Hello, new semester

And it's the start of the spring semester, and I've got a heavy teaching load this spring, with two sections of Research Methods (in psychology)--which will mean a lot of grading, as we get clipping along in the semester. I wanted to let everyone know that this blog is going to slow down a little, in terms of posting, but I hope to keep up at least one post a week and continue commenting and reading along.

Tonight, though, I have some finishes to share! Mug rugs are so addicting, and fun to give as gifts. Case in point, a mug rug for my MIL, given at Christmas (as always, click for bigger):







I also made this one just around Christmastime, and it's destined for a friend. I adapted a block from Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks magazine, using half the 'Infinity' block by Vickie Eapen and scaling it down to finish at 4x8:




And this week I took a bit of a break from sewing pinwheel blocks into rows--seriously, it takes more time to pin each block together than it does to sew the seam! ARGH!--to finish these two mug rug projects I've had going. I just recently purchased some basting spray and finally used it, for the first time, and WOW. The quilting on these was SO MUCH FUN, without having to stop and remove pins!


The purple one is going to an artist friend, and the larger one is the 'mug carpet' for my husband's office. I especially like the back on the Mr.'s, which I randomly pieced from scraps my daughter literally threw at me:


The hexies were fun to piece together--I can see myself doing a whole quilt of them! ... Eventually. But I was especially pleased with my FMQ on the Mr.'s, which I tried to make look like curls of steam from a coffee mug:


Maybe someday I'll get the gumption to try to FMQ a bigger quilt?!

And here's a couple shots of them 'in action', and you can really see that the Mr.'s is kind of huge, especially compared to the 4x8 of the purple one:




Yes, OK, I know my red House mug doesn't go with the purple, but it was what I had out to make tea in, all right? *g*

So. Now that I'm done with the little projects on my immediate to-do list, I think I'm ready to go back to tackling the TweetyGigs. And I'm looking forward to working some more on the Layer Cake Quilt Along. And I've got at least one block to plan for Quiltstory's Block Party (but that's another post)--there's a stained-glass window at my church that has three different quilt-blocks in it, and so far I've only figured out how to piece one of them properly.

But I'll probably keep doing some of these little projects. The quick finishes certainly help me stay confident! :)

So: This week's WIP stats:
New projects: 0
Completed projects: 2
In progress: 3

Linked over at FreshlyPieced, for WIP Wednesday! Go check it out!