Heart Mug Rug and Placemats – Tutorial

‘Sew’ many hearts, ‘sew’ little time! Here is a quick little heart mug rug and placemats.

Supplies

2-1/2″ strips of fabric in white, pinks and reds (or scraps. The stripes don’t have to be the same if you want a scrappy look)
Backing fabric
Sulky Totally Stable® Stabilizer
Sulky Soft ‘n Sheer™ Stabilizer
Sulky KK 2000™ Temporary Spray Adhesive
Sulky 60 wt. PolyLite™ Thread – for piecing
Sulky 30 wt. Cotton thread – for decorative stitches
Batting
Backing
Pencil
Chopstick – just one (or turning tool)

Start by folding a piece of Sulky Totally Stable in half with the slick sides together and draw half of a heart on the fold. (Yes, you can draw a heart, I promise.)

With the stabilizer still folded, cut out the heart. This is now your template, so if you don’t like the size or shape, just keep trying until you are happy. My Mug Rug is approx. 10″ wide x 9″ tall and my placemats are 18″ wide x 15″ tall.

Lightly iron the Sulky Totally Stable to a piece of Sulky Soft ‘n Sheer and trace the heart with a pencil (Hint: DON’T use a FriXion™ pen for this because you will be ironing it and the line will go away. Ask me how I know!)

After the heart is traced, peel off  the Totally Stable and set it aside to use the next time.

Take your first strip and spray a small amount of KK 2000 on the wrong side and stick it to the corner. Be sure to have at least 1/4″ of fabric outside the line of the heart. You can choose to place your strips on the diagonal like I did for the mug rug, or straight, like I did for the placemats.

Put your next strip, right sides together, matching the edge of the first strip.

Sew using a 1/4″ seam allowance.

Press the second strip open

Continue like this until you have the entire area of the heart, plus a 1/4″ seam allowance, covered.

As you can see, the strips don’t have to all be the same width or length at this point.

That is the beauty of foundation piecing! You will cut it down to the right size after you sew. This is how I taught my kids to sew! (Okay, full confession. I didn’t teach them. My friend Sandra taught them. She is amazing at teaching kids to sew!)

Trim around the heart leaving a 1/4″ or larger seam around the edge.

Place the heart right side down on top of the backing fabric ( which is right side up), and the batting on the bottom.

Pin together and sew on the pencil line, leaving a 2″ or 3″ opening for turning. I use my walking foot for this because of the layers and that is what works best on my machine. You might prefer a 1/4″ foot or some other foot, and that is perfectly fine. Use the one that works best for you.

Have you heard the saying, “There is more than one way to … trim a seam?” (OK, me neither, but the other phrase is not a pretty picture) Well, there is also more than one way to turn a heart. I chose to clip the edges before turning. You can also trim around with pinking sheers.

At the bottom of the heart, I trimmed straight across to eliminate the bulk.

I use a chopstick to help turn my heart.

Either pin or clip the opening closed and topstitch around the edge of the entire heart.

I used Sulky 30 wt. Cotton in a color that went well with my fabrics for all the topstitching and decorative stitching, and of course, a 14/90 topstitch needle.

Decorative stitches along the lines where the fabric joins adds a great touch to this mug rug!

If you haven’t experimented with the stitches on your machine, this is a great time to try them all out.

For the placemats, I just did ‘stitch-in-the-ditch.’

Now my house is all ready for Valentine’s Day.

It’s time for a cup of tea! Happy Sewing!

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