Chicago Modern Quilt Guild Mug Rug Swap - finished!

My last mug rug was given to it's new owner at our CMQG meeting last week... so it's time that I can share them all with you!

Here's how it all worked. This was a first for me, that it was not a blind swap. I knew who I was making the mug rugs for and they knew that they would recieve them from me too. For that reason I didn't share all the pictures along the way.

My mug rugs were sent to Ebony, Terri, and Rachel. I felt like I started out with just a limited amount of info on each of them. Ebony was the only one that I had really gotten to know a bit (at the retreat last spring). So I did what I always do with swaps, try to challenge myself with at least one part of the swap item.

I'll start with Ebony's - I knew that she appreciated precision and accuracy. Also, it came to my mind while I was planning this one, that she'd asked my gut opinion on fabrics once - trying to be childlike and non-judging about what our first impressions/decisions of choices were. (I'm rambling) Anyhow, I ended up doing a porthole type block with a really fun accent fabric underneath, and a strip of "hoo-ha's" (hehe not my name for them... tutorial for them is here I sewed mine down by machine though not by hand). On the back I added a tiny wonky star and some flying geese (that almost didn't get used there because they were a little wonky in the unintentional way). I'm pretty in love with that mug rug I must say!

Then I worked on Terri's. I hadn't gotten to know her or Rachel very well so I knew just a little bit about them. From what I knew about Terri, she likes darker tones than I tend toward, and also likes batiks. Well I was working with my stash so Terri got an awesome mug rug made with the fabrics from my stash that most resembled her likes... purples and rich colors. I made an offset square block then quilted it, then cut it in a circle. That was my first try at binding a curved edge. It wasn't bad at all... but I did sew it on a little too taught and I'll do it better next time. I love the effect of the round edges and the straight quilting!

Rachel's was a fun one too. Hers accidentally ended up on the large size. I had tried the block on the front several times before, and I still haven't gotten those points to line up just so... but I'll keep trying. I really enjoyed this brighter color palate. The colors were more intentional than I usually work with. I added a tiny star on the back of this one too. :)

Now go ahead and check out the ones I received here. Also, check out the table we displayed them all on at our July CMQG meeting (click here, then click around to the previous pictures to see lots more!).