Yet another Mug Rug - With Embroidery! I Love Swaps!

I love getting mail, (not junk mail!) and when the chance to participate in another swap came around, I jumped at the chance!  Then I remembered I'll have to make something and send out...but making is fun too!

(Every swap needs some goodies!  I put in a few 1/4 yard cuts of cute animals, a sewing machine snap tab, candy, and Harry Potter elastic.  Because everyone needs HP elastic!)

My swapee has eclectic likes and tastes, so I had a big choice of what I could make.  Since I am still intimidated by paper piecing (I WILL do it, someday), that took out all the options of making something that would exactly match her likes.  Instead I decided to try something to do a fairy tale themed mug rug.  Which, surprisingly, there aren't any on pinterest.  Or maybe my search words weren't the right combination.  Whatever it was, Pinterest failed me!  Instead I looked into my stash of embroidery patterns and found some 'fairy tale' type patterns and decided to stitch them out to see how they would look.  It isn't the most elaborate mug rug ever created, but I think it turned out pretty cute!  I broke into my stash of StoryBook Lane fabric from when I first began collecting the 'good' stuff. 

(My minimalist mug rug.  With embroidery of course!)

 For the rug I went with the self binding backing.  There are a lot of good tutorials online on how you should do it, but I just tried to remember without looking at them.  I like to live on the edge.  I know there is something where you iron it twice, and then you cut across the corners so that it will make pretty edges.  I didn't do it perfect, but a little extra work when I was hand sewing them down and viola! looks FINE.  ;)

(Fold lines. The only time I iron. True story.)

(Chopped it, so scary!)

(Most awesome rug of all time!)

Fortunately for me, my swap maker had no fear of paper piecing and made me this AMAZING TARDIS mug rug!  That is paper piecing put to a great use!  I haven't used it yet, but every time I walk past I have to stop and stare at it because it is amazing!  I think this one will get the place of honor beside my sewing machine.  I can also vouch for how delicious the candy is, and that is my first Cotton + Steel fabric - everyone raves about it, and I can see why!  I'm not sure what I'll do with the baby buttons, but I already had to hide them from my youngest because she thought they were perfectly sized for her.