Mug Rug Gifts

 I was planning a trip to Pasadena soon.  I grew up there and have friends and family that I haven't seen in quite some time.  When my mother was living in Southern California I went about 4 times a year to see her. Now that she's gone, my trips to the west coast are to visit our granddaughters in Northern California. 

I thought it would be fun to make a mug rug for some of the people I am visiting.

I already sent my former roommate and host for my visit a mug rug. But she has a beloved granddaughter, so I decided to make one for her to give as a gift.  What little girl doesn't like a unicorn?  I used a Cricut design for the template and cut it out using Steam-A-Seam to place it on a white square. Purple and pink are the usually good colors for little girls.  

The  super cute bug fabric on the back makes it reversible and it has a lot of purple to go with the binding.

I have a friend who is a writer.  She gets the book case. I didn't have a pattern for this so it took a few tries to get the dimensions right. The bird design is from another project.

My friend Mary grew up near me, four houses away. I have known her as far back as I have memories.  When we were kids we decided we should have a club.  A bunch of neighbor girls got together and had meetings and even put on a carnival to raise money we donated to a worthy cause.  We agonized over a name. The Beatles were popular then, so we tried out bug names and ended up with the Ladybug Club. I found a ladybug design on Cricut and used that.

There were many kids on our block and we played outside together after school and all summer.  We were in and out of each other's house all the time. Mary's mother was a big part of my childhood.  So I wanted to make her a rug, too.   She was a librarian, so she needed a book theme, too.  I still have some fabulous antique book fabric I used to make some masks at the beginning of the pandemic, so I chose some for her. Both sides have books, one with Shakespeare as I don't know what her reading tastes are.

And lastly I made a drone mug rug.  My daughter-in-law and son are engineers on drones being built for the Air Force. I pulled up a bunch of photos online and used one to make the template for a drone mug rug for my daughter-in-law. I hope she likes it. But if not, she has a whole office full of people to pass it off to!

I finished this post after I returned from my trip.  My daughter-in-law liked my drone mug rug and asked if I could make a similar one for a friend. I did so happily.  I really need to make one for myself!  I just keep giving them away!  Hmmmm.  I wonder what pattern I should use...