Mug Rugs, Round Robins and Antique Tiles

Today the mail lady brought me a wonderful package from MW, one of the ladies in the NeedlesNCrafts group.

Earlier this year the mug rug craze was upon our group, with a vengeance!  So, MW set up not one, but two mug rug exchanges.  One exchange is a Chinese mug rug, which is a bit smaller than the regular mug rug, to accommodate the smaller Chinese tea cup.  If you've read my earlier posting, Have I Been Busy or What?, you'll know that I've already received the Chinese mug rug from Sally.

So, it was a wonderful surprise to receive this mug rug from MW:

And, as you can see, she also included some packets of white coffee:

The 'tea time' section on the left is cross stitched.  The light brown strip of fabric is a tan 'crackle' print.    I am so blessed that MW would include some of this frenzy-causing fabric, not only on the front, but the entire back of the mug rug!

Let me tell you!  That tan crackle fabric caused such an uproar within the NNC group.  MW mentioned that the fabric, in several colors, was on sale at a certain shop in Kuala Lumpur, and for such a ridiculously low price at that, so there was a run on that shop, and when the dust settled... there was not an inch of crackle fabric left, and the dizzy shop owner could only stand there scratching his head, wondering what hit him!  Can these NNC ladies scoop up a bargain, or what?!?!?  lol

Thank you, MW, for such a beautiful mug rug.  I'm going to sit out on the back porch with a cup of coffee, or tea, mug rug on the table, and watch the cardinals and morning doves at the bird feeder.

But, that's not all that was in the package!!  MW had also sent my Little House Needleworks Round Robin home to me!

The squares that have been stitched so far, left to right, are:  Row 1 - Colonial Dry Goods and Curly Q Ewe, Row 2 - Needlework Shoppe and Busy Needle, and Row 3 - Attic Needlework (modified to say Diane's Needlework).  I still have to add in Needle Necessities, Embroidery School, and Embroidery Guild, plus finish all the border around the outside.  Once its completed I'll blog about it again.

Okay, that's what everyone else has been doing.  Since finishing up the last round of the LHN RR, I also completed 12 Antique Tile blocks for the NNC Patchwork Block Swap.  We had to do 6 blocks of one colorway, and then reverse the colorway and do another 6 blocks.  There are 6 ladies in the swap, so we all end up with 12 blocks, 6 sets of blocks.

Here's a look at my Antique Tile blocks:

I'm hoping to combine this year's Antique Tiles blocks with last year's Nine Patch blocks, and using the swatch of fabric that's included with each set of blocks, add 12 Sunbonnet Sue blocks, to make a large quilt.  I'll make up another 2 Nine Patch blocks since there were only 5 of us in last year's swap.  Thrity-six 12.5" blocks, well, you do the math, that's going to be a very large quilt!  lol

And since the Antique Tile blocks have been completed, I also had to get busy and get the mug rugs done for my participation in the exchanges.  All I can say right now is that one mug rug is all completed, and I will be spending this evening sewing up the binding on the other mug rug.  Once the mug rugs are received, then, and only then (because it's a secret exchange!), can I blog about the mug rugs, and include photos...  Tomorrow I am going to one store that sells tea bags from the Charleston Tea Plantation, the only tea plantation in the entire U.S., to add to the packages with the mug rugs.

Oh! and now I'm also stitching up a surprise cross-stitch project, but I won't be able to blog about that for quite awhile...  If I need to stitch on something else for a bit of relief, there's always the LHN RR to finish up!

Thanks for dropping by!!