Guess what I bought? Well, I will tell you. I bought a darning foot for Betty, my old White sewing machine. And with this magical little darning foot, guess what I can do? Mm hmm, I can free-motion quilt baby!
So to exercise those sad and atrophied free-motion muscles, I made this little mug rug for Lo. I figure he could use one for his desk at work. A mug rug is a large coaster for your mug or glass that has room for a snack on the side, and can be of any shape, colour or design you desire. Mug rugs are all the rage right now as far as I can tell, and there are some beautiful ones here if you have the urge to make one.
I created a freezer-paper stencil to embellish this manly mug rug. A thistle. My Lo likes thistles because, as I understand it, they are a manly kind of a flower. They are prickly and tough and you shouldn’t mess with ’em. I chose one of Lo’s old T-shirts to grace the front of the mug rug and stenciled my thistle onto it. I thought that if I used his old T-shirt, he may be able to tolerate his new mug rug. You never know… He may even grow to like it one day! Anything’s possible.
Once the stencil was dry, I free-motion quilted little waves around the thistle with my new-fangled darning foot. Do you know that I paid a mere $10 for that genius little tool? Totally, totally worth it!
Now I’d created this gallant thistle stencil to use for Lo’s mug rug but I thought: “What about all those other brave yet mug rug-less men out there? They could probably use a manly thistle mug rug too.” So I decided to make a printable (my very first) design available to you. Here it is:
The Man Thistle Printable for your own personal use.
Please enjoy, and have yourself a wonderful Monday!
P.S. If ever you find that something I’ve written here needs clarification, or if you have a question, leave a comment with your email address and I will do my best to clarify.
Hannah says
That rug is beautiful!
POOTLE FLUMP says
This looks brilliant. I would be too scared to attempt free moving quilting I think (or stencilling for that matter!!) Anyway, love it!!
Simone says
very manly! I love the thistle and think that Dan might like a manly mug rug as well! The darning foot was very worth it, your quilting is beautiful! The printable will be very useful, thanks for making it, you're so talented it will be awesome to be able to tap into just a tiny bit of that for myself!
Melissa says
Thistles are a Scottish symbol too – maybe you can get him to wear a kilt!! ๐
This turned out great. I wonder if my husband would go for it.
Anji* says
Never heard of a mug rug before! A fun way to try out that new foot anyway ๐
Ariane says
I love it!!! I'm so glad you got a darning foot. Your free motion quitling looks amazing!!!
Sewing Daisies says
Mug Rug? I like it!!…I wonder if my hubbie wants a mug rug for work?
Rachel@oneprettything.com says
That's so pretty! And I love the stencil. Thanks so much for helping out the brave rug-less, I'll be spreading the word. =)
Amy says
Lovely stencil! I love the top thistle and how it is half one color and half the other.
BubzRugz says
Such a pretty design…. free-motion is a 'happy place' to go….
Hugz
Michelle L. says
Oh, that is stunning! I LOVE thistles, thank you for this one!