Mug Rugs

We have not had a lot of moolah since I quit my job to stay home with the baby.  I've made it work by living very frugally, but we're having a homemade Christmas this year.  My mom is a quilter and asked for me to make mug rugs for her and my dad.  I had no idea what they were, but apparently it's a cool new fad, and I have to say they are so much fun!  So here are my mom's and dad's mug rugs. They're like mini quilts.  I followed no rules with these things, I just made them how I saw fit.  I read a few things on some blogs that said don't make them bigger than 5 x 8, so that's what I aimed for.  I think my mom's might be a tiny bit bigger, but oh well.

My dad is an aerospace engineer, he writes the software for some missiles.  He's kind of like a rocket scientist, lol.  So I tried to think of something sorta manly and related to what he loves, so this is what I came up with.  These fabrics were in my stash and are probably 7 or 8 years old, but they were perfect. I love how the sun came out.  Well, I love how the whole thing came out. I found this batik that I thought was perfect for the starry sky, then I appliqued the sun and the rocket ship.  My hubby really liked it, so hopefully my dad will too. 

Here is my mom's mug rug.  This is  a set of fabrics I got from her.  It actually came from leftovers from a quilt she made my daughter.  I tried to make it rather whimsy with weird-sized strips.  I hope she likes it.  I don't like it as much as my dad's, but I'm probably just too critical on myself, lol. 

I'm including a mug in each of their gifts to go with their mug rug.

And the weird tutorial I was going to have is this waldorf doll hat.  I've made these before for swaps, but this time it just seemed kinda creepy -- a doll head on my baby's head just didn't seem..um normal. I  don't know why.  I need to write it up, but for now, here is a creepy picture of the finished product.  My baby refuses to keep it on her head long enough for even a picture.