Little Cottage Mug Rug

In honor of Erin’s Mug Rug Madness Week I thought I’d post about my mug rug I made last month for the Portland Modern Quilt Guild swap. I forgot all about it until I saw the adorable house mug rug that Erin posted about earlier this week. I initially wasn’t going to do the swap because I just couldn’t think of something that I liked. Then one morning, about 4am when my 2 year old decided to wake up, and I put him back to bed, I was drifting back to sleep and all the sudden had a vision of this little mug rug. Once I got up at a reasonable hour, I sketched it out and later designed the template.

I not only liked the shape, but the versatility to do something with the windows and doorway. You could place novelty prints in the windows, use a wood grain print for the door, find window fabric to place in the windows… I could also see little flower boxes appliqued on, and bushes stitched on with embroidery around the base of the cottage. Someone might even be so inclined to stitch on some roof tiles or bricks on the chimney. Even better, at Christmas time make one with a string of lights on the roof and a tree peaking through the window!

I’m linking to the template so you can make your own and I REALLY hope you’ll share a photo of it in my Flickr group so I can see all the different variations. This is one of the things I love about sewing and sharing – seeing all the different possibilities.

{Quick} DIRECTIONS

Download and cut out the basic shape of the Little Cottage Template.

1. Cut out a front and back (making sure to flip the template over to cut out one of the pieces, or just layer your fabrics wrong sides together and cut out both pieces at once). Also, cut out a piece of batting to sandwich inside.

2. Embellish your cottage as you’d like, front and back if you so choose. I used an X-Acto knife to cut out the door and windows and then traced through the opening onto the fabric with a water soluble pen.
3. With right sides together (layered on your batting), stitch around the cottage (1/4” seam allowance) leaving your self an opening to turn right side out. I like to leave mine on the side, but you might like the bottom.
4. Trim the corners and turn right side out, using a knitting needle or skewer to help turn the chimney and poke out the corners. Gently.
5. Press the opening close and pin. Edge stitch around the entire cottage making sure to catch the opening and secure it close.

And that’s it. Really very simple. The hardest part is deciding how to decorate it. I went ahead and did reverse applique for the doors and window because of how quickly that went, but you could do any number of things…like stitching fabric right on top like Syko does in her designs!

Little Cottage Template (PDF)