Produce Rug

I bought a Farmer John's Market fat quarter pack from Fabric Depot on sale before Christmas. They were either on sale already or I used a 40% off coupon, so they weren't too expensive. I made a set of produce napkins by cutting each fat quarter into a 17" square, then following this pattern to finish the edges and make mitered corners. I love the finished napkins; they're bright and cheerful and match our food.

Since I started with fat quarters, I ended up with a strip about 5" wide cut off one end after making the napkins. I stored these for a while, then decided I was going to make them into a rug for the kitchen. I trimmed all the strips to 4.5", then tried a couple of different arrangements until I found one I liked.

I added the dark green from my stash (I had made some poinsettia pillows using it). The backing is a weird green print that looks sort of like a random mottle or a batik from far away, but if you look at it closely you notice that it's evergreen trees. I bought it as a remnant and it just exactly fit my rug as backing.

I wanted a very simple quilting pattern because the focus is entirely on the fabrics. I sewed together a few left-over strips of a bamboo batting that I used for a quilt for my mother. It only needs to be quilted every 8", so I decided on a crosshatch pattern of parallel lines. I drew the lines on with chalk using my rotary cutting ruler.

Ignore the dog hair in this picture. He's decided that I made the rug so that the kitchen floor is more comfortable for him to lay on.

I'm not sure how well this rug will wear, but it should wash up fine and at least last for longer than the cheap IKEA woven rug that was in there.