Well – another holiday is just around the corner – so that must mean it is time to find fun new fabrics to help celebrate the event!

I moved to Colorado this past year – so I had to try to find new quilt stores.  Luckily there is a cute little quilt store in Old Colorado City called Nana’s Quilt cottage.  http://www.nanasquiltcottage.com/.

I was on the hunt for fun Valentines fabrics and found four really cute ones so I purchased ½ yard of each of them.  Now to figure out what to do with them! Does that ever happen to you?

I LOVE making Kayla’s new ‘Mug Rugs’ – it’s a fun place to put your drink and your snack.  Her pattern has little Halloween designs, but I just went to the Freebies section on our website and downloaded the free pattern for the hearts she used for the Valentines Garland. I used the medium one and the small one and stacked them on top of each other. Then added a couple flourishes cut from the extra fabric that still had steam-a-seam on them. Then I added the heart button I found in my button box.

These are so easy to make – they are a bit addicting – I ended up making one for one for my best friends who was visiting for the weekend – The tiny hearts on the white background were taller and thinner than the ones that Kayla designed – so I just put a piece of steam-a-seam on the back of a piece of fabric that was about the right size for an applique in my square. Then I folded the fabric in half on the grid line and just free hand cut out a new heart. (This drives my daughters crazy – they always make the pattern first and then use it – I typically just make it up as I go – sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.) I ironed it onto the mug run and then used a blanket stitch with silky red thread around the outside edge of the heart.

Then I thought to myself – why not use Kayla’s cute Halloween kitten to make a Valentine’s kitten? – so you can be smitten with the kitten!

I used the heart that I created for Deon’s Mug Rug and just cut one smaller, and then an even smaller one and then stacked them on top of each other and added flourishes. Hopefully every time my daughter uses it – she will be reminded of how much I love her!

If you’d like to whip up some mug rugs for the people you love, just purchase our pattern – it’s just $5 – and have I mentioned how much I appreciate any purchase you make from our website?

I also made a couple of matching placemats – for me and my hubby that we will use this week.  You can download this pattern for free from our website. 

And the great news is … after two placemats and five mug rugs I only have a few scraps left from my two yards of fabric!. 

Hope you and your loved ones have a very Happy Valentine’s Day!

Sheila