An entire post on.. wait for it... a hotpad! :P

Over the weekend, I made tremendous progress on my wonky square rings quilt. I'm really excited to say that I've finished the top! Woo hoo! :D It feels really great to have the top done, but for now I thought I'd share a small project that just sort of happened when I took a break from the quilt top.

 Random, I don't use pincushions - I just toss all my pins in trays! 

I started to think that I might run out of the red and blue pieces I cut out of the quilt top from the antique shop. While my fiance and I were out running a couple errands, we stopped at my local quilt shop and I picked up a charm pack that had lots of reds and blues. Amazingly, that's all I left with. Go self restraint, go!

I cut most of the charm pack up for my quilt top, and when I was done I had a pile of the most adorable little square scraps! Tiny little things, but so freakin cute I had to do something with them. What is it with things in miniature that is so irresistable?

I didn't really have a plan, I just started making little nine patches. They weren't exact squares, so my patchwork isn't perfect, but since I was just messing around I didn't really care. And now I have a hot pad!

There wasn't enough scraps to make a matching set, but whatever, it was just a fun little project. I got the chance to piece, quilt and hand bind all in a little over an hour! :) Kinda like a mini-mini quilt.

So yea, not the most exciting post ever, but later this week I'll share the quilt top I finished. Maybe I'll even have a finished quilt! :-O !! Lol, maybe..

I'm going to link this post up with Megan, at Canoe Ridge Creations, for Sew Modern Monday - I feel like since it's my first time linking up I should have started with a bang,  but nonetheless - here I am! :P If you are stopping by from the linkup - hi! It's nice to meet you!

Thanks everyone for stopping by! :)

My new Lego sewing machine!

Hey guys! How do you like my new sewing machine? :D

Thanks to Carrie, from Such Designs, and her brilliant idea and tutorial, I have an adorable, miniature LEGO sewing machine. You really need to go check hers out, it's much better than mine! She modeled hers after a Bernina Activa.

I don't have any kids, but lucky for me (and our future kids!) my fiance saved all of his Legos from when he was a kid. He has two huge boxes of them stored in the closet of our guest room. I played with Legos here and there when I was a kid, but I was more of a Polly Pocket girl myself. And come to think of it, a waffle blocks girl, too. Do you remember those things? Do they still make them? I played with those waffle blocks until an age I am too embarrassed to admit! LOL.

Anyhow, I put on Pandora, dumped out the boxes of Legos and started sorting through the pieces... and I had so much fun!

I didn't have everything from the tutorial, but I had enough to make it work. Not all of the buttons and gizmos on my machine make sense exactly... (What is that clear blue window supposed to be? I have no clue, lol! Looks like a water tank) but you get the idea?

 It's the perfect size for my ironing fairies and my cutting elves! :P

I have a special spot for this guy on my window sill in front of my sewing machine. It makes me happy every time I look at it! Thanks again, Carrie!

Thanks for visiting, hope you guys are having a great weekend!

I'm joining Karen's Sew Many Ways party, if you are stopping by for the first time - welcome! :) 

Finished placemats (and some napkin rings)

You guys left me so many nice comments yesterday, I feel ashamed at being so hard on myself! Thank you! You all are too nice. :)

I finished up both place mats, and after taking some advice from Jen, who said to go around the circles twice to hide any of the imperfections, I think the second one (shown below) turned out pretty nice.

When it comes to quilting, my favorite parts of the process are coming up with the design, choosing the fabrics, quilting the layers together, and the binding. I really love sewing on binding. It's the last stop, the finishing touch, and I get more joy and satisfaction out of binding than I'd admit to anyone but you guys. I should have sewn this one on by hand, but I mean... it's just a place mat. :)

(For the record, I hate spending large amounts of time cutting and I don't really care for ironing, but it's necessary drudgery. I wish I had an ironing fairy! Or cutting elves.)

I loooove the fabric I used for the binding, I might need to get some more of it. I think it would work with a lot of different color schemes.

When I was done (and my sewing room looked like (still looks like) a tornado went through, scraps of fabric everywhere, threads hanging from every surface in sight) I decided to use some leftovers to make matching napkin rings. Not that I ever actually use napkin rings, but you know... they're cute! lol

Someday I'll have to tell you the story of my dining room table - I made it myself and it was a lot of work (..that's pretty much the story) so don't even think about putting your glass down without a coaster! LOL I'm actually a really messy person and being careful or keeping things nice and/or clean is the last thing you'll see me doing. (That's my fiance's specialty! He's a clean freak!) :P Just don't mess with my table. I'll set my cutting elves on you. Okay, too much.

Conclusion:

• Pebbling is hard at first, but once you get a rhythm going it's not so bad.
• Pebbling uses a ton of thread
• Pebbling takes forever
• Pebbling looks really pretty!
• I will probably never use pebbling on a quilt!

So now I'm back to working on my wonky square ring blocks.  And I still need to think of what do with the beautiful Poetica fabric I bought! There are so many quilt designs I want to try, I can't make up my mind. :)