On Tuesday, I “burped” my little mug rug so that it had finished edges without needing binding.

Now it was time to add a bit of AUTUMN!!

I knew that I wanted a couple of leaves, so I found two leaf designs online and printed them out…

Then I traced them onto Wonder Under and got ready to fuse…

But first, there were a few fabric decisions to make!

When I looked at the orange fabric I had chosen, I noticed the wonderful mottled design right in the MIDDLE…

Normally, I would cut from an outside edge. Why leave a hole in a perfectly good piece of fabric?

But this time, that patch of color was just too tempting!

I wanted those exact shades in my leaf, so I positioned it right where I wanted it and cut away.

The result?

A GORGEOUS leaf…and a piece of fabric with a hole in the middle!!

And I was perfectly happy with that trade!

Next, I took another look at the brown leaf. It seemed to blend into the background a little too much…

It needed more contrast!

I first tried a more orangish brown…

But that was too close to the color of the orange leaf.

Then I spotted THIS piece…

YES!! That was the one!

With the fabric choices settled, I fused the leaves into place…

Then it was off to the sewing machine to add a bit of leaf-vein quilting and a line of stitching ¼ inch inside the outer edge.

And just like that, my little autumn mug rug was finished and ready for gifting…

This project reminded me that saving fabric isn’t always the top priority.

Sometimes, getting the EXACT leaf you want is worth leaving a hole in the middle!!

Do you ever cut into the center of a fabric to capture just the right color or design?