Coffee cup mug rugs

The coffee cup mug rug pattern is available in the Flying Parrot Quilts pattern shop!

I really needed some instant gratification, and in the quilting world, it doesn’t come more instant than mug rugs. So, not quite instant, but still not that long! I had been wanting to make some new versions of the paper pieced coffee cup mug rug I made for a swap ages ago. (Does that make this instant coffee? I digress.)

So, because they went so quickly I whipped up five in an afternoon! (The bindings took several episodes of Star Trek to get through, but I really prefer hand binding.)

This one might be my favorite, in pretty pink and gray florals. The sleeve on the cup really suits itself to a little bit of fussy cutting, and this little bouquet was just the right size.

I quilted it with a ¼-inch crosshatch, making this one the most time-consuming mug rug to quilt, but I love the effect. It’s hard to imagine doing this on a large quilt, but I might have to try this style of crosshatching on a mini one of these days. Then I borrowed my daughter’s dolls for a little tea party!

• 

• 

• 

Because I own obscene amounts of ocean-themed fabrics, I made a cup with those. The original was made for a tea-themed swap, so the pattern does include a little appliqué teabag label that you can fuse on and connect to your cup with a chain or other embroidery stitch. And the label is great for a little bit of personalization, too.

I figured I would probably let my husband have this one. He’s British and therefore a tea drinker, so I made this one as a tea cup.

• 

• 

• 

I think these mug rugs would make fun holiday gifts, so I pulled out some Christmas fabrics, too. I used the opportunity to try some ruler work on my domestic machine with a small circle ruler. It’s not perfect, but I love the way this little bubble design works with the Christmas baubles.

Again, the fussy cut ornament made for a fun accent on the sleeve.

• 

• 

Finally, I made a couple of Halloween-themed mug rugs. This first one matches my Epic Halloween Quilt. I had just enough of that Halloween ad-themed fabric left over to make the sleeve on this cup. Heh heh.

• 

• 

The other one was made out of Tula Pink Halloween fabrics. I sometimes find some of her fabrics too colorful to work well in my style of quilting, but they’re so great for bags and little projects like this!

I made another tea cup out of this one, and added a little embroidered eye to reflect the motif in the pink print.

• 

• 

Here’s the original I made for the tea-themed swap, incidentally. By pure coincidence, my partner was a huge University of Georgia fan and since I live in town I was able to get fabrics to make her the perfect mug rug. (Please don’t hate me if you’re not a UGA fan! I really only keep track of game days so I can anticipate when the traffic in town will be bad!)

So now I have a bunch of new mug rugs. As you can see, they’re just big enough to fit a cup of your favorite steaming hot beverage, and a cookie! You can find the paper piecing pattern in my shop here.