Woodland Creature Mug Rugs

I absolutely love anything with a cute animal on it, and I am completely addicted to tea and coffee.  Naturally, I fell in love with Mollie Johanson's woodland creature mug rugs after I saw them in Mollie Makes Woodland Friends, and I immediately made some for myself.  Just look at how adorable they turned out!  The mug rug basically acts as a coaster, but it is a bit longer to allow room for a mug on one side and a cookie on the other.  It just so happens that you are surprised with a cute woodland creature on this mug rug after you finish your cookie.

The mug rugs were a quick, simple project.  They would be a particularly great starter project, if you are learning embroidery.  I don't want to go into too much detail and spoil the book, but I'll give you an overview of the project.  Felt acts as the base of the rug to create thickness and to provide stability.  You simply cut out the shape of the woodland creatures from the fabric and iron the fabric onto the felt with fusible interfacing.  Then, you embroider around the fabric and embroider the woodland creature.

The hedgehog mug rug is my favorite, by far, because I am obsessed with hedgehogs.  I almost bought a baby hedgehog on an impulse last year, until I remembered that I had three active cats.  The cats probably would have showered that baby with love and attention, which the hedgehog would have interpreted as pure torture.

I highly recommend checking out Mollie Makes Woodland Friends.  It is filled with cute woodland crafts from different crafters and bloggers.  Mollie Johanson also has a super cute blog called Wild Olive found at www.wildolive.blogspot.co.uk.