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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:

  1. 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)

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  2. 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!

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

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  4. 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.

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

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

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  7. 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!

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  8. Johanna must be our spooky long lost triplet!!

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

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

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

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  12. 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!

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

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  14. The rug mugs are amazing! Love all the ideas!

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

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

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

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