Shining Stars Banner & Mug Rug

I must be getting better at embroidering and appliquéing because I finished my latest "Party with Patrick" project in two days.  

It's a cute small Christmas banner called "Shining Stars". 

But... I almost ruined the banner. 

I can't believe I did this!

I had finished everything except the binding and grabbed my rotary cutter to even up the edges.   

You can imagine how sick I felt when I saw that I had accidentally sliced through the border fabrics and batting about 1/4 inch in on one side. 

What to do!  

I sure as heck didn't want to start over and I didn't want to rip the cut side border out and replace it.  

Turning a mistake into an enhancement!

I finally decided to take the same border Santa Claus fabric and cut a flange for each edge and layer it over the existing border covering the cut area completely.  

I added a decorative quilting stitch in gold thread over the flange folded edge to tack it down on top.  

I figured the binding would fold over to cover the cut backing fabric underneath.  

Last step is to hand sew the binding down.

My flange solution added interest to the border and turned my error from a potential disaster to a positive enhancement.

Project saved!  

I like using the Santa Claus fabric as the background fabric for the mug rug.

This design was so easy to do I whipped up another one to use as a mug rug.  

I was ready to sew on the binding when I realize I didn't cut the binding on the bias as I should have because the mug rug is a round shape.

Errrrr….. 

So I set it aside and will cut another binding on the bias.

   

This will be a round mug rug when I am finished.

These little mug rugs are so cute.  

This one I'm keeping for myself.

Everyday I take down more Christmas decorations.

The trees will be the last thing I put away.

Sorry I'm still showing Christmas stuff.

I know most of you are sick of it and have moved on.

So you will be pleased to know that today I embroidered a Valentine Heart that I will frame.