Hey Everyone, welcome back to Mug Rug Monday and UFO Saturday.

Finally, here is mug rug #25. I am caught up. Woohoo. Well at least for a day or two. If I can get back into the groove of things and I create next week’s this weekend and post it on Monday then all will be good in the mug rug world.

What do you think, can I keep mug rug Monday on track for the summer? I would like to think that I can but you know how summer is – there are distractions from outside the studio that call my name like the deck and the cottage and trips to wonderful places like Saskatchewan.

Anyway I am going to try and do my best to stay on track for the rest of the year because I hate being behind.

This week’s mug rug or should I say last week’s mug rug is based on a new pattern I designed for a new fabric line from Northcott that hasn’t been released yet – only to the pattern designers.

I am calling it Pillars as it looks like the pillars that stand in the front of an old southern plantation house or a Roman historical building.

Here’s a sneak peak of the elements in my pattern which will be released sometime in the fall.

The pattern uses the snowball block, squares and strips to create a modern geometric design.

Of course these are a much smaller version of the pieces than the pattern will have.

I created the snowball blocks and to make sure I sewed a straight line from corner to corner on the corner squares I drew a line with my yellow Chaco liner to sew down.

Creating snowball block

Two snowball blocks made – each measure 3 ½″ square at this point in time.

Two snowball blocks

A strip set of black and white added to the snowball blocks.

Strip unit attached to snowball unit

Then I made a strip set with squares and strips of fabric which I added to the unit above but I forgot to take a picture of this and fast forwarded to the basting of the layers. I was just so excited to try out my new safety pin fastener.

Pinned and ready to quilt

A bit of straight stitch in a teal variegated thread from YLI and the little mug rug which measures 9¼″ x 6 ¼″ is just about done. And I only have 4 threads to pull through and bury.

Quilting done in teal

A colourful binding rather than black to match the feature fabrics in the mug rug. And it frames the little piece nicely.

Completed mug rug

I am looking forward to making the actual Pillars quilt and seeing how it turns out with the Northcott fabrics as well as some others I have had in the drawer since November that I think will look perfect.

So I’m all caught up with my mug rugs now – yippee. Time to go to the cottage, sit on the deck, knit, read or just relax and enjoy the view.

Happy Quilting!