Handmade Holidays and Mug Rug Book review

As I’ve said before, I love handmade holidays. I’ve been baking and sewing like a demon for weeks. My husband told me that my quilting gloves look like they could be part of a super villain costume : The Mad Quilter.

In the kitchen: Baking cookies,  making fudge and peppermint bark, our house smells delicious. These are delicious! Chocolate mint crackle cookies -yum.

Mug rugs are addicting and I’ve been making a bunch. I suspect much of my family won’t know what a mug rug is, so I created a special gift tag to lessen the confusion.

I made one from Pam Kitty fabrics to match my daughter’s quilt. I imagine her staying up late studying on the computer. A lot.

Book Review

The pattern for her mug rug comes from the book:  Love to Sew Mug Rugs by Christa Rolf (though the  projects are designed by other people, aside from  the Christmas tree mug rug. -credit is given on each page for each design ).

It’s a nice book with beautiful pictures. It’s not really a teaching book; so if you are new to quilting or sewing, you may need some additional help in order to piece the tops together or complete some of the projects. The few instructions for sewing techniques  included in the book were very concise, but may not be enough for a beginner. I had my daughter try to make one on her own, and she had a lot of questions and definitely needed me to explain what the book’s instructions meant.

For example, there are very few to no pictures to explain the sewing steps. (most do not have any step-by-step photos) For the design I made, it just tells you to sew the sections of the patchwork block together. Well, if you’ve never done this before, you won’t know how to logically sew it together and press the seams. This is a 2 hearts difficulty, so some skill is assumed.

I didn’t follow her instructions and used quilt batting (100% cotton) instead. Though there are a few that I want to make, I didn’t care for most of the other projects. Some were very cute, but I don’t know who I would make them for. Honestly, several of the designs were kind of ho-hum and not very creative in my opinion. But some were very creative and clever, so maybe there is a little bit of everything?  A little something for everyone?  For example: there is a couple that would be very cute to make for a young child as a snack mat.

Another thing worth mentioning: Some of the templates need resizing, which I don’t care for. Overall, it’s a fun book that definitely inspires.

Well, I need to get back to the sewing and baking!