Spinning Star Mug Rug Tutorial
This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share a commission.Would you like use to a mini quilt block in a mug rug? This is a great gift idea.
Spinning Star Mug Rug Tutorial
I found this orphan 3-inch spinning star quilt block and decided to make a mug rug with it. As I have said before, mug rugs are one of my favorite fast and easy quilt projects to make.
Perfect Points
I’m not a perfectionist. If my points aren’t perfect I’m not going to stress about it. Most of the people you gift the mug rug to won’t even realize that the points aren’t perfect. Now if I was making this for another quilter….I would redo the points.
You can see that my stitching line cut off the top of a couple of the points and I even have one (the red one) that I really missed the point.
Cutting Directions to make one 3½” unfinished quilt block
Cutting
- White fabric: Cut (four) 1 ½″ squares
- White fabric: Cut (one) 2-3/16” square – cut it diagonally twice to make 4 quarter square triangles
- Blue fabric: Cut (one) 1½″ square
- Blue: Cut (one) 2-3/16″ square – cut it diagonally twice to make 4 quarter square triangles
- Red fabric: Cut (two) 1 7/8″ squares – cut each in half diagonally to make a total of 4 half square triangles
Note: When cutting the 2-3/16″ squares it might be easier to cut them just a bit short of 2 1/4″ instead.
Electric Quilt 8 is my favorite software to design quilt patterns. Here are the cutting directions for the 3-inch quilt block.
Directions for piecing the Spinning Star quilt block
Sew with a 1/4″ seam allowance.
Step 1
Piece your white and blue quarter square triangles together as shown, press to the dark quarter square triangle.
Step 2
Pair the quarter square sections with the red half square triangles, piece and press toward the red half square triangle.
Step 3
Layout your pieces as shown below.
Sew the pieces together in rows.
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Adding Borders
Once you have your mini spinning star quilt block made you’ll want to add borders to make the mug rug.
- Cut (1) 2″ x 3½” piece and add to the right side
- Cut (2) 2″ x 5″ pieces and add to the top and bottom
- Cut (1) 4″ x 6½” piece and add to the left side.
Quilting the Spinning Star Mug Rug
I used my vintage 15-91 Singer sewing machine to quilt the little mug rug. As you can see, I didn’t quilt over the star.
You can also see that I added my binding by machine and I really like how it looks plus it is fast.
Finished spinning star mug rug
This would make a nice gift for anyone.
Other Red & Blue Quilt Projects
Here are several other red & blue quilt projects you might enjoy.
- Spinning Star 12″ quilt block
- 4th of July Table Runner tutorial
- Mini Rail Fence Runner
- Spinning Star Table Runner
Get a PDF of the Spinning Star Mug Rug tutorial
You can also find the free pdf for this tutorial in my Library if you are already a subscriber to my newsletter.
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About Connie
Hi, I’m Connie Kresin Campbell, the quilter, writer, and photographer behind Freemotion By the River. I enjoy inspiring others with my quilt tutorials and patterns. You’ll also see my sweet adopted dogs from time to time.
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The spinning star is precious! I’m going to give it a go as I just finished setting up my new sewing table!
Thanks !! j
Thanks!!!!! Perfect for all the Holidays coming up! And then a couple extra for birthdays and Christmas – I’ve become a star fanantic. Collecting all the star patterns I can find to make an THIRD star quilt. Thankfully I have places that will take these. I’m over run!!!!! Not too hot here but the cicadas are awful. Indie actually barked at them today! She’s so done with them too! Staying inside and quilting. Thanks for the pic of the garden too. I didn’t even try this year. Getting lazy.
That’s really cute, Connie. Thanks for the detailed tutorial.