Chevron Mug Rug

For a while there, mug rugs were every crafter's favourite thing. So many bloggers had designed and made their own amazing little quilt, that I decided I had to make one too. Considering that I was completely new to quilting at the time, I think it turned out better than anyone could have expected!

Cookies were made using this recipe from Bakerella, with added Skor bits.
They are phenomenal.

At the time, I didn't have any of the right tools for the job (no rotary cutter, no grid ruler, no walking foot for my sewing machine) but I didn't let that stop me. What I did have was plenty of scrap fabric and poly batting left over from earlier projects. I used graph paper to create a triangle template, and then pinned the paper to my fabric and cut out each piece one by one. I really wish it had occurred to me to cut out squares and stitch them together down the middle instead of sewing each half square triangle separately, but that's just one of the wonderful things I learned from this project.


Once all of triangles were sewn into what looked surprisingly like a proper rectangle, I basted the 3 layers together and machine quilted a line 1/4" on each side of the chevrons to accentuate the pattern. I didn't know at the time that I needed a walking foot on my sewing machine to do this properly, but luckily my batting was thin and I used lots of pins.


Small as it is, it still took me two attempts to bind this project. I had originally pieced together a 2" strip of the green fabric, and I sewed it all the way around the front of the mug rug before I realized that there was no way it would be wide enough to reach around to the back. I really liked the green binding, and tried hard to make it work because I didn't have any more scraps of that fabric. In the end, I had no choice but give up on it and cut a new 2.5" wide binding from another fabric. I used the same pink as for the backing. I think it looks pretty cute for a first try.

Front

Back

By the time I had finished this project, I knew that I wanted to try some more involved quilting. At about the same time, we got the news that we would be moving out West, and after all, how can one be a good prairie girl if they don't join a quilting guild?