June 24, 2013

A Post I Never Thought I'd Write

This post is about mug rugs.  Something I've made fun of for years.

I mean, really.  I would open quilting magazines or read quilting blogs and be snarky and think, "you need somewhere to put your cookie?  This is a real thing you're actually thinking about?"  And then I made one last year, which has a permanent place on our coffee table, for Nick's soup bowl or beer glass or whatever he's eating.  And now I'm actually planning a few...for someone else.

My sewing buddy and I (a penpal program run though Deborah at Whipstitch) are both avid tea drinkers.  We have several favorite teas in common, and when I had the chance to visit David's Tea in Chicago, we talked about it like  it was Disney.  Which is awesome!  We've decided to swap some mug rugs for each other for work, because we both drink tea at our offices, and I've spilled tea on me or my paperwork twice in the past week.  Obviously, I need some help.

I'm having a hard time planning her rugs, unless I want to stick to a basic log-cabin design, with a main fabric in the middle and coordinates blocking it out from there.  Here are some mug rugs I've seen and loved lately:

Hey Porkchop!

Two More Seconds

Pin. Sew. Press.

Saltwater Quilts

I found this on Tumblr...I'd love to know the original mug-rugger!  (Is that a word?)

The hardest part for me is knowing how to translate my ideas to a mug rug.  I'm not great at math or deciding dimensions, so I work well with tutorials.  The Hey Porkchop! example above comes with a great tutorial, which I may follow for one of my buddy's gifts.

Mug rugs: love 'em or hate 'em?  Are you judging me for suddenly loving them?  And if you aren't a hater, can you recommend any good tutorials or patterns?





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