Mini Hexagon Mug Rug

A Morris Tapestry, Hexagon Mug Rug

As you would have read in my last post, I have been aching to do some sewing this week, and finally I have managed it. Firstly, thanks to Sarah at Sarah Did It for the gentle nudge and inspiration for this Mini Hexi Project, which has kept me quiet for the past 24 hours. I wanted a little hand piecing project, using the English Paper Piecing method, AND I needed to produce a little birthday gift for this Monday, so this little hexagon Mug Rug fits the bill nicely.

English Paper Piecing Templates in MS Powerpoint

The other night, whilst doing some work on the computer, I quickly popped into MS Powerpoint and drew up some paper templates. I found that the actual 'hexagon' shape in the package did not have equal length sides, so instead combined six equilateral triangles and some lines to make up the hexagons. The sides are 3cm each.


English Paper Piecing Hexagon Templates

I was travelling yesterday and NOT driving, so I seized the moment to start the project. This meant a rather hurried choice of fabric, so I played safe and went for a fabric range I had in my stash.  I was literally cutting out the fabric with my coat on, and the engine running on the car! 

A Morris Tapestry Fabric, MODA,
(L-R) 8172-15, 8177-17, 8176-15, 8171-34) 

The fabric I chose was from 'A Morris Tapestry' by Barbara Brackman for Moda. They are reproductions of some William Morris (Arts and Crafts Movement) prints from about the 1890's, featuring the Strawberry Thief and a pretty Daffodil print. I thought this was appropriate because, it was a lovely sunny day here today and a chance to see the progress of the Spring DaffodiI bulbs - little way to go yet!  

Daffodil Bulbs - February 2013

During the hour I had in the car, I was surprised to see that I had covered all my paper templates and that they were ready for stitching together.  I tend to use cheap tacking thread in a contrasting colour and stitch right through the paper.  It is the way I have always done it.  I like this method, as you never know how long it will be before you actually are going to stitch it together when you are hand piecing, so they can sit there for years without a worry.

But this project had to be done today. After a little thought, I decided that the easiest way to construct the little Mug Rug was to do it in columns, this avoided any awkward seams, and you can see here the different stages.

With only tiny pieces, it did not take long to piece together, and in no time at all it was time to take the paper out.  This is a picture of the reverse of the mug rug, after it was stitched together, but with the paper still in place.  I tend to give  projects like this a good press whilst the papers are still in place - I find it helps to keep their structure.


Hexagon English Paper Piecing - Reverse

With the papers removed, I pressed out the seam, and made up a quilt sandwich from some scrap wadding, and some fabric for the reverse.  I just did some simple hand quilting, outlining the shapes. If I am hand piecing and hand quilting an item, I usually like to keep the integrity of the piece by banning ALL machine stitching, but lately, once the top is quilted, I have started to machine stitch the edge, to stay stitch the quilt sandwich, which will then be hidden in the binding. I used a straight edge binding.  Again, for this little project I did use the machine to sew on the binding, and then hand stitched it on the reverse. 


Hexi-Puzzle Mug Rug - English Paper Piecing

The good news is that the gift is completed in time, and that I still have the rest of the day to do some stiching!  If you enjoy hand piecing, especially Hexagons, Sarah Did It has a special Hexi Link Up on the 17th of each month - do be sure to join in!
Today I am linking up with Connie at Freemotion By The River and Crazy Mom Quilts.