Perfect for last minute holiday gifts, Ms. Olga was kind enough to share her process for creating the lovely mug rug coasters from our Christmas Ornament Project! This is what she shared: 

I purchased the Christmas Ornament Project on your sale and couldn’t wait to get some ornaments made. However, I wasn’t sure of what fabric to use. I love the look of quilting on wool felt that’s been washed and almost decided to use that when I discovered a beautiful piece of woolen fabric that I’d purchased at a workshop years ago and tucked away for something special. 

I decided to use the woolen fabric on top and the wool felt on the bottom. Since my fabric was only 15” x 23”, I made only 6 ornaments. I made 2 of ornament #1, and then one each of 4, 5, 8 & 9.

I used 2 strands of Glide thread (Military Gold and 91355) on top and a Magna-Glide bobbin of Military Gold to quilt the ornaments out.

I used the following settings:
• I reduced the size slightly to 5.8”
• Speed 5
• SPI 13 (Even though 16 was recommended, I liked the look of a longer stitch.)
• Tie Stitches 5 (I buried the ends)
• Stitch in Points “On”

I had no problem using 2 stands of thread, in fact, when I make more ornaments, I’ll probably use 3 as I love the hand-embroidered look that it produces. I find that when I slow down and have stitch in points “On” I never have to worry about my tension. It’s perfect on both sides.

After quilting the ornaments, I cut them apart with regular shears and then cut them out individually using my mom’s pinking shears, staying about ¼” outside the stitching.

I decided to gift these as “mug rugs.” I gave three away the other day. The recipients were delighted with them and had a hard time choosing their favorite one. They commented that there was something comforting and cozy about the wool and they loved the quilting designs.

Thank you for coming up with such a fun project. Now, I need to find the time to get some more made!

This is how I set up my quilting. You can see that I tried doing two very narrow echoes around the first snowflake, but because I barely had enough wool felt to anchor with my side clamps, the stitching wasn’t consistent, so I abandoned that plan. I may or may not couch yarn over that stitching.

And here is the final result!