Bee Blocks, Blog Hops and Blustery mugrugs

A few weeks ago the project for the Zakka-style SAL was a Rain Cloud mug rug, which involved a bit of needleturn applique and some embroidery. I enjoyed the project so much that when I had finished my Rain Cloud I decided to make a whole set of mugrugs based upon weather symbols, and last night I finished the last of the 6 mugrugs.

I had great fun deciding upon which symbols to use and then working out what was needed to recreate them in fabric. You can probably tell that the wind symbol was the most fun to do!

In the last 24 hours we have had three of the weather types - bright sunshine, clouds and sun and heavy rain, so, hopefully, that will be it for the time being.

This week's Zakka-style SAL project is a water bottle holder, which will be perfect for taking to Zumba classes when I am back home. I have transferred the embroidery pattern for the handwarmers from a couple of weeks ago but with the warm weather we have been having recently have had no inspiration to actually make them!

Having sent off my blocks for the Sunday Morning Quilt Bee  I have been anxiously checking our postbox for my first ever Quilt Bee blocks.

They arrived this morning and they are lovely, thanks Jan! Time to get cracking on my blue blocks for the July round.

Today, Lynne at  Lily's Quilts has asked bloggers who contributed to her quilts for Siblings Together to write about their input as part of the 100 Quilts for Kids Blog Hop. As you probably know the Siblings Together charity provides an opportunity for children in care, who have been separated from their siblings, to get together in a comfortable, friendly environment. With three grown-up sons, who have always enjoyed spending time together, it is not difficult to work out my motivation for wanting to contribute towards the quilts Lynne was asked to provide. The quilts were for the children attending a summer camp later this month. Living in Latvia it was not practical to volunteer to provide a whole quilt, but, fortunately, some very generous ladies volunteered to put together blocks provided to them. My initial intention was to send 4 blocks, but as you can see I so enjoyed putting these together that I ended up sending 20!

The lovely Judith at Needles and Lemons received so many blocks that she was able to piece together 4 quilts, check out  her post to see the quilts and read about all of the contributors of fabric, wadding, etc who helped to make it happen. I very much enjoyed being part of this initiative, which has highlighted for me all that is wonderful about blogging and quilters :)

Lynn's post about the Sibling Together Quilts is part of the 100 Quilts for Kids Blog Hop. This is what Lynn has to say about the Blog Hop - 

"the idea of 100 Quilts for Kids is simple: Make a quilt or 2. Donate it to a child in need, locally if you can.  Enjoy a blog hop that runs from July 2-September 25, 2012, complete with inspiration and mini prizes.  Join in on a 100 Quilts for Kids Quilt Along (Kick-off post on July 15 at Swim, Bike, Quilt).  Have a chance to win great prizes from sponsors, including Moda, Fat Quarter Shop, Westwood Acres, Rowan , Free Spirit, and Ty Pennington Impressions, among others that will shortly be announced."  

And speaking of Blog Hops don't forget this week's posts in the Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop


July 3

Di from Willowbeck Designs

Jennifer from Knotted Thread

July 5

Sarah from Sarah Lou

Catherine from Knotted Cotton

Hope you have all had a great weekend.

Linking up to Manic Monday