Mug Rug, Brick Quilt & a Personal Record

I had another less-than-ideal sewing week, but I did manage to start (and finish!) a small project I've been wanting to try, as well as start a long overdue birthday gift for a friend half way around the world.  However, the "finish" I'm most proud of this week has nothing to do with sewing.

Last Sunday, I ran in a 5k race called "Sprint for the Cure," with proceeds to benefit the Florida Brain Tumor Association.  I call myself a "runner" like I call myself a "quilter."  I like to do both and I'm decent at them, but neither gets as much dedicated attention as I'd like.  I've only run a handful of "official" races since I began running about 1 year ago, but I had a definite goal time in mind for this race.  I'm not fast (and I'm OK with that)...  I prefer to focus on distance over speed.  However, I had a goal to run a 5k (3.1 miles) in less than 30 minutes.  I'm SO happy to say I finished this race in 28:20.  I'm done making 5k goals.... on to 10k's now!

With my 2 favorite girls after the race.

Notice that their little skorts matched the color of my lucky running shirt.

We won a pretty awesome gift basket at the race's silent auction.  It was taller than my 5-year-old!

You might remember these pictures from last Friday's post.  I said I wanted to make something with these:

That had something to do with this:

I know, I know... the suspense is killing you, right?  Well, he's my first ever mug rug:

I "winged it" with a wonky log cabin design.

I got to try a lot of things I've been seeing on other blogs -- like using blue painter's tape as a stitching guide, straight line stitching (which took longer to do that assembling the entire top of the mug rug!), basting spray to attach all the layers and hand-stitching the binding to the back.

The mug rug, black mug and canister of Vietnamese coffee will be a Mother's Day gift for my friend Kim,who mentioned to me how hard it is to find Vietnamese coffee here in the States.  (Amazon.com has *everything*!!!  LOVE that site!)

Last but not least, I started a blue brick quilt, which will be a (very) belated birthday gift for my dear friend Sujay, who lives half way around the world in Pune, India.  More about him when the quilt is done.

I was inspired by Sarah's blue brick quilt, which she made using this pattern/tutorial from Amy Smart.

I'm using all stash fabric.  Sujay's favorite color is blue but I only had 6 blues that weren't a floral print.  I am arranging the bricks in a pattern, which I probably wouldn't do if I had a larger variety of blues to start with.

This is my oh-so-sophisticated way of remembering which order to sew the bricks in, since I'm chain piecing.  I sew in my dining room (thus, glass door on the china cabinet) and the blue painter's tape was already hanging around from the mug rug.... seemed to be the perfect solution!).

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I plan to link up with: 

Confessions of a Fabric Addict for "Whoop Whoop Friday"

Sew Many Ways for "Find a Friend Friday"

I'm looking forward to seeing what you've worked on this week!

~*~ May your day be full of Love and Ladybug Hugs ~*~