Ducks in a Row

I finally joined the "Mug Rug" craze, months late, I know. A mug rug is basically a large coaster, big enough for your mug of coffee/tea/hot chocolate/hot water (that would be me, I do love hot water + lemon) to hang out alongside a snack. This was also my transition project from my old machine -- which, now that it's no longer "my" machine, I've taken to referring to as Gus -- to my new machine -- which still needs a name. I had the orange and white half-square triangles left over from a different project and found a way to repurpose them. As I stare at the image now, I think I like it better rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise. Crane your neck, turn your computer, or just imagine it. The triangle orientation somehow sits better that way. Handily, in real life this is accomplished super-easily, with the flick of a wrist.

I debated showing you the back of this little guy because, frankly, I'm not thrilled with its appearance. I had 14 HSTs and used the last 2 on the back. While I like the orange/white/aqua color combination,  don't like how this layout looks. It doesn't help that the binding has some real crappy spots. I may need a new binding method for smaller projects, as I've found that my method works well for larger items (challah covers and placemats) but rather poorly for the small ones. Lessons learned...and perhaps applied in the future.

In other news, I was unpacking all my sewing equipment and accoutrements, and I found a broken ruler. I don't know how or when it snapped not-quite-in-half, since everything else made the trip just fine. This was my first ruler, and I've had it for 8 or so years. It was a fine ruler, and I'll probably keep its broken pieces since they're handy for little strips. I've pledged to myself not to buy anything for sewing this winter -- a fabric diet plus -- to make the accounting for the new sewing machine work out. I have a 6" x 24" ruler so there's nothing I can't measure and cut, but I was fond of my first, and for many years, only ruler.