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.

Genevieve's "mischievous squares" quilt top

Genevieve's nursery is purple and lime green,
so I designed what I call "mischievous squares"
with lime green, purple and neutral grays.
A little mischief is good, right?

Genevieve was born August 15, latest great grandchild of my parents in-law (granddaughter of my husband's sister). I suppose I should have started a quilt long before she was born, but that didn't happen. :) I'm pretty sure Genevieve's mom and grandmom don't follow Birds of the Air Quilts, so I'm not ruining the surprise.

Now I am rallying all my design acumen (ha) for the back. Genevieve's other great grandma, now deceased, had a fabric stash that Genevieve's mommy inherited and loaned to my daughter Lesley to make her a bag from whatever she liked. Well, years after Lesley made the bag, she still had the stash, so I called upon her to find it in a box (they moved this summer) so I could incorporate some of it into the quilt back. There is this wonderful hand-pieced piece in the pile of fabrics. I can't be sure Genevieve's great grandma pieced it, but let's say she did.

Pieced piece by Genevieve's great grandma (?);
I've pinned three pieces to the pieced piece:
the black on the left, the salt & pepper, and the green and brown squares,
all from the stash, already cut. Talk about improv piecing!
I'm guessing this would have been sewn in the 1940s or 50s.
Click to see the fabrics better.

My plan is to sew additional fabric from the stash around the edges to form a rectangle, then piece it into a simple quilt back with large blocks of fabrics that coordinate with the front. I see the pieced piece as a precious "bloom" similar to the floral fabric on the quilt front. So I'll frame it similarly, but not necessarily create a set of mischievous squares. Still thinking!