Mug Rug Madness

Erin over at Two More Seconds is hosting her Mug Rug Madness again this week.  She asked me to join up this round.  I was really excited to come up with a project.  The theme this time around is Christmas. The Fat Quarter Shop generously donated some Countdown to Christmas by Sweetwater to make my mug rug.

I chose to use the 6-pointed star block from the Summer Sampler Series again with a little variation.  This time I cut my pieces into diamonds rather than triangles.  I cut the center diamonds by folding my fabric and placing my 60 degree triangle ruler on the 2.5" line at the fold.   I then outlined each diamond using 1" strips of various black fabrics from Countdown to Christmas.

 

Piecing this project was exactly the same as piecing my hexagon quilt.  Sew the "Y" seams by stopping 1/4" from the edge and starting a new row of stitching on the adjacent seam.

I first sewed the star together, stopping and backstitching a 1/4" from each outer edge.  

Then I carefully added each white print diamond.  

I placed one layer of batting in the middle and quilted this following the lines of the design.  I used black thread inside each diamond outline.  I used off-white thread for a few rows of echo quilting on the white diamonds.

It's bound in the red dot fabric from the line.  I love this print and actually bought some extra for my red stash. I put together a short tutorial a while back for binding hexagons as the wider angle makes it a bit different from traditional binding.

It's about 9" which makes for quite a large mug rug, but when you're talking about cookies for Santa, you need a large mug rug.

Don't forget to head back over to Two More Seconds to enter the giveaways for this round of Mug Rug Madness!

The Mug Rug Madness was sponsored by the Fat Quarter Shop.  They have this Countdown to Christmas line in stock right now!  It's perfect for holiday projects.

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