Although you may think it is too late to work on Christmas projects, I whipped these up in ND the week before I left for DC.

You can do it!

I make a hand crafted gift every year for friends and family. Due to the heating going out in my sewing studio and getting ready for our move to DC, I didn’t have much time to do a complicated project. So I went with easy peasy and quick. Tea towels and matching mug rugs.

The most time consuming part was doing the machine embroidery. I’m not great at this technique and I usually do raw edge appliqué on the tea towels but I really liked this raccoon image.

And the image matched the raccoon fabric I bought last year. It’s Ruby Star Society and I couldn’t resist it. I have to admit that I really struggled finding the correct color of embroidery thread for the creatures. Still not happy with it but despite that, they are really cute!

Stitching the tea towels up was quick and easy because I used Moda toweling which is already hemmed on the long sides. I had some white toweling in my stash and was able to make six towels with it. Then I went to the local quilt shop in Bismarck for more and they didn’t have a solid color. I ended up with the toweling with red stripes along the edges.

The mug rugs were easy peasy because I did not use binding. I just cut out two pieces of fabric for each mug rug and one batting, all 6 1/2″ x 8 1/2″, sewed the batting and fabrics wrong sides together with a 1/4″ seam, clipped the corners, turned them right side out through a 4″ opening I left on one end, pressed, topstitched around the edges and did some quilting. Easy Peasy.

Just enough room for a couple cookies and cup of tea!

This project was for my friends and family that come to our annual “cookie day”, also known as the “most happiest day of the year.”

We have been having cookie day for over 30 years. Donna, Yvonne, Bonnie, and I started it. Always at my house because I’m kinda the party girl and always had the kitchen. Over the years we have had so many more friends attend. We have probably had as many as 20 hanging in my kitchen. Mixing, baking, snacking, drinking.

This year we were in DC and my daughter agreed to host. Our friend Donna has been coming every year and she took the auto train from Florida! Niece Michelle flew in from Phoenix. Friend Terry (aka Arthur’s me-maw) came in from South Carolina. Plus Andrew’s cousin Jess, a DC local, was a newbee.

We had a small group but still produced lots of cookies!

Cookie Day was again the “Most Happiest Day of the Year”.

I’ve made instructions for my tea towels several times over the years. You can go to any of these links to get detailed tutorials and make your own!

Basic Tea Towels, Valentine’s Tea Towels, Fun Tea Towels, Autumn Tea Towels, and DIY Tea Towels.

Wishing you the best for Christmas and New Years!