Fall Mug Rug for My Door

I was searching for a fall-themed mug rug or postcard I could use to hang on my apartment door. A few years ago, I won some cute mug rugs from Brenda of Songbird Designs. I love putting them on the door and it got me to thinking I need more for the different months or seasons.

The file I used was purchased from Designs by JuJu, which comes highly recommended. You can find it here. I have been wanting to try an in-the-hoop project. For those of you who don’t do machine embroidering, they are projects that are done entirely in the hoop, so there is nothing you need to do on the sewing machine after the embroidery is done. You may take the hoop off and on while you work at it, but you never take the embroidery system off.

The instructions were great and it really worked out quite well. A couple of thoughts:

• It feels a bit thicker than I would like for a mug rug. It recommended batting, but, there are also 2 layers of the mesh, to stabilize the project. I think with all the thread, the stabilizer alone or a tear away with the batting would have been better.

• Know your threads. For color purposes, I chose the wonderfil thread, but it is very fine. I went over the stitches twice to get the deisred result. Now, the Floriani stitches beautifully, so I would prefer to use all Floriani next time.

• Think about alternative ways to back this. I think I would have prefered one layer rather than two and a seam on the fabric, but that would change it from being an in the hoop project! I am going to examine Brenda’s closer to see what she did.

The colors are vibrant, which I really liked. I also really liked the overall stitching on the background – it made a boring fabric interesting. My Bernina 570 QE did just fine managing all this. I am learning to keep it slow and when you hear stitches that don’t sound right – STOP! There is usually a bird’s nest or an eagle’s nest (really huge one) in the machine.

F0r the past few months, I am concentrating on small projects. This was one of my goals for this quarter of WIPS-Be-Gone and I am pleased to have it done. There is a large quilt to do (commission) and I need to cut some blocks out this week and start sewing. I have a couple of little finishes in the wings, but one won’t be shown until after the items are given to the recipients!

Coming up on the Blog

Embroidered Leather Tools Wallet
Tips and Tutorials on the 22nd with Challenge/Prizes in January
Polar Bear Plunge Blog Hop (1/24-28)

Linky Parties:
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