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Christmas Cacti Mug Rugs Embroidery Project

By Pat Williams on October 26, 2025

PROJECT DETAILS

SKILL LEVEL

Some Experience

TIME REQUIRED

01:00

FINISHED SIZE

8 x 6 inches

Description

Fun Christmas mug rugs for those that live in the warmer climates. The mug rugs are embroidered and quilted in the hoop. The binding is attached at your sewing machine.

Project Preview Video

Materials

For each mug rug:

6” x 10” embroidery hoop or larger

1 9 ½” x 7 ½” rectangles of White Kona Cloth®

1 9 ½” x 7 ½” rectangle of White Kona Cloth® or Christmas Print Quilting Cotton for the back

1 2 ¼” X Width of Fabric strip of Christmas Print Quilting Cotton

1 9 ½” x 7 ½” rectangle of Battilizer® or low loft batting

Stable cut-away stabilizer to fit your hoop

Spray Adhesive

Optional: Water Soluble Thread

Invisible Thread (YLI brand recommended)

Designs used in this project

https://www.embroiderydesigns.com/productdetails/pat-williams/designs/1/cctmr01

https://www.embroiderydesigns.com/productdetails/pat-williams/designs/1/cctmr02

https://www.embroiderydesigns.com/productdetails/pat-williams/designs/1/cctmr03

https://www.embroiderydesigns.com/productdetails/pat-williams/designs/1/cctmr04

https://www.embroiderydesigns.com/productdetails/pat-williams/designs/1/cctmr05

Final Product: What You Will Create

Preface:

In the instructions water-soluble thread is used to tack down the front fabric and then again in the next to last color stop to tack the batting and back fabric to the project. If you are relatively new at adding binding you will probably want to use that thread. If you are confident of your binding skills you can use white thread or a color that matches your background for those steps.

Step 1:

Tautly hoop your stabilizer and take the hoop as well as a font and back fabric and Battilizer® cut to 9 ½” x 7 ½”. Note the machine used to make the sample does not have a 6” x 10” hoop, so in the pictures a 14” x 8” hoop is being used.

Step 2:

Run color stop 1 (CS 1) in a white as a placement line for your front fabric.

Step 3:

Spray adhesive on the back of your front fabric and [position it over the placement line so that the fabric exceeds the placement line by at least ½” on all sides.

Step 4:

Follow the color chart except for the last two color stops to embroider the mug rug.

Step 5:

Remove the hoop from the machine, do not unhoop. Lay the hoop face down on a flat surface. Spray adhesive on the Battilizer® and position it over the placement lines on the back of the hoop so that it exceeds the placement lines by at least ½” on all sides. Spray adhesive on the wrong side of the back fabric and place it right side up over the Battilizer®.

Step 6:

Return the hoop to the machine and run the next to last CS with water soluble or white thread.

Step 7:

Run the last CS to quilt the project.

Step 8:

Lay the ¼” mark of a see through ruler on the outside tack down stitches and trim all sides to a ¼” seam allowance.

Step 9:

Your mug rug should now look like this.

Step 10:

Cut a 2 ¼” strip across the width of a Christmas print for binding. Bind using your favorite method. If you do not have a preferred method see our article Binding Small Embroidery Projects. I mentioned invisible thread in the materials list. That is because I always use invisible thread to sew on my binding and use an E stitch to tack down the binding.

Step 11:

Make the whole set as decorations for your southwest home or as a gifts for friends.

For the love of embroidery…
Pat Williams

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Meet the Author: Pat Williams

Award winning Digitizer, Embroidery Educator, Author and a Consultant to the Industry, Pat Williams has 30 years of experience in the embroidery industry. Pat has won multiple awards for her digitizing expertise including the 2007 Impressions Awards Grand Championship, Best of Show as well as the 1st and 2nd Place Awards. Pat’s love of digitizing has afforded her the opportunity to write numerous articles for Impressions magazine in the United States and Images Magazine in Europe. In 2001 Pat was named “Embroidery Educator of the Year.” For many years Pat taught digitizing seminars at the ISS Shows in Long Beach, CA and for Compucon software. She now resides in Tucson, AZ.

Christmas Cacti Mug Rugs Embroidery Project

PROJECT DETAILS

Project Preview Video

Catci Mug Rugs

Christmas Cacti Mug Rug 1

Christmas Cacti Mug Rug 2

Christmas Cacti Mug Rug 3

Christmas Cacti Mug Rug 4

Christmas Cacti Mug Rug 5

Cut Away Stabilizer - 2.5 Oz wt.