Cozy Christmas Tree Mug Rug

Are you ready to create a Cozy Christmas Tree Mug Rug?  You will need Lori Holt’s Cozy Christmas Sew Simple Shapes (details can be found here), a completed Cozy Christmas Tree block, two 3” x 6½” rectangles for the bauble background and scraps for the baubles and bauble tops.  

Cozy Christmas Tree Block using quick-fuse applique

First make a Cozy Christmas Tree block using your preferred applique method.  Lori uses a stitch-and-turn method with beautiful ric-rac trim for her quilt block (tutorial here) whereas I prefer the quick-fuse (raw edge) method when making mug rugs. 

I fused the ric-rac between the two tree pieces.
When I stitch the tree in place the ric-rac will be secure.

To make the bauble sidebars trace shape B10 four times onto the paper-side of fusible webbing.  You will also need to trace four little rectangles for the bauble tops. 

I found it easier to trace a 1.5" x 1" square
and then cut it into quarters

Cut out the tracings roughly and fuse to the wrong side of your chosen fabrics before cutting the applique shapes out accurately.

Place the bauble shapes onto the 3” x 6½” rectangles.  The bottom bauble is ½” up from the bottom edge and the top bauble is ¾” down from the top edge.  Fuse and stitch in place.

Stitch the bauble sides to either side of your Cozy Christmas Tree block to create a mug rug top.  (I trimmed my Cozy Christmas Tree Block so that is was 6" wide.)  Layer batting and backing behind the appliqued mug rug and quilt as preferred.  

Add little hoops to the top of the baubles but remember to leave at least ¼” at the top for the binding.
  

Bauble hanging loops quilted in place.

Finally add a button, heart or felt circle to the top of the tree and bind to finish.  (You can find a PDF print out of binding methods here.)

Talking about buttons - a mug rug can be used for many things but, if it is to be used as a place to rest a cup or mug then it is important that any cup should be safe and steady.  NEVER use a shank button on a mug rug  and try to use small, flat buttons whenever possible.  I find a button at the very top of a mug rug is rarely a problem but if you are in any doubt, or the mug rug is for a child or as a gift, then replace any buttons with fabric circles. 

My mug rug is going on my hall table to hold pennies for carol singers
so I went big and pretty on the button atop my tree.

So now that the tree is trimmed it is time to turn our attention to hanging the wreath but more on that next week. Until then ........