Inspiration and Tutorials I used for the mug rugs

I didn't want to make a super long post for the blog hop but here is more information if you want to read where I got the tutorials or websites that I used for inspiration and help.

For my very first mug rug I really wanted to try out Foundation Paper Piecing, I have never done it before but thought it would be pretty easy to design my own umbrella for a paper pieced mug rug.  Boy was I wrong, I totally goofed it ended up being huge, or at least bigger than I planned.

and next to the umbrella mug rug that I decided to do instead

My daughter likes her new stuffie

I'm going to make a few more of these for Hopeful Threads April Project, Fluff for Foster Care.  They don't take much material to make and they will be great gifts for the older girls because I love the quote from Lyman Frank Baum in his story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

"Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue

and the dreams that you dare to dream

really do come true."

Hope, Faith and Love, 3 words that are needed for the foster children and 3 words that are also representative of my next project that I had wanted to do for my sister-in-law.

I saw this quilt on Pinterest and immediately wanted to do something like that.   But I didn't really like how the black outline looked on the hexagons, so I tried it a little differently and did the second one using Pat's fabrics appliqued on, that was a little better but I still thought it was missing something so then I tried a technique that I saw during a blog hop using reverse applique.  I thought this would be a perfect way to outline a few words chosen from the quote in the bible and I mixed them up using Tagxedo, printed it on linen fabric by taping some to paper and sending it through my printer the regular way, it's not very water proof, but it works.

Tagxedo cloud reverse appliqued sewed in.

 The embroidered hand prints (my sons, traced with a Frixion pen) just waiting to cut the fabric out so you can see the words revealed underneath.  Using the gorgeous and so easy to sew with Presencia thread that I won from Madame Samm and given to me by Janes Fabrics.

I carefully cut out the palm prints and then hand sewed a few stitches around (without tucking the fabric underneath) to keep the fabric from raising.

One hand says Hope and one Love

My fabric was at the bottom and so it was easy to cut into, but if you have it in the middle of a project then it is a good idea to put a pin in before sewing the top layer of fabric on, so it is easier to cut out and therefore not catch the fabric below, this project was pretty easy and my favorite.

I used different binding methods for each one of my Re-Birth mug rugs, the hexagon one I flipped inside out, Pat's I used the fabric from the back and brought it forward tucked it under and sewed 2 lines around it.

Really super easy to do.

 And the Reverse one I added strips to the edges and then machine sewed it to the front and then hand sewed it to the back, I wanted more control on that one so I wouldn't miss the words on the back, since it is all different sizes.  If I just used a normal binding it would have covered up a few letters, as is I lost the F in faith, but that's because the designer did not take into effect that people would be cutting out the quote and she put the F right on the selvedge.

I used this tutorial to make 5 yards of bias tape out of 1 fat quarter and this helpful printable cardstock bias tape maker, you can print it in sizes .5 inch (used on my husbands green tree mug rug) and 1 inch. (used on the rainbow mug rug) to make lots and lots of binding.