Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Mug Mat Adventure

Mug Mats???? Ever heard of them?  Do you walk on them, put one under a rocking chair? Maybe even hopes of hopes, never have to take them outside and shake them?  Well, here is an interesting fact about Mug Mats

They are usually 6x9" big, and are made for your pure enjoyment....of a cuppa coffee or tea, and maybe large enough to hold a spoon (be careful, don't want to stain them) and/or maybe a sweet treat.

To make a Mug Mat you would start with some sort of pattern idea.  Worthy Note Here:   I have pinned several samples on my Pinterest account if you want to check some of them out.  (look for Diamond Dee).  There are samples from campsites, to silhouette profiles blowing coloured bubbles,,,,happens to be a favourite of mine.
Too many, in fact, to know which one to choose for your own project.

So....my eyes settled on a rainbow coloured sample.  I thought this idea would be fun to try....of course, it was!  So off I went to my scrappy bin and chose all my rainbow colours with flowers in the pattern.  I set to work cutting my 2" hexagons after printing them on the HP printer first, and of course singly cutting each little hex out by hand.

Then I proceeded to glue the paper pattern to the material square of 4" each, and a glue stick works perfect for this step....warning from learning, you don't need a lot of glue, just a dab in the center will work wonders to hold the paper pieced hexie to the material.

Then next step, I measured and marked approx 1/4" all around the pp (paper pieced) hexie and then very carefully cut the extra material off the marked part.
Then I proceeded to hand based the 1/4 seam in place all around the hexie turning the excess material to the back.  And away I went. placing, and whip stitching all the hexagons in place to follow through on my rainbow choice.

Alas, this was going too smoothly. I finished all the hand whipping of hexagons only to discover....it was wayyyyyyyyyy to large.  So out came the seam ripper for a bit of "frogging"....in other words..............rrrrriiiiiippppppp.  So next I measured the size I needed and proceeded to cut it into a 6x9" rectangle.....oh for sakes alive, I trimmed it too small.  So over to my scrap box again and found some material that would fit the bill and could be added to the sides and thereby complete my 6x9" requirement. The material I found was a sample of grassy area...what more appropriate to encase my flower garden.  Of course as luck or lack of skill would have it....my Red and Indigo colour strips were cut off....so part of the rainbow is no more.

To finish my little mug mat and being happy that all was not lost, I found a piece of material that would match and yet keeping with the green grass look, I proceeded to make a self-backing and binding finish.   This wasn't hard to do at all. perhaps being a nice small size helped.  The last step I did was to sign the back of the mat and leave a different sort of quilt label. I thought it was very appropriate and was totally happy with my finished mug mat.

Now you might ask the purpose in making this little event happen. Thanks to an online group I belong to who decided July was a great month to make a mug mat swap, and of which I was quick to join in.......Thank you to the group member (Lois) who suggested our little fun in July.  Now we will be hopefully making one for the seasonal changes, or yearly type holidays.  Stay tuned if I am able to jump in again, you will find more of my mats in this Blog.

Here are some photos I took along the process.  I loved this idea and am now waiting for the arrival of my own exchange to come from one of the other members.  Great fun this July.

Oh yes, Math was never my strongest point! Would you like to see a few instructions and maybe try making some for yourself.....check out these web sites:
Web Sites for a few Mug Mat Ideas:
http://thecuriousquilter.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/make-a-basic-quilted-mug-rug-a-tutorial/
 That should get you started on your own Mug Mat Adventures.





July 29, 2014