was sent of to Utah today. I hope she likes it!
There are lots of great mug rug photos on flickr if you want to make one for yourself or for someone else. They are like little placemats, suitable for a mug and a snack!