When Carol of Just Let Me Quilt, put out the call for this blog hop, my mind immediately went to Jim Croce’s song, Time in a Bottle, which he wrote for his son Adrian, or A.J. Croce, as he is known in the music world. Fourteen weeks after Jim and five others who were touring with him were killed in a plane crash, this song hit #1 on the American charts. The words of this song really make you stop and think about what and who’s important in your life. You can view them here if you’d like.
As with life, so is quilting and these words from the song fit perfectly for me, “But there never seems to be enough time to do the things you want to do.” Do you feel the same way? Time passes quicker every day! At any rate, Carol challenged us to create something using hourglass blocks in it. Honestly, I don’t recall ever making hourglass blocks! So thanks for the challenge, Carol!
Last fall during AccuQuilt’s great sales, I decided to buy the 4-inch Qube, along with it’s companions and angle dies. And as I am doing mug rugs or small quilts for most of the blog hops this year, I decided to use the 4-inch Qube dies to make my hourglass blocks. These are really small blocks and were perfect for my mug rug. AccuQuilt currently has a great sale on dies, Qubes, and companion sets, buy one get one 90% off! You can check it out here and if you click through my link I get a small commission, but it doesn’t cost you any more! Thanks for your support!
As I said, these blocks are really tiny. Each hourglass block finishes at 2 inches!! I decided to make it wider and used the 1-inch square die (you get four at a time!) and added four to each side. This made it much longer than the width, but it’s great for a cuppa and a snack! So here it is.
I used the stash builder strips from my Island Batik fabrics to make this. Thank you Island Batik!! For quilting, I decided to use two of my “fancy” stitches from my Solaris – turkey tracks on the outside rows and stars on the inside! I also used a 80/12 Schmetz needle! Thanks Schmetz! The binding is navy, I had left over from another project.
Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you will check out the other bloggers on today’s schedule and leave them a sweet comment.
March 18
Just Let Me Quilt
Bumbleberry Stitches
Karrin’s Crazy World
Lianne Makes Stuff
Crazy’boutquilts
Songbird Designs You Are HERE!!
Have a great weekend, friends! And remember, “as sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives!” so let’s make the best of each and every day! And tomorrow is National Quilting Day. Go, celebrate!!!
Such a pretty way to finish this mug rug Brenda
I love tiny blocks! And I love how you used your machine stitches to quilt. Very sweet!
What a wonderful way to sit and relax, tea and a snack with a very pretty mug rug.
The perfect spot to put your mug and a little nibble or two.
Thanks for sharing the information about the Qube, I was thinking about them recently. Cute mug rug and love the fabrics.
What a fun mug rug! Thanks for sharing with us.
That’s a very cute mug rug! Great use of the little Qube 4 dies! 🙂
Amazing how much detail you can fit into a little mug rug! Lovely use of your Hourglass blocks, and the fancy stitching is a nice addition!
Hi Brenda! Yowza – each hourglass block finishes at 2″! These sure turned out cute and I love the longer version. Who doesn’t want a little something with their cuppa?! Perfect. {{Hugs}} ~smile~ Roseanne
Lovely project! The stitching is a nice touch.
Great snack mat, and use of your Accuquilt dies! Thanks so much for sharing!
Ohhh…those are tiny!! Great use of your gadgets and fun stitches.
Very pretty, love the colors and the decorative stitching. Perfect
Such a pretty mug rug and those stitches really are the perfect accent.
So pretty. I do love the colors and that stitching makes it sing!
What a fun project! Those dies make quick work of the cutting and the piecing. I love the fancy stitch quilting, too. Fabulouso!
Beautiful mug rug Brenda and love the stitches you used!
Cute mug rug! Those ARE small blocks! I admire your willingness to work with them. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Your mug rug is beautiful done in those lovely fabrics! A mug and a snack who doesn’t love that idea.
I love these sweet fabrics Brenda, and going outside the box with the decorative stitches inspires me to try something with them. I’m primarily a straight stitch or zig zag stitcher. Every time i see something like that I call it my new distraction, and I am usually off to the distraction race to play a bit. Thanks a bunch
Your much rug is so sweet. I love how it isn’t square and it can fit both a cup and snack. Thanks for sharing!
Mug rugs are useful and fun and yours in batik fabrics makes it beautiful too! I think we all had Jim Croce’s song in our heads this blog hop, lol!
Hi Brenda, I love the fabrics that you used for your Time in a Bottle mug rug. It turned out great.