A few weeks ago I found a super cute winter mug rug and decided to make one for myself, and figured while I was at it, I would make one for Gretchen. Easy enough, right?
Not so much…
I mentioned in an earlier post that things have been rather hectic around our house lately. The crib-notes version is that my father-in-law was diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer in early October and he passed away on December 3. In that time, we had a week-long family vacation, I had a work trip to Vegas, and two weekend getaways with girlfriends. Basically, we were gone every-other weekend for 2.5 months, and the weekends we were home were spent trying to keep from drowning in laundry and other household chores. You can imagine that things were a little crazy here.
During that time I decided that a quick little sewing project or two would be nice little diversions, but I was wrong!
You know how you sometimes get in the sewing ‘zone’ and just get to work? Well, during those times, it’s important to remember to put RIGHT sides together. THIRTY half-square triangles later…
Sigh. Into the garbage they went.
Then there was the little problem I had with reading the directions completely first. (This is an on-going problem I have.) It said to cut the white square 7.5″ (which I did), and then it said to cut it down to 6.5″, but I didn’t read that step and couldn’t figure out why things were out of proportion. So…I cut my white squares down to 6.5″ (after I had appliquéd his hat and eyes on), but one of them I cut down from the back and proceeded to sew that side on without looking and guess what happened….
YUP!
Damn!
So I ripped some more. Sigh. And had to cut out another top hat and set of eyes. Sigh. And do more appliqué. Big Sigh!
But I persevered. I re-did (for a third time), and got them finished…
And here they are, in their respective new homes…
Gretchen’s
Mine
Turns out my ‘More Please’ mug was supposed to be a Christmas present. I guess that wasn’t clear to me, considering this was the 2nd or 3rd time I had used it! OOPS!
PS – Bonus points if you know why I named them both Jack. Gretchen, you don’t get to play!
Wanna-Be-Quilter 
He is really cute on my desk! Thanks for making Jack!
Oh my gosh! I laughed out loud when I saw your HSTs – I did the exact thing just last week but I discovered my mistake after the first one….whew! The mug rugs turned out so cute, and you have a fun story to go with them! 🙂
Big whoops! What I didn’t mention is that in the process of making and binding them, I broke one needle and bent one into a very interesting curve. I’m still not sure how it happened either time. Let’s just say I was glad when I finished that project!!
Cute! Mug rugs make such a great gift 🙂
With so much going on it’s not surprising you were a distracted quilter. My sympathy on the loss in your family. In the end, the mug rugs turned out to be adorable! Your story made me smile. I’ve had those days too.
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