Fancy Little Mug Rugs from Solid Stars

Hello, Friends!

I have a fun little gift project to share today!

I made three little mug rugs, using

some 6 1/2" star blocks that I made

a short long time ago. 

{Ahem...time flies.}

You can read more about the Moda Sweetwater solid bundle

of fabrics that I used, in this post.

I had such fun stitching up these solid blocks!

I used one of them on the back of a little table runner,

and it's featured in this post.

Hmmm...solid blocks do tend to show "mistakes", 

don't they?
I'm pretty sure I've always had some issues,
but busier prints tend to mask them better.

A little miracle occurred when I pressed some fusible fleece

to the back of the stars. Everything flattened out nicely!

I had some little iron-on labels in my stash,

also from Sweetwater, so I decided to use them to

dress up these little orphan blocks.

It didn't hurt that the tiny houses also disguised those imperfections!

The little labels were easily ironed and stitched into place.

I used a Frixion pen to mark quilting lines.

I used a different quilting design for each block, 

just for added interest.

When the quilting was done, a quick press

with a hot iron removed the Frixion lines.

I trimmed up the blocks and prepared them for binding.

I used some leftover jelly roll strips, cut to 1 1/5" width,
to bind each block with a different print.

I used my own tutorial for "Machine Binding"

to finish off these little beauties in no time.

Feel free to try it - you'll love it!

It's a single-fold binding that works great for

small projects like mug rugs or mini quilts!

{I made one slight modification to the tutorial

and used a straight seam, instead of a diagonal seam, 

to attach the ends of the binding together.}

I chose a pretty print from Treehouse Club,

also from Moda Sweetwater, for the backings.

I still have lots of my fat quarter left over.

I only needed 3 7" squares...yay!

I wish I had time to make dozens

and dozens of these!

Little mug rugs are a great way to show off individual blocks.

That's one reason I like to join sew alongs,

even if I don't expect to use the blocks in a quilt.

Blocks can be made into special gifts

for friends, whether they are quilty friends or not.

These little orphan blocks will find their way to loving homes.

How do YOU like to use extra blocks?

Let me know in a comment!

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