Welcome to the first Main Crush Monday of August – yes, August! This year is simply flying by. I don’t know about you, but I would like for it to slow down just a tiny bit. There’s still a lot of summer left and I’d like time to enjoy it before it is gone.
Thank you for your kind words about MaMa last week. She was a special lady and it is sad that she is gone. I do want to clear up something though – some people thought that MaMa was my mother and she is not. She was a close friend to our family and is my niece’s grandmother on her Dad’s side of the family. Please know that my own mother is still with us and going strong (and probably a bit irritated at me today for not calling her over the weekend.) 🙂 Thanks to all of you for your care and concern.
Now, on to what I’ve been working on and crushing on in my sewing room. I didn’t spend much time sewing last week, but when I was able to fit in time to be in my room I was productive. The UFO that I started on again is more than halfway finished. I have 10 more blocks to make and 3 sashing rows to piece. I’m pretty pleased with how easy the first half of the quilt came together. I’ll be honest though, I won’t make any progress on it this coming week as I have a pretty intense schedule. I’ll share pictures of the top once I have it sewn together.
In a few weeks hubby and I will be taking a couple of weeks and vacationing in Maine. We are excited for this trip as it’s been many years since we’ve done anything like this. We have rented a house along the coast and I can’t wait to see all that Maine has to offer and just chill for a while. I have my wine packed and ready! To prepare for our trip I wanted to make something special that represents who Mike and I are to give as a thank you gift for the owners of the cottage we are renting.
I started with these batik fabrics. The print was specially printed for the Mountain Quest shop hop held in West Virginia last month. The motifs in the print represent our state, as do the blue and gold colors. We made mug rugs for the quilt shop, and I thought they would be the perfect thank you gift for our hosts.
One of the motifs is a bear which are found all over our state. Did I ever tell you I came home from work one day and there was a bear crossing the road practically in front of my house?? At first I thought I was seeing a big dog, but then he stood up. I got so excited I about drove my car through my yard! But I digress….
To cut the bear shape I used this Accuquilt die:
The die is called Northwoods Medley. I bought it so I can make a wall hanging for my oldest son – he is such an outdoor loving guy. One of the things I love that Accuquilt is doing is creating embroidery files for many of their dies. This makes is so easy to applique if you have an embroidery machine, and when you purchase the die the embroidery file is free to download.
In case you’ve never appliqued with your embroidery machine let me show you how I did it.
First I marked where I wanted the center of the applique piece to be, and then loaded the fabric and stabilizer in my hoop. The first thing that gets stitched is a placement stitch to show where the applique fabric will go.
Now that I know where to put the applique piece, I place it on my background fabric lining up the cut shape inside the stitched lines. I used 505 basting spray to hold the bear in place until it was stitched down.
Applique fabric ready to be stitched
The next stitch is a tack down stitch. This will hold the bear in place and prepare it for the final finishing stitch. I used the same thread color for the tack down stitch that I’ll be using for the finishing stitch.
Tackdown Stitch – This bear isn’t going anywhere!
And now it’s ready for the final stitching, in this case a satin stitch. These embroidery files from Accuquilt include three different finishing stitches – blanket, motif, and satin. I like the look of the satin stich on the bear and used a dark blue thread to work with the blue in the print.
After the applique/embroidery was finished I turned those cute bears into 7″ x 11″ mug rugs and I like how they turned out. I quilted them on my Babylock machine – it’s been a while since I’ve quilted on anything other than the longarm and I’m out of the groove. Overall they look okay though. I used a gold batik for the binding and have finished the binding on the first mug rug. I’m going to wait to finish the second one – I figure I can stitch the binding down while we’re traveling. We are going to be spending a lot of time in our car!
So here is the finished one. It is a fun, quick project and I really liked doing the applique with my embroidery machine. I see much more of this type of applique in my future!
The back clearly shows a bear, the state of WV, and a sketch that represents the landscape of our state along with the many outdoor activities that are available here. I think it is the perfect gift to represent hubby and I.
