It’s that time of year when all the cute, festive small quilty projects emerge. So, I do not want to disappoint. We’re going to make a beginner-friendly quilted mug rug using that fabric you already have in your stash. I picked a brown for the gingerbread man, cream background and red for the heart.
Download the full pattern and supplies needed from Baby Lock’s project website HERE.
You will need a double sided fusible for this. I used Steam-A-Seam because that’s what I had on hand. It did make the piece quite stiff, but you can use any type of interfacing/fusible you like. Cut a piece of fusible large enough to cover your red and brown fabric. Remove 1 side of the paper backing and fuse the sticky side to wrong side of fabric according to the package directions. Cut out the paper templates and trace them onto the paper side of the fusible.
Cut on the drawn lines.
Now it’s time to remove the remaining paper backing from our cut templates. Arrange your pieces onto the top fabric as you desire, making sure the sticky side is facing the fabric. Leave about 1.5″ of space between template and edge of fabric. Press.
Layer your top fabric, batting and backing and baste together. I used 505 Basting Spray. In this photo, my backing is about 2 inches larger than my top. I knew I’d be free motion quilting, and wanted enough room to place my hands flat to move the piece under the needle.
Now it’s time to embellish the gingerbread man. I’ll be using my Baby Lock Regent for this part of the process.
Decide on a thread color and yarn color. For the yarn couching, you’ll need the Baby Lock Yarn Couching Foot Set. Select the foot that best matches the width of yarn you’ll be using.
Make sure the thread you choose matches your yarn color. And just so you know, when yarn couching, the yarn does NOT go through the needle. It fits into the hole of the foot, and the yarn is stitched down with the threaded needle.
Yarn couch around each gingerbread man and the heart.
For the free motion stitching, you want to see what you’re doing. Now is the time to swap out your yarn couching foot with the open toe quilting foot. Select a color thread that you’d like to use for the rest of the decorative stitching on your gingerbread man. You’ll need to stitch the face, buttons, arm and leg decorations. I drew a straight line down the center of my gingerbread man with an air/soluble pen. I then drew my face, and buttons. There is no right or wrong here, just draw however you like. If you don’t feel you need to draw guidelines, you can skip that part and just start stitching. You can also stitch a bowtie on the neck, or stitch a free form bow on top of the head on the background fabric to make it a girl!
The arm and leg decoration can be straight, zigzag, wavy, or come up with your own design. No rules here. Whatever you decide, stitch over the design several times to make it stand out. The more you stitch over your lines, the darker the decoration, and the design will stand out. I stitched over my designs about 6 times.
Pick a thread color for your background fill. Initially, I was going to go with red, but in the end decided on a matching beige color.
Decide on a free motion design for your background. You don’t have a lot of space to work, so I recommend a simple design like stippling or loops.
All that’s left is to add your binding and admire your quilted mug rug. Isn’t is sew cute!
You can have some fun with fabric choices and make any color gingerbread man you desire. I liked this so much I had to make a pink version!
You’ll find the FREE pdf pattern for this project on the Baby Lock Project Blog HERE.
I’d love to see what you make. Tag me on Instagram or Facebook @marygoroundquilts. You can also share photos with me by email to hello@marygoroundquilts.com.
Happy quilting!
Mary Davis
Owner, Mary Go Round Quilts
