Twin Mug Rugs

I am slowly working my way through a mountain of projects that need binding!  My finger-tips needed a break, though, yesterday, so I set out to do a little paper piecing.  My hubby’s grandmother and her twin sister are celebrating birthdays this weekend, so I broke into my stash of Sun Drops by Corey Yoder for Moda – scraps from a project I hope I can share very soon! – and made some little mug rugs.

The inspiration for the first mug rug came from Sew Crafty Jess’s Hexing Around blocks.  I wanted a thicker inner star border to show off that pretty grey circles print, so I drafted my own paper-piecing pattern in Illustrator.  I’m finding that it is such a versatile program that I’m hardly ever using my EQ7 program!

Using scraps from the same fabric line, I put my second mini together using Cali’Quilter’s Woven Star pattern.  She uses a fabulous “paper-less” paper-piecing technique that I had also learned in a QuiltCon class with Cristy Fincher.  I absolutely love this method since you get all the precision of traditional paper-piecing without having to spend forever tearing off the paper backing once the block is assembled.

I paired each mug rug with a sunny yellow coffee cup from Target and my favorite Tazo Passion Tea, plus a cute little card with Heidi’s {Buttons & Butterflies} great explanation of what a mug rug is … and they’re all ready to gift!

With all the huge projects I’ve put together over the last few months, I’ve forgotten how ridiculously awesome the {almost} instant gratification of finishing a small project in a single evening is!