Mug Rugs - the perfect scrap buster!

I hate having scraps left from projects.  I am a very frugal person and can not throw away scraps that could be useful.  Several years ago I was searching for ideas on ways to use up my fabric scraps when I came across mug rugs.  A mug rug is basically an over sized quilted coaster (6"x8" or 6"x9").  It is large enough to hold a drink and a muffin or other snack. 

The rugs are the perfect scrap buster since you can create any pattern as long as the pieced top is either the 6"x8" or 6"x9" size.  I also piece my backs most of the time in coordinated fabrics making them a two for one look.  When I found these on the Internet I had just been given my free motion quilting foot for my birthday. (Loving husband is very supportive and tolerant of my craft/sewing addiction.)  This was a terrific size to practice free motion quilting. 

You can search Google images for mug rugs and come up with tons of pattern ideas.  I made some in smaller versions of traditional quilt patterns and also designed a few myself.  Applique and machine embroidery is another way to add a design detail to these miniature "quilt" creations. 

A mug rug makes a great gift for anyone who has a desk.  I gave them to alot of my teacher friends and family for Christmas. 

Here are some pictures of some I made in the past and some new ones I made for my up coming craft fair.  So, go right now and dig out your scraps and have some fun creating your version of the mug rug.  I would love to see pictures of your creations and ideas/comments.

Danna

 

 The circles are stitched on top with raw edges.  I saw a whole quilt done this way and it was really cute.

These are two more traditional quilt patterns I made.  The purple flowers are appliqued and the yellow flowers are hand embroidery. 

The Scottie dog mug rug is scraps left from a quilt I made.  (I will post more about the quilt soon.)  This fabric was just tooo cute to throw away any scraps. This is actually the "back", I used the left over pieces from the quilt blocks to make the front side.

I love  bright colors.  On this mug rug I machine embroidered two flowers in variegated thread.  It turned out alot cuter than I thought it would.

Here are 16 mug rugs I made for my upcoming craft fair.  All of these were made from scraps only.  I used small pieces from quilt blocks, the ends of strips cut for quilts etc.  Most of the binding was left over from other quilts I made.  I only had to cut binding for 2 or 3.

Green is my favorite color.  I paired it with the black scraps to give it a more sophisticated look.  This is a simple pattern of different sized strips sewn together in a row.

The appliqued "R" and piano keys made this one very unique.  The binding is a music staff fabric.  I made several with the appliqued initials for teachers.  Of course this one was for a music teacher.