Trying New Things

This month our guild challenge was to make a mug rug for a swap while trying a new technique.

My plan was to try applique…at the last minute.  I had the design in my head for days, so it was just a matter of execution really.  As it turns out, I have no idea how to do applique, so I winged it!

Luckily I have the best husband who let me make my rug on Valentine’s day….while he made me a fancy dinner of steak and lobster.  It was delicious!  After dinner, we cleaned up and I sewed a little more.  Couldn’t ask for a better Valentine’s day (except I could have done without the cat knocking an entire vase of water onto the floor at 9pm!).

Here it is…..I kinda really like it.  Any guesses to what the animal is?

Other new things I tried on the mug rug…decorative stitches on my machine.  There are soo many and I’ve never used them.  Also, I tried expanding my free motion quilting to include swirls.  That did not go so well, but it’s something I’d like to try again.

Thank you Angie for inspiring us to try something new! 

And here’s my new mug rug I received in the swap from Cindy!  Thanks, I love it!