Mug Rug

I made a mug rug!
It was for a Crafty Secret Santa. It was my first one.
I forgot to take a picture of it before I sent it, but the recipient took one when she got it!
Ta da!

It took a LOT longer than I expected, but it was excellent practice for my final quilt!

I made a pencil case!

I think it turned out rather well.

A couple of weeks ago I wanted another pencil case to cary writing utensils and whatnot around in my purse. It's a large-ish purse, and things can get lost in it. It is also an awesome purse, and I don't want it getting marked up by my pens and pencils and whatnot. Hence, the search for a new pencil case began! 

Here is my rubric for grading potential cases:

Size: small case > large case

Shape: square = round > flat

Pattern: cute > ugly

My etsy search helped me figure out exactly what I wanted. 

These two cases earned the highest grades:

I found great tutorials for both of these designs too!

The boxy pencil case tutorial can be found here and the round pencil case tutorial is here. 

I ended up going with the boxy design because it required less detail work (I am new at this, after all) and required buying one thing less. So I picked out my fabrics last night while I was sorting everything and putting together my scrap packs.

All in all, it took me about an hour and a half to make from start to finish.  I got to work with interfacing for the first time, I learned what a zipper foot for a sewing machine is, and I successfully slip stitched! Except for one flaw, it turned out just the way it was supposed to.

the right end

the wrong end

Oops.

Extras

One of the benefits of making a hexagon charm quilt is all the extra fabric you have laying around. In one of the scrap packs I got from etsy was this heavyweight fabric. It was much thicker than the rest of my quilt fabrics. I was worried about how that would affect the quilt, so I set it aside, uncertain of what to use it for.
Until yesterday!
I don't know where my travel mugs are, so I got another one at Kohl's (50% off! yeah!). I love this style of mug, but that image on the insert? bleh.
Since the mug was was already customizable, I just pulled out both layers (the 'friends are awesome' one and the throw-away one with the generic friends) and used one as a template for cutting my fabric. The fabric is thicker and stiffer than most, so it stands up (literally) inside the mug.
I love the contrast of the metal rings and the softness of the fabric inside. And the colors are awesome too! Yay for extra fabric!

I'm tempted to go back to Kohl's and get a lot more to customize and sell (on my new etsy store, which is admittedly rather blah right now). But I'm worried about copyright and legal issues. Any advice on that front?