8 Days of Christmas Mug Rugs from Finland: Day 6 with Anu

Welcome to Day 6 of our challenge “8 Days of Christmas Mug Rugs from Finland”! The maker of today’s charming mug rug with cottage feel is Anu.

The Mug Rug

Anu used a pattern of her own design apart from the Christmas Star, which she found as a free pattern, designed by Rose of Threadbare Creations.

She tells me the mug rug came together rather unusually for her, mostly by hand because of her recently moving and not having all craft supplies at hand yet. So instead of a rotary cutter and other typical quilting tools, she’s cut fabric by hand, used a ruler for school kids, sewn parts by machine and stitched others by hand.

Notice the wonderful combination of quilting by machine and hand. If you don’t want to go all in with hand quilting, do the most, possibly in a disappearing colour, by machine, then follow Anu’s lead and echo or simply emphasize structures by hand. This gives fantastic bang for the buck. And pop a button on top for an extra cozy finish.

But it doesn’t end here yet! The mug rug is reversible:

The white lace was crocheted by Anu’s grandmother and has found aperfect place to be featured in her granddaughter’s project as a constant reminder of their bond. What a lovely sentiment!

While the original intended use may have been to decorate the edges of shelves perhaps (the design has slightly more ruffles on one side), don’t hesitate to repurpose if those types of home decorations aren’t your style today.

And if you like Anu for some reason are unable to or just don’t want to add binding, create a neat, straight line of the edges of your mug rug (or coaster!), sew the final seam shut by top stitching and call it a day. Not every quilted project must be finished in one particular way, but they can be just as pretty this way, whether with a rustic or minimalist vibe.

The final size of the mug rug is 7” x 9,5”.

Who is Anu?

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

Thank you so much, Anu, 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
• Day 3 with Auli
• Day 4 with Tilkunviilaaja
• Day 5 with Teija
• Day 6 with Anu (you’re here!)
• Day 7
• Day 8

Find our posts on Instagram at hashtag #SenttiJaTuumaChristmasMugRug.

We continue tomorrow with the Day 7 contribution, so be sure to check back both here and on Instagram!