Quick Doodle Mug Rugs

Picture this. You have been so engrossed in playing with your BSR, the patented Bernina Stitch Regulator, that it has completely slipped your mind to get that hostess gift you were supposed to get for the party tonight. Oh well, worry not, if you still have 30 minutes to spare. Just grab your practice sandwiches and jazz them up to turn them into these snazzy li’l mug rugs.

Here’s how. Trim whatever it is that your have tried your FMQ (Free Motion Quilting) on, to make it a decent size for a mug rug, say, not bigger than 8″x12″ and not smaller than 6″x8″. Do not worry if the designs or fabrics don’t match or if you don’t like your FMQ too much. Trust me, they all look beautiful in the end. Next, grab some pretty fabric for the back and some coordinated trim.

Cut the backing fabric to the trimmed sandwich size plus an extra 1.5″ on all sides. Fold half inch on all 4 sides towards the wrong side and press. Centre sandwich on wrong side and baste in place.

Cut diagonally at an inch across on all 4 corners of the backing and wrap the pressed edges over the sandwich and pin in place.

Now’s the time for a quick cheat on mitering corners. We don’t have time, remember? Got a party to attend ! Just lift up one of the edges and tuck it till it lays at a 45 degree angle and pin in place. Repeat on the other 3 corners too. What a lovely faux mitered corner on a faux border !

Now look at your watch. If running late, then just sew along the top edges of the wrapped over backing and you are done. If you have a few minutes to spare, you could slip in some trim (lace, ric-rac, etc.) under the edges and then top stitch on all 4 sides.

Since I was using some cute pom pom lace, I switched over to the Zipper Foot.

You could do some fancy quilting on this border if you like. I chose to do closely spaced straight line stitching, stopping just quarter of an inch short of the outer edges, thus getting myself a faux binding too.