8 Days of Christmas Mug Rugs from Finland: Day 2 with Tiina K

Welcome to Day 2 of our challenge ”8 Days of Christmas Mug Rugs from Finland”! Today’s fabulous project was made by Tiina K aka tiukuliina.

The Mug Rug

Tiina K used a pattern of her own design. She was inspired by this year’s first snow and so her thoughts went to winter, Christmas trees and lanterns made of snowballs.

The final size of the mug rug is 7″ x 9″.

Tiina has an impressive fabric stash, which just like that allowed for something this fantastic to be made! And a keen eye for interesting details.

The quilting is spot on for the shapes and themes she chose, and thereby creates a second layer on top of the patches themselves. The icing on the cake, however, is the mug-rug design itself: amazing.

Side note: I really apprecaiate how the binding was finished on the front of the work. It seems like quite a few of us have quilted quilts ready to be bound in our closets, but because the expectation is to stitch the final seam by hand, it becomes a work-in-progress forever. Life is too short for this, if you can’t stand sewing the binding on by hand.

How-to: start by sewing the binding on from the back, turn around, clip and sew a second time by machine. Or, as in this case, use no binding at all, but leave enough backing fabric to turn to the front to close the gap! This is a viable, time-efficient option in smaller projects particularly, so do try it if it’s a new technique to you.

Who is Tiina?

Tiina K keeps a blog in Finnish and English at Käsityöläinen – unelmissaan (Craftsman/artisan – in her dreams) and writes about this project in her post Mukimatto – Mugrug.

You can find her on Instagram at tiukuliina. Be sure to follow her if you don’t already!

Thank you so much, Tiina, for this contribution to our challenge!

The Fabric

Please find the fabric Star Bright in Dark Red by Andover Fabrics in our webshop!

It’s on sale this week because we’re moving later in November to a new location, so grab some for your own winter sewing if you like 🙂 It’s a limited-edition print by Andover and won’t come back.

The Challenge

The blog posts of this ”8 Days of Christmas Mug Rugs from Finland” challenge:

• Introduction to ”8 Days of Christmas Mug Rugs from Finland”
• Day 1 with Leena
• Day 2 with Tiina K (you’re here!)
• Day 3 with Auli
• Day 4 with Tilkunviilaaja
• Day 5 with Teija
• Day 6 with Anu
• Day 7
• Day 8

Find our posts on Instagram at hashtag #SenttiJaTuumaChristmasMugRug.

We continue tomorrow with the Day 3 contribution, so be sure to check back both here and on Instagram!