PQ Challenge 5 - coffee & chaos

This week's Project Quilting challenge had me drawing a blank.  It was a great challenge - - - and I am loving what everyone was inspired by during their trip to the grocery store.... but for whatever reason I struggled finding direction.

I went to a local produce stand and took some photos - apples with raindrops on them, satsuma oranges... but nope.  No design thoughts.

Then the boys and I took a trip to Walmart.  We currently live in a MUCH smaller town / community than we have ever lived in before.  The town we actually live in has one grocery store - and the selection / produce is........ terrible.  The "bigger" town about 10 minutes away has a couple grocery stores and a Walmart.  The Walmart is going through a major remodel that has made it much bigger - - - and it will include more than just the basic fruits / veggies / frozen foods / milk, eggs, & cheese it has carried up until this point.

To prepare all three of us for our adventure, we swung through the Starbucks drive-thru {a nonfat latte for me.... banana bread for the boys!} - thus, inspiration #1 - the {very necessary} latte.

When we arrived, we were greeted by a store that had DEFINITELY changed (again) since the last time we had visited.  Inspiration #2 - the relative chaos - construction, confused shoppers, empty shelves and random pallets of cereal boxes in the clothing department!  Oh... and the chaos of attempting to get everything on a shopping list with a 3.5 year old and 1.5 year old in tow! :)

We walked past a {really, really big} bin of rubber duckies at one point.  Colby squealed as he recognized a few of the ducks - we gave his Grandma & Grandpa (my mom & dad) a box of duckies for Christmas for the vacation / retirement home they are building - there is a creek near the house and they love sending rubber duckies down it to "race" with the boys!  Inspiration #3 - my mom & dad's home-in-progress that obviously NEEDS lots of handmade goodies ;-)

This week I did my first bit of foundation paper piecing - so I figured this would be a great opportunity to practice that!  I drew up a pattern for a travel coffee cup - inspired by a cup of lemonade block pattern I found on Sew Mama Sew.

Of course, I had to make sure it had a coffee sleeve on it - as I gave my parents a set of coffee sleeves {from the black & red fabric} and reusable cups for Christmas - for coffee dates on their porch!  I added a border, trimmed it up, then worked on the back.

To bring in the "chaos" I did some improv piecing using various red / black / grey / white fabrics for the back.  I used a layer of cotton batting, another layer of insul-brite, and the top / back.  I quilted it a bit - with some zig-zags and straight line quilting.  It is about 8.5" square - and we are back from vacation so I was working in my home studio {in between LOTS of custom order work, life with 2 active boys, and a couple rec basketball games for the hubby's work team!}  In the end - I had a fun little trivet / hot pad - ready for their new home!

I used a fun little loopy built-in quilting stitch on my Janome for the binding!

There will be more coordinating pieces in the future - I bought the red / black coffee print fabric (and a few coordinates) specifically for their house!

Adding my link to the Project Quilting finish post - - - which will open for voting Sunday afternoon!  I'm finished item #18! :)