Mug Rugs

I have been happily signing up for swaps like some kind of crazy person over on Instagram. Some of the swaps are mini quilts and some are even smaller than mini quilts – they’re mug rugs! Today I would like to show you some of the mug rugs I’ve made recently.

If you’re wondering “What the heck is a mug rug?” I’ll tell you… they’re smaller than a place mat and bigger than a coaster. They’re just the right size for a mug and a little side plate with a snack!

I said I would be a swap angel in the Festive Mug Rug Swap. Swap Angels make and send a package to someone whose partner has dropped out of the swap so that that person is not left with nothing after they fulfilled their end of the swap. I made this little mug rug and hand quilted it as a swap angel.

Here’s a shot over by the window so you can see my quilting a bit better.

This is a mug rug I made for Lori at Sew Psychd. She had posted a picture on Instagram of a moose eating her flowers with the caption “THIS is why we can’t have nice things”. I made this mug rug based on that photo. I have embroidered some flowers for the moose to eat. I ran my fabric through my printer in order to get the caption printed on it. This is both machine and hand quilted.

If you want to print on fabric you can iron your fabric onto an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of freezer paper and run that through your printer or you can just tape your fabric to regular printer paper. Keeping everything as smooth as possible of course so it doesn’t jam. I recommend using an ink jet. Then you need to heat set your ink with your iron. I don’t know how it washes but hopefully it won’t come out. I don’t think it’s a good idea to try this with a laser printer. (Possible fire hazard!)

This is the back of the mug rug. Tilt your head to the left cause it loaded in sideways. (You probably need to stretch your neck anyway right?)

This is a mug rug I made for the Instagram Secret Pals Swap. Every month we have a new secret pal to send to. My January pal (Stephalofagus) is also in the rainbow mini swap so I knew she would love a rainbow. Again tilt your head to the left to see it. Then you better tilt to the right to stretch out the other side. 😉

Mug rugs are a very satisfying little project because you can usually get them finished in one sitting. Maybe two if you do the embroidery. 🙂