Good morning, quilting friends!

It snowed; it snowed! In Georgia of all places! It made for a quiet, quilty, Snow Day Cake filled weekend, and I hope your weekend was as lovely as that, too! As promised, let's talk about how I quilted my Charming Mini Mug Rug from Friday's hop! If you missed Friday's post, you'll definitely want to read my interview with Lindsay Maynard and download your FREE copy of her charming mini quilt pattern. 

Lately, I've been doing a lot of "more is more" quilting, if you know what I mean. While I was piecing the top, though, I thought about what a practical little piece this is going to be. This lovely little mug rug will go in our room between our armchairs on a side table. All that to say, it's not the star of the room. As a supporting actor, it makes more sense for it to have more utilitarian quilting. 

Enter, switchbacks. Switchbacks are usually one of my go-to designs for borders or sashing, but on this project I used them as an economical alternative to matchstick quilting. Matchstick quilting is dense and makes a wonderful texture, but it can be time consuming to stitch pass after pass. And in a project like this where there are lots of little shapes, that would mean a lot of ends to tie off. Instead of doing proper straight-line matchstick quilting, I decided I'd move things along a bit-- with switchbacks. 

This summer, I wrote about How to Make a Quilting Plan and shared three things to think about when choosing motifs. Today, let's add a fourth: Utility. When choosing a quilting motif, consider the final purpose of the object you are quilting. If you're a more is more kind of gal, you may always want to choose intricate quilting, and that is totally fine. But if you're making a mug rug or a baby quilt or anything else for you or a friend that is going to get a whole lot of use, here is your permission to choose simple, practical, efficient quilting designs.

Finally, if you are totally new to free motion quilting or if you aren't sure how to grow and develop your skills, I'd love to share my Top Three Tips for Successful Free Motion Quilting! Click here, and I’ll pop it straight over to your inbox!

I hope to "see" many of you at the workshop! In the meanwhile, I'd love to connect with you on Instagram! You can find me sharing tips and projects in videos and pictures @stringandstory.

Happy quilting, my friends!

HollyAnne