Love a Mug Rug!

My sister has recently retired and moved to Delaware to a beautiful new home.  I do miss her since we have always lived close to each other but she keeps telling me that she is only two hours away!  I will be making a pilgrimage next month when we will officially present her with a housewarming gift.  She visited this weekend so I wanted to give her a little something to use while she was reading or watching TV in front of the warm glow of her fireplace.  She loves a nice cuppa tea so what better gift to make than a mug rug!  Or two, or three, or four! 

Making the mug rugs was the easy part - getting the colors right, not so much!  It couldn't be just any blue, it had to be HER blue!  So, I was a bit nervous when I handed her the package.  I think I did ok!  I think.....  She did order two more!  That's a good sign! 

Here are the mug rugs that were stitched with love for her:

The photo on the left shows the front of the mug rugs.  I made two in shades of blue for her living area and two for her bedroom which is black and light tan. 

The mug in the picture was a gift from my sister so I thought it was appropriate to use it in the picture! 

The photo on the right shows the back of the mug rugs.  They all have a bit of quilting which shows better on the back side.   

These are so much fun to make and I certainly enjoyed making them for my sister!  Now, on to fill her order for two more! 

Well, better late than never!

I switched to a different computer and it appears that I can now upload pictures again!  Thank goodness I save legacy software.  So, without further adieu (I have always wanted to say that!), here are the other projects I have recently completed. 

This quilt is a companion to the one shown in the last post.  This is for the little sister and is called "Flutterbys" and was  also beautifully quilted by Karen Thompson. 

I used "back art" as part of the backing.  This is quilt-speak for "I misread the fabric requirements for the pattern so I had to improvise".  I think it worked out well. 


The other fun quilty project I worked on was a Mug Rug Swap with my quilting friends online.  Someone in the group commented that is was way too quiet on the group and suggested we start a swap of some kind.  Ended up being mug rugs.  I had never made one of these before and I was amazed at what I learned about them on line.  Each person in the swap was paired with another person.  A deadline was chosen and off we went.  There were no other specifications.  Just make a mug rug.  This is the one I received from my buddy.  It is very sweet and in my favorite colors. 


I made a mug rug for my buddy but it needed to be sent to Sweden.  It was mailed on February 3 which gave it plenty of time to arrive on time.  I knew it would take a bit more postage and time to get through customs.  No biggie, right?  WRONG!!!  I waited patiently for my buddy to let me know it had arrived, but nothing for a week, two weeks, three weeks, a month!  Others were arriving daily to their buddies and being posted for all to ogle.  I felt so bad that mine was nowhere to be found so I made a second one and mailed it off.  Fingers crossed!  Here is the second one I mailed.  Her favorite colors are black and purple.  This one, thankfully, arrived in only 7 days.  Figures, since I paid for the international tracking!   I guess that's the secret!


But that's not the end of the tale!  Another month goes by and I receive a message from my swap buddy.  Guess what arrived in her mailbox that morning!  Yep, the first mug rug I sent!  I was so happy!  We can only surmise that it got stuck in customs some where!  Here is the nomadic mug rug:

Of course, by now I had gotten hooked on making these.  There are quick, use up some of my smaller stash pieces and come in very handy for all the beverages and snacks that are enjoyed either in NJ or our PA cabin.  Here is one I made for me to use when I have my afternoon tea in our cabin. 

Now I have a new project to use up some of my stash: pillowcases! 

Less than a yard of fabric, less than an afternoon of time!