Halloween Mug Rug

Hey ghouls and creeps! It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and in celebration of Halloween the next two months will be packed with all kinds of creepy but of course colorful decor and baking tutorials. I wanted to begin this series by making a set of Halloween mug rugs, a project I had with the best intentions to complete last year, but just ran out of time! I absolutely adore small quilting projects, because it’s easier to maneuver these projects on your machine, but still have these handmade fabric creations to use and enjoy around your living space.

When collecting materials with this project in mind, it’s best to try to include fabrics with smaller prints since when sewn, the outside bands have a 3/4” X 4 1/2” of the fabric visible. To remedy this for the larger prints I chose, I made sure to feature these fabrics on the center band (since this band has a wider width) and on the backside of the mug rugs. Use these when you’re curling up with a hot beverage, or even when you’re just trying to avoid condensation rings on your tabletop.

This project is pretty simple, if you are brand new to quilting this would be a great project to test out all the fundamental techniques required of the process before starting that queen-sized comforter you’ve been wanting to start!

Step 1: Cut your Fabric: Cut fabrics to dimensions mentioned below. Make sure to take into account if your print is directional, if it is, cut accordingly to ensure the print orientation is correct! *WOF= width of fabric

Step 2: Piecing your Rug Tops: Before you begin, all piecing seams should be 1/4”. To keep track of my pieces, I first laid out my tops in the way that I would like them to be sewn together.

Pro tip: when stitching mug rug bands together try chain stitching groupings together, this will conserve thread and time! I then took the two outside band pairs and joined them by sewing down one of the long sides. It’s important to note if you have directional fabrics, be sure to mirror these two groupings so that your mug rug is symmetrical. I then took the center band and the two flanking bands and sewed these together as well. Then sew your center group to the two outside groups. You’ve made a mug rug top! If you are making multiples, repeat these steps until all tops are constructed.

Take rug tops and straighten top and bottom edges by aligning a transparent ruler with seams and rug ends.

Step 3: Prepping for Quilting: In an effort to save time when quilting my layers of my mug rugs together, I sewed all my backings into a long strip and applied a layer of fusible fleece to the backside of this strip.

Pin rug tops in the middle of their corresponding backing pieces, right side out on the fusible fleece side. This method works really well if you plan to stitch in the ditch as your quilting design (stitching in the ditch is when you sew down the channel of an existing seam).

By having all your rugs situated in a long strip, you can sew all the way down each column of ditches, rather than sewing each ditch on each rug individually. I did the math for a set of four rugs, you would stitch a ditch, remove it from your machine, and then repeat this process twenty-four times, rather than sewing just six long ditches (so much better!).

Step 4: Quilting your Mug Rugs: Now that you have prepped to quilt your mug rugs, simply stitch in the ditch of your rugs starting at the top of the column and sewing down all corresponding ditches! Repeat this step six times until all ditches have been stitched. After completing my quilting, I did a perimeter stitch line all the way around each rug to keep my layers together better about 3/8” from the edge.

Take a rotary cutter and a transparent ruler and cut out all rugs from the strip.

Step 5: Bind your Mug Rugs: Take your binding cuts and sew these pieces together to make a long enough strip to go around a mug rug. If you’ve been around, you know how I like a diagonal seam when sewing together binding pieces. A diagonal seam reduces bulk when you go to sew it around your project, and wrap it around the raw edge to the backside.

After you have your full binding length, fold the piece in half lengthwise and press with an iron. Begin attaching binding with a 3/8” seam allowance in the middle of one of the sides of the rug with the top facing up (disclaimer: I applied my binding incorrectly attaching it to the back rather than the front, so disregard that detail when looking at provided images).

When you get to a corner sew up to 3/8” of the edge in front of the presser foot and lift foot. Fold binding into a forty-five-degree angle in relation to the corner, and then fold binding back over forty-five-degree angle fold to align with the next edge.

Repeat these steps for the remaining three corners. Sew binding to overlap with other end of binding and cut off binding excess. Fold binding around raw edge to backside, and pin in place. Slip stitch binding to backside all the way around rug perimeter.

You’re finished, congratulations! Who else is excited to use their new mug rug(s) with their next cup of tea?

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Ready for your next project? Here are some tutorials on the blog I think you’ll like! Frame Flip tutorial: https://britnijade.com/frame-flip/, Macrame Wall Hanging: https://britnijade.com/macrame-wall-hanging-w-bones/, or the Spider Web Macrame: https://britnijade.com/spider-web-macrame/. Enjoy!