Hey Everyone, welcome back to Mug Rug Monday.

I’m slowly getting back on track to having my mug rug posts actually land on Monday. Okay so I am only one day earlier than last week but hey that’s better than no days.

I was playing and creating with black and white this week for the Coldwater Studio Tour and thought why not carry that over to my mug rug design for this week.

Many moons ago I made a diagonal stitch and flip piece and I mimicked it for this little mug rug. I already had the 2 ½″ strips of black and white fabrics so it was easy to add a backing and some batting and start sewing.

Once it was sewn together which took no time at all I squared it off to 9 x 9 inches.

Diagonal background

It looked pretty plain with just the diagonal strips of black and white. I figured it needed some colour to liven it up. And a flower would be perfect for this little mug rug on this wonderful spring day.

I drew a daisy like flower on a piece of paper and then used my light box to trace the pieces onto the fusible web. If you don’t have a light box then a window works well to do the same job except after dark not so well.

The daisy

After building the flower on the Teflon appliqué sheet to create a single entity I was able to peel it off as a whole flower. Check out my Pink Dahlia Mug Rug to see how to do this step by step.

Flower on Teflon sheet

With it being one piece that made it easy to place on the background and fuse in place. I love the red on the black and white. I also love the mottled texture of the red fabric – gives the petals dimension.

Flower fused in place

The next step is to stitch down the petal edges. Here I asked myself a couple of questions. What stitch would I use? And what colour of thread?

The thread choice is determined by whether or not the stitching is going to blend in or stand out. To blend in I would choose a thread that matches the petal fabric. To stand out I would choose a thread that is either a few steps darker or lighter than the petal fabric to create contrast.

Thread choices

I’ve decided to go with a lighter thread to create a lot of contrast and make it look like the edge of the petals have the sun shining on them. I used the darkest one for around the centre of the flower. And by the way I used the free motion satin stitch for this. I love this stitch for a couple of reasons. It is fast, has an organic look and I control where the needle goes.

What a difference the stitching makes to the total look.

Close up of stitching

Finished with a regular binding this little mug rug is all set to be used and enjoyed with my next cup of java.

Flower Power Mug Rug

I just had a thought that this flower would have looked really cool as a round mug rug – a future mug rug post.

Happy Quilting!