So, have you ever done any applique with your embroidery machine? I would love to hear about your experience.
Now that I’ve shared my crush with you, it’s time for you to share yours. I would love to see what projects you’re working on and what has you excited to be in your sewing space! You can link any blog post, Instagram or Flickr pic – here’s how:
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Wow thanks for showing the process. I want to do some applique in the future and have a bunch of hexi pieces that need to go on something one of these days. I just need the push.
I love that you make a thank you gift for the people you rent your vacation home from! You know, I did some machine embroidered applique using die cut Accuquilt shapes several years ago and digitized designs a few years ago as part of a blog hop. I didn’t own the GO! cutter at that time so they sent me some shapes already cut out and ready to fuse and stitch in place. It was amazing how quickly that came together, but I’d forgotten all about it. I have a GO! Baby now, and I just might have to take another look at the applique dies available. I own Bernina digitizing software, too… I wonder how difficult it would be to create my OWN digitized designs for applique?? I’ll bet there’s a section in the manual or a YouTube video on how to do it. I love hand stitched applique but there are just SO many quilt ideas in my head demanding to be made, and so FEW hours in the day to make them… Have a wonderful vacation!
The bear looks great and the colours go together so well. Great gift.
Your bear is so cute! Applique always comes out so nice with an embroidery machine
It looks so good! That’s super cool that they make embroidery files to go with their dies. Finishing with a satin stitch always looks so professional.
I know what you mean about getting out of the quilting groove. It took longer than I expected to transition from free motion quilting on my sewing machine to the longarm. And now it’s really hard to go back the other way. It feels like quilting on the different machines are completely different skill sets.
What a cute mug rug! I love the way the Batik on the bear makes it look like his fur!
I like your mug rug. I bought the elephants die recently. I like the idea of the mug run. And, was happy to see the nice tutorial on using the embroidery file with the die. I was happy to see they were offering the embroidery files with the dies — I wasn’t willing to pay so much for the files as they were charging. Heck, I’ve done a lot of appliqués without having a special die — that method works fine.
Hi Beth! Your mug rug is really nice, and I’m sure your friends will enjoy it. I think you will really enjoy the coastline of Maine. We just took a cruise there in June, and visited a quilt shop in Bar Harbor. I wrote a post about it if you care to read about it – it was a fun shop and the owner was really nice. Relax and have fun! Happy Monday! ~smile~ Roseanne
What a perfect gift to have to give, Beth! It turned out great.
That is a super cute mug rug. I love woodsy themed things.
I would love to vacation on the coast of Maine. It sounds like a dream. My husband loves to go camping in our mountains and on the desert. I love them too but want to see other beautiful places a little further from home.
So adorable! These are fabulous gifts, I’m sure the recipients will be so pleased! Have a great vacation in Maine!
I think I missed it too – we have “relatives” in my family too that aren’t really “relatives” the child that I post about now and then on my blog isn’t my grandchild as some persist in thinking but my daughters great niece by marriage — but I am still “aunt” to her.
Have fun in Maine I bet you will have a wonderful time.
A vacation!! It sounds like a beautiful way to relax. And the wine will help too! Adorable bear mug rug. Loved seeing your process!
Oh, I missed the post about MaMa. I’m so sorry. Those mug rugs are so cute! So excited for your trip to Maine — there are two quilt shops I know of that you shouldn’t miss if you are close. I’ll send you an email (if I haven’t told you about them already).
The mug rugs are really cute! Enjoy your trip to Maine. We visited a few years ago and really enjoyed it.
I love your idea to give something from your State, this fabric is just perfect! Lovely mug rug
Hope your mom is not too irritated with you for not calling 🙂
A vacation in Maine sounds exciting! So nice of you to make a gift for the cottage owners. What a lovely mug rug, the fabric is so pretty in those colours. I am sure they will love it. Have a great time there!