Thursday, September 1, 2011

Scrappy Rainbow Mug Rugs


Now that my swap partner Elaine has received my mug rug, I can finally reveal :-) Elaine's swap info told me she liked rainbow colours, light backgrounds and texture; a little bit of Flickr stalking later, I realised that she had lots of hexie projects in her favourites. Of course, being still in the honeymoon period with my Accuquilt Go! Baby (can it really be a honeymoon if there is no end in sight?) I had easy access to hexies so I decided that this was the way to go. Better still, I had recently received my rainbow charms (thanks to my QAL partner-in-quilting Jennifer) so it was really a no brainer.

I took out my Go! Baby hexie die and decided to use the medium size one. (If you're interested in receiving free patterns/the Accuquilt newsletter click here to sign up!). Five minues and I had all my hexies (I seriously love my Baby!) You'll all remember my first attempt at this mug rug - it suffered from over-trimming enthusiasm and I also wasn't totally happy with my machine piecing accuracy.


So I went back to basics and decided to recut (because, why wouldn't I? lol!!) to hand sew these babies next time round. Happily, I found perfect size paper hexie templates on this site - I printed off some sheets, cut them out and away I went, a few pleasant evenings on the sofa while I watched re-runs of The Sopranos (and yes, 10 years later it is still as good!).


My mind then turned to the back...for some reason, I had in my head that I wanted this to be a double sided mug rug, but I didn't have a fabric print that totally worked for the backing and I knew I wanted to do some simple echo quilting in the white space around the rainbow hexies, which was not going to work with a different design on the back.


In the end I decided to do a wonky rainbow log cabin block on the back. I tried to emulate a traditional log cabin block by keeping cool colours at one side and warms on the other and I used a linen/cotton mix to give a little extra texture to the sashing..


I got over the quilting issue by quilting each side onto its own bit of batting. I use Warm and White which is a nice, fine batting and putting the two sides together did not make it unduly bulky. I then bound using my Its a
Hoot dotty grey fabric which remains still my all time favourite binding fabric. Lastly, I needed to write my Haiku which was the theme for this swap, so I stuck to the rainbow theme for that, and then I made a little card with a row of rainbow flags (thank you Susan for the idea) to write it in.



Then yesterday, I received this package from JohannaBF all the way from Florida:

How cool is this? I couldn't belive my luck with this great package - two, TWO lovely mug rugs - one a hexie rainbow one (SWOON!!) and the other a wonky block with a fab embroidered owl (yes, I know you know they are my favourites!) in the centre. All the way from sunny Florida :-) Thanks so much Johanna :-)))

19 comments:

Katy Cameron said...

Love how you did your mug rug with the 2 lots of quilting, brilliant idea. I've been whiling away time at work conjouring up how I'm going to be doing my mug rugs for a swap, shh, don't tell on me, okay? ;o)

Jennifer Mathis of Ellison Lane said...

So cute- great job with the hexies. I still haven't tried any but want to. Kicking myself for not choosing that die from Accuquilt so now I guess I will have to buy it myself! :)
Love that polka dot mug!

Sarah said...

Mugrug mark II is really lovely :-) Glad you got nice ones in the post too!

Anonymous said...

Flickr stalking. lol. I absolutely love the hexies with the owl. It's so cute and the log cabin on the other side is great. I would be torn on which side to leave facing up.

Karen said...

They are all so gorgeous. I love the one you sent and I love the ones you received. What wonderful swaps all round!

Linda said...

You did such a good job! She is sure to love it!

Elaine said...

I do love it, Linda! Thanks so much Sarah, I am enjoying my mug rug. It fits me (well, my mugs) to a tee, though I do have a tough time deciding which side should be face up :) I've blogged about too!

Mrs Flying Blind... said...

Johanna must be our spooky long lost triplet!!

Sheila said...

Your partner really was on your wavelength wasn't she. Love the double sided mugrug.

caroline said...

Wow, love the ones you made. Didn't you do well with your received goodies - one lucky lady. especially loving the rainbow hexies.

Go-Go Kim said...

The owl is to live for!!!!! The rainbow hexis are drool-worthy too :o)

Judith, Belfast said...

Gorgeous MRs all round! Jxo

Melinda said...

So cute! Both what you made and what you received! I got my package from you the other day. I cannot believe that castle exists, it's so beautiful!

Nicola said...

it´s cute:)

Carla said...

Okay, there's cute, and then there;s cute! good job.

Karen said...

The rug mugs are amazing! Love all the ideas!

Alica said...

love your mug rugs - fun, pretty and creative.
What size do you usually make them?

Canadian Abroad said...

Love your mug rugs. They are giving me inspiration for the swap that I am behind in already!

Cindy said...

You're the luckiest girl ever! Look at all of the mug rug happiness that has come/gone your way :)