When Michele from Quilting Gallery posted about the Olympics Inspired Mug Rug Swap I signed up right away! She does such an amazing job organizing these swaps I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
There were two patterns from the Patchsmith that we were to make for our partners.
The first one was the The Winter Dove. I used a piece of my hand-dyed print for the background of my dove – I think it was perfect! Also – my dove is flying in autumn so she has orange leaves (and my partner listed orange as one of her favorites and I liked the contrast of the orange with the blue more than I think green would have made.).
The other pattern was the Russian Doll. I did use a couple of the same fabrics in each mug rug just because I think it makes them more of a ‘pair’ that way – but they also can still hold their own.
Sometimes the swaps are secret but this time they weren’t. I LOVED that! My partner was Susan from Canada and this is her website. We chatted a bit with each other online and when I told her I would be happy to tone down my colors for her so she could enjoy her mug rugs her response after checking out my work was – “please don’t tone down your style. I love it” WHEW! Things just became so much easier for me! The patterns also had the dove rug finishing at a slightly larger size than the doll – I altered the dimensions slightly so they were both the same size…I’m thinking that’s the engineer in me. 
I did take her preferences into account as I picked out my fabrics for my rugs – BUT I would say they pretty much still scream ‘Kim made these!’ I shipped them out on Monday and I can’t wait to here what she thinks when she sees them!
I enjoyed these so much that I had a bit of extra time so I quick whipped up a simplified Russian Doll mug rug for a friend who adopted a boy from Russia! It turned out so sweet and perfect AND she loved it!
The other day I exciting mail – my rugs from my partner had a arrived! Ironically she made the dove mug rug for me in her hand-dyed fabric! Wonderful!
And check out this adorable Russian Doll Mug Rug! Pip carries this around and kisses the dolly! Thank you partner! I Love them!
If you’re on facebook – be sure to join the group ‘Quilting Gallery Swaps’ so you don’t miss out on the next fun swap (and you’ll see all the great ones coming in from this one) AND/OR join the flickr group!
Linking up to Finish It Up Friday!
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