I think I had the most fun on this mug rug than I’ve had on any of the others we’ve put together this week!  Most of that is because I just let myself GO quilt-wild!  🙂

This mug rug is foundation pieced as well as adding a little applique to the project.  I started with a basic drawing on a 8″ x 10″ piece of muslin:

Next, I chose my fabrics for the design shown above:

OH, and let me just say – I am the laziest quilter you’ve ever met.  I quilt for the love and passion I have for the art, not for competition, not for perfection, not for anyone but myself.  Hence, when I started sewing the fabric to my foundation, I used the lines as a “soft guide” and not for an exact placement of my fabrics.  The only piece of fabric that was cut and sewn to perfection was the circle – and for this, I used TWO (2) pieces of the yellow (square in the photo above) so the sun ray strips did not show through.

Then, just follow (or guesstimate) the pattern on your foundation fabric to sew the sun rays onto your foundation.  If you need a tutorial on foundation piecing, feel free to visit this site for more information.  Once the strips are all sewn onto your foundation, place the “sun” circles in place and blanket-stitch them into place.  Then, make your quilt sandwich and quilt your sunny mug rug!

As you can see below, my version is not perfect – but, it’s ME, and to me, that’s what quilting is all about!