Day one of the Use What You've Got Challenge

Day 1 - Use What You've Got Challenge.

Yesterday I posted all about my new challenge -
 (go here to see what it is if you haven't read it yet)

The first thing I've done - is to start my day, week and challenge with some Bircher Muesli made last night.  Mostly I'm very lazy and just have cereal from a package for breakfast. But when I can be bothered, I have to say I prefer my own museli made the night before and soaked. I just don't often make it.

I have all the ingredients in my cupboards - in the plastic bags they came in, tied up with elastic bands and tucked away in a box. 

 So to make it all easier, I've emptied the various ingredients into clear labelled jars, and the oats into a cereal box.  

It's so much easier to make the muesli now - and it also means that everyone is snacking on the dried fruit as it's easy to see and get at!  Just as easy as a bag of chips, so it's good that there's a healthy easy snack in the pantry now too!

So - there's my first tip - make things visible.
It's easier to Use What You've Got when you can See What You've Got!

And here's a picture of my tasty museli from this morning's breakfast! Yum!!  

What's your favourite breakfast food? I've collected some tasty looking recipes to try on other days on my Pinterest board, if you're looking for some breakfast inspiration!

Jill

     

Mug Rug Tutorial - A Round Tuit

I've been making a few mug rugs lately to practice my quilting.

This one is the first I have designed myself - so I thought I'd share how I made it - in case you'd like your very own Round Tuit!

This is a double sided mug rug - and some of you may recognise it as the same design as the button for Monday's linky party

So here's how to make the mug rug:

Materials you will need:

2 squares green fabric 21 x 21 cm (8.5 x 8.5")

1 square piece batting (I usually use fleece)  for the inside 'padding'   also 21 x 21 cm (8.5 x 8.5")

White fabric A4 paper size, plus fusible webbing (eg Vliesofix) same size.

White fabric for binding - 6 x 100cm (2.5 x 39.5")

Round Tuit template - you can download this here.

First you need to print the Round Tuit template onto your fabric.

To do this - cut your fusible webbing to A4 paper size then iron onto the back of your white fabric:

And cut the fabric to size around the paper.

This is what you now feed through your regular computer printer to print the template onto:

Cut out the two circles:

Now you're ready to start putting your mug rug together:

Peel the backing paper off your two circles so the fusible webbing is ready to iron on.  Then place each circle in the centre of one of the green squares of fabric. To find the exact centre fold each piece in quarters and finger press the centre folds  - then match these with the circle and the square.

Cover with a damp cloth and then iron to fuse the circles to the green squares.

NB - After ironing to fuse the fabrics together - iron over the printed fabric without the damp cloth. The heat apparently helps seal the ink so it doesn't wash out!

Then using the applique setting on your machine, or a tight zig-zag, stitch around the edge of both circles to neaten and secure:

Now you need to layer your front and back green squares - facing outwards with your batting square in the middle. Pin all 3 layers together

You can line up the circles front and back just by feeling the edges with your fingers:

Now to the quilting.

I chose wavy lines as I like the look of them and they are easy and fun to stitch!

I just ran a series of lines on the green fabric only. I did not quilt over the circles so as not to have lines going over the writing:

Almost there!!

Trim the edges of your square to neaten them:

Now you're ready to add the binding.

For this - I'm still practising, but so far the clearest tutorial I've found is this one here from the blog Contented.

I'm still trying to save time and do all the binding by machine rather than hand, but so far I haven't managed to get it neat enough! 

For a neater finish - I would recommend hand-stitching as the binding tutorial recommends!

NB

I'm using up my scrap fabric to make my mug rugs so didn't have a 1m (39.5") long strip for the binding.

I joined 3 shorter pieces together to make this by joining like you see in the pictures which makes the seams less bulky:

Once you've added your binding - you're all done - sit back and enjoy a cuppa and chocolate biscuit on your very own Round Tuit Mug Rug!

Admire it lots too!

For the downloadable version of this tutorial, click here.

If you liked this tutorial there are many more on 

My Free Sewing Tutorials page

Happy Sewing!