My First Mug Rug

I’ve been reading about mug rugs all over the quilting blogosphere so these cute little guys have been on my mind lately. There was even a week of Mug Rug Madness (check it out!) Though I’m on a time-crunch to finish up a commissioned baby quilt (I’m working on it, I promise!), we have a friend who is getting married at the end of April and when I checked out his registry and saw three Fiesta mugs, I knew that they would be perfectly paired with some Modern Meadow mug rugs. And who wouldn’t want some adorable little mug rugs to go along with some new mugs? These sweet little mats invite you to not only grab a cup of coffee or tea, but a cookie or a piece of cake to go with it.

While these mini quilts brighten up your table and catch your crumbs, they are also quick and easy to make! I made the whole quilt (minus the binding) in less than an hour or so and was able to hand finish the binding before one episode of Downton Abbey had finished up. The other great thing about mug rugs is that you can practice new piecing, stitching, or binding techniques and not feel like you’ve ruined thirty hours worth of work if something goes wrong. I might try out machine finishing my binding on one just to try it out.

I have two more to go to finish up the set.

I found the design for this particular mug rug on a blog that I’ve recently discovered by Ryan Walsh (who not only is a great quilter, but has a really nicely designed blog, too!) I used the template that he very kindly provided in his tutorial for this fun Dresden wedges mug rug.

And there is something about guys and their mug rugs, because I think my next mug rug will probably be patterned after this red and aqua rug by John over at Quilt Dad. This guy is amazing and is not only a talented quilter and designer, but also seems like a sweet dad. Check him out!

This cute little quilt is 6” x 10” and hopefully will be used for many years under many great cups of coffee. Just throw some of Kim Boyce’s cookies on there and you’ll never want to leave.