mug mats: the perfect quick quilt

Mug mats are useful. Of course. This is how to market them. But bottom line: Mug mats are small quilts, a joy for the quilter. In the old days, when I made quilts, I loved designing a block, cutting it, sewing it, and then I had to force myself to finish a big quilt of block after block. The colors, shapes and combinations of patterns are what interested me then, and still do.

The perfect answer to this craving to design something new: mug mats. Make one, it's done. Now on to the next!

The floral white and black in the center is the same as in Genevieve's quilt,
from a thrift store skirt.

This mat has upholstery fabric (charcoal gray with vines
and beige linen moiré, both given by my sister Nancy),
and new buttery and gray dot fabrics I bought

I really love combining fabrics from different sources. This one has fabric: from my 1970s-80s stash; an old farm skirt; gifts from friends and family; and a couple of new ones I bought.

Ninety-eight percent of my fabric stash is patterns and prints. I am very drawn to minimal quilts, believe it or not, but when it comes to designing, I keep going to prints. My next challenge to myself is to design minimal quilt mats, more like the beige and charcoal gray one above.

Let's see how I do. :-)

UPDATE:

I made two minimal abstract mats today, so let's call this rising to the challenge. :)

This linen is heavy. It was a dream to sew, until I got to the binding.
I won't ever bind with such heavy fabric again if I can help it.
Still, I LOVE this linen and will make many more things with it.
My sister Nancy gave it to me.

The back of the linen mat is a fabric long in my stash,
but I cannot remember for the life of me where it came from.
Nancy, no doubt.

Nancy gave me this dotted upholstery fabric, and also the red cotton,
which looks like batik. The dotted fabric looks much richer in person.
I was stymied about how to quilt it,
because I didn't want to detract from the simplicity of the design.
In the end I kept it simple with four squares.

Nancy gave me this linen toile, just delicious.
I paired it with the dots, which she gave together,
and they are perfect paired, even if one is on the front
and one is on the back.
I love Chinoiserie.

bees, flowers and little girls

I was excited to sew with the bee fabric my friend Susie sent for my birthday.
Turquoise is becoming my staple color.
The dots just make every combination happy.

The back.
Susie gave me the batik on the left, too.

Don made us this stump table last week.
It's great for staging mug mats, don't you think?

I've finished the back of Genevieve's quilt and will start quilting it tomorrow.

I also played with another mug mat, but I wasn't happy with my white stitches on the back binding, so I won't be selling it (I don't have the heart to tear it out). I'm going to give it to my daughter Lesley. (I hope she won't mind. :-)

I think the black binding is too heavy.
I want to make this again, and I'll need to decide on a better one.
I can see that the turquoise and white dots would probably work. :-)
The fabric is quite a collection.
The white, red, turquoise and chartreuse leaf fabric
to the left of the girls is from a vintage table cloth
of my mother's.

You can see how the bobbin thread, being white, shows my imperfect stitches.
(closeup below)
It is challenging to get perfect front and back stitches sewing
the binding down.

A more neutral binding, and darker bobbin thread, would hide imperfect stitches.
Oh I see I also haven't clipped all my threads. :-)
The cute olive green and pink argyle is from
my daughter-in-law Andrea, in the stash she gave
me for my birthday.

I do like the tiny patch on the front of the mat.
There was a barely noticeable stain in the vintage white tablecloth fabric,
and so I just made a polka dot patch.
It echoes the girl's dress.

A little update on my Etsy sales. I had two sales before Etsy and have had six Etsy sales! The first time someone found my shop out of the blue, I was amazed. That makes eight sales. After ten (and every ten sales), I will donate a cozy, fluffy quilt to a women's shelter.

Bees & flowers mug mat at Etsy.