Saturday, January 1, 2011

Scrappy Mug Rug

My cupboard is overflowing with blue scraps, but making an entire monochromatic quilt each month is probably a bit much for most people.  Small, bite sized projects are also a great way to use up scraps.  Especially if you make lots of them.  I'm already thinking ahead to gifts for next Christmas.  After amassing a stack of nine patches and snowballs, I decided that one of each would make a nice little mug rug.
Step 1: 
Gather Supplies:
13 2 inch squares in blue
1 5 inch square in white.
blue scrap for applique, I used a 3.5 inch square
8 or 9 2 inch by 8 inch strips for the back
1 long 2 inch strip for border, about 40 inches
scrap of blue binding or fabric strips totaling about 45 inches. 
scrap of batting about 6 x 10 inches

Step 2
Assemble one 9 patch and 1 snowball block using directions from last post and sew them together.
Step 3
Cut an applique shape out of the blue scrap.  I chose a star.  Microsoft office has shapes you can print and trace or you can just go freehand.  I think a snowflake would be cute too, but it seemed too complicated.  A bit of embroidery would also work well.  I used a buttonhole stitch around the edges to finish this off in a hurry. 
Step 4
Press the seams toward the nine patch and measure for the first border. It should be about 9.5 inches. Cut 2 2 inch strips to this length and sew one to the top and one to the bottom. Press and repeat for the side borders. These should measure about 8 inches. Press to finish the top.
Step 5
Sew the 2 inch by 8 inch strips together to make a scrappy back.  I pressed the seams open to avoid excess bulk.  Check to make sure the back is a bit bigger than the top. 
Step 6
Layer the back, batting and top together.  You could use spray baste here if you like, but with these tiny little projects, I have had good luck basting them with regular straight pins. 
Step 7
Quilt as desired. Tiny little projects are a great chance to practice machine quilting. I did a meander on this one, but random straight lines are pretty cute as well.
Step 8
Apply binding. I used a scrap of blue binding from my extra binding drawer. Just for fun I practiced finishing it on the machine. I'm always hesitant to do this for bigger quilts, but it worked out just fine for this little guy.

14 comments:

Amanda said...

Thank you for these two posts Angela, you have been working hard ahead of time to get some ideas together. I've got a basket full of blue scraps, so I'm going to get them ironed today and then start thinking of what to do. I like the idea of getting ahead on some Christmas presents, but I've got enough scraps to make at least one big quilt, and I'm determined to use up those scraps, so we'll see where I get to.

Quilting By Celia said...

Great start to the year ! I like your ideias to use the blue fabrics. I'm going to get started on mine very soon..

Jan Maree said...

Cute mug rug and I am liking your quilt. I am going to fiddle with my blue scraps for an hour or so now and see what I come up with - wish me luck!

Linda said...

Oh, I love all the ideas. I've been wanting to make some mug rugs since I've seen them all over other blogs. I'm going to pick this little project first and go from there. Thanks so much for hosting this. It's a brilliant idea. I have more blue than anything else too so this is a great color for me to start out with. Happy New Year!

floribunda said...

very cute! My tip for sewing on binding by machine is to sew it to the back first -- that way when you stitch it down to the front you can do it very neatly. Also -- I use a zigzag stitch to sew it down as it avoids that little flippy-edge thing.

Kirsten said...

I like the Idea of Scrappy Saturday and will go through my scraps tomorrow to see what I have and to decide whether or not I will participate. So long

Connie Kresin Campbell said...

Beautiful mug rugs! Great use of blue for the challenge.

Judy said...

Thanks for the push to use my scraps. I have large metal bucket of 5" inch strips that will make wonderful charm squares. I guess I should get busy.

sophie said...

My office at my newish job is still very vanilla and has no windows. It really NEEDS a little quilt on the wall and a mug rug on the desk. Looking at your blue scraps reminded me of a little quilt I made from (mostly) blue scraps that needs to be quilted (and maybe hung on my office wall). Thanks for the inspiration.

Katie Ringo said...

Love the blue mug rug! What a great use for the scraps. I need to start working on my inspiration mug rug for a swap that I'm in - I'll have to pull some blue blocks and see what I can do. :)

Anonymous said...

That looks so cute! Mug rugs are becoming very popular ... and saving a lot of furniture finishes!

Comfort Cove Designs said...

I got my blue project done! My snowflake bag is complete!

can't wait for next month's colour!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful idea! Love your Rainbow scrap challenge too. I'm so glad I stumbled upon your blog. Thanks for all the quilty inspiration! ~Take Care

Elly D said...

I love this! I may need to retrieve the star from my block and make me one of this mug rugs too ;) Ellyx