Catch ups

As all the Flickr swaps and bees peak before the Decemeber break I have received and sent so many parcels so time to catch up. In the Scrappy Mug Rug group I sent a mug rug to Jan (isisjem)- she won my last giveaway, I know her blog and have seen her on flickr so it was fun that she was my partner.  She had lots of easy likes to follow

She's a tea drinker, loves Heather Ross Mendocino fabrics and wanted a rectangular mat.  The teapot came from Kumiko Fujita's 318 Patchwork, great fun to piece.  The design came from a series of doodlings- the ric rac I only added at the last minute, the line between the linen and the grey background seemed too harsh.  I am not always a pun type person, there are sew many sewing related ones ( see Florence's funny post on these but I couldn't resist this.  

The back was free cut- I am a recent convert to.  No rulers, just the rotary cutter, flat fabric and the non-cutting hand out of the way!  There is a great tutorial to break yourself into this gently here.  I also bought Gwen Marstons Liberated Quilt Making 2 for more free cutting ideas and it is a highly useful book.  Jan is happy with her mug rug and so I am happy too!  In all honesty, I can normally pass my makes on graciously but I wanted it too and might have to make myself one in compensation.

I received this adventure in log cabin mug rug from Tracey. I love log cabin and this is very carefully cut and sewn- it sits on my sewing desk as I write- nice tea and food goodies too, Reese peanut butter cups are my undoing, my slow road to ruin- sorry lost in Del Amitri lyrics  Thank you Tracey! 

More Ringo Pie blocks

Penny's fresh and vintage style selection of reused jars saved from recycling- amazing piecing on the strawberry jar especially- take a look in close up

and Lisa's sweet stack of mugs, cups and saucers- love the variety and that little cup at the top with its chubby handle!  They are an amazingly talented bunch of sewers in this group.

Plus blocks I sent to Rick in Bee (a little Bit) Japanese.  I was a bit short on fabric, but squeezed two wonky log cabin blocks from his fabrics and he is planning to add sashing to even all our blocks out.

And presents to myself- how decadent.  A lucky find of Kumiko Fajita's measuring fabric- in my top ten of favourite fabrics- now I might have to do a top ten, I'll give it some thought- and her inspirational and unfortunately out of print ABC Patchwork Lesson pattern book, I tracked it down at last.

Wrap up warm x It is chilly here x

ABC

I am a big fan of typography.  My mum studied it at art school and I was taught calligraphy at primary school and loved it.   Now I still love it in fabrics, on screen or printed.  I  found this great children's book from 1946 at the carboot sale a few weeks ago, ahead of its time with its wonderful typography and bold photos.

The source material for the images was the London Museum- and it is an odd  and eclectic selection.

Many of the new fabric ranges feature alphabets- I have this Yuwa print, amongst others, flying on its from Japan via USA and to the UK.  I will post more when it arrives!