Mug Rugs for Santa Ministry

This is my last crafty post before Christmas.  I can't believe it's almost here!

Every year at Advent one of the ministries of the outreach group at our church is the Santa Ministry.  It has a bunch of different parts, but one part is to provide gifts for elderly or disabled nursing home residents without families.  They hang all the names on a tree with an ornament made by the youth group and a list of suggested items for the person.  Usually it's things like clothes or house shoes or pajamas, mostly practical items.  Anyway,  I usually pull a couple of names and each year try to put a little something fun or handcrafted in the present as well as the more useful things.

This year I decided to make mug rugs for them.  I was trying to decide on some simple pretty patchwork when my eye fell on some grandmother's flower garden blocks pinned to my wall.  They've been sitting there since April when I first learned English paper piecing and I'd not decided what to do with them.  You may recall them being an item on my summer UFO list!  Anyway, several are still there but I thought these two made cute and colorful mug rugs.

I hope these are well-liked by their recipients Joyce and Pete and that they can bring a bit of color and fun into their Christmas.