House-warming Quilted Coasters

Hello there,
How are you? I'm doing well.

This past weekend I got all inspired and decided to get my craft on. I decided to make some coasters and a Kanzashi flower brooch (I'll show and tell that next week).

I have a friend (Miss B) who recently moved to her very own house with her partner and I wanted to make something I could give to her on my inaugural visit to her new house. So, while I was on my craft stint I decided to make some coasters for her house-warming gift.

Now I am someone who strongly believes in referencing where I get inspiration; giving credit where it is due. I got the idea for these coasters from a book I have, Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson (she is the owner of Purl; I really enjoy their blog, Purl Bee, it is sooo incredibly inspiring and varied!)

This is such a great book. It is filled with fantastic and quick projects and they are so lovely to go to for inspiration. There are other Last-Minute Gifts books out there, I've read most of them and I recommend them.

I had been thinking about making these coasters for aaages, but didn't get around to it until last Saturday morning and my visit was in the afternoon! But as promised in the book they were quick and simple to put together.

So first steps first, I cut out the fabric and batting I needed.

I folded the fabric so the narrow ends were together then chain-pieced the squares I had to close one of the sides. When sewing I started from the folded edge. Then I clipped the thread in between the pieces.

I then did the same to close the opposite side.

This created a rectangle with one open side.

The next part was to turn it right side out and put the batting inside.

 Here are all my pretty outsides sewn and turned right side out.

I found the easiest way to put the batting into the pouches was to do it the same way I insert a doona into it's cover. The farthest corners from the opening first and then work the rest of it in. (I think that makes sense).

When I did my first one I found that the pieces of batting were a little bit too wide. So I trimmed one of the edges a little.

Here's my attempt at showing you how I put the batting into the outsides (it's very hard showing a two-handed move when you have to hold the camera!)

Once I put the batting in a still had to smoosh (yes smoosh, it's the technical word for it) it around a bit to make sure it was in all the corners and everything. Here is what it looked like with the batting on the inside.

I folded one side of the top opening down into the pouch so that it was between the batting and the outside...

...then I folded the other side down so that it was between the part that I just folded down and the outside.

(I think I made it sound over complicated. Essentially, I just turned the raw edges in so the folds were flush with the edge of the batting.)

Here are all my lovely coasters, filled with batting and ready to be sewn shut and quilted.

To prep for the quilting I installed my sewing machine walking foot (It looks a bit scary, doesn't it) and did a test run.

To sew and quilt the coasters I started by sewing the open end shut. I sewed it right to the end, but when I got there I reverse stitched a few times and while the needle was still in the fabric I turned the coaster and started quilting. Before I got to the end (about 3 stitches from it) I left the needle in the fabric and turned it again.

I just continued on doing that until I got pretty darn close to the centre. To finish of I stitched until I was about 1 stitch away from  the row of stitching in front of the needle. I then made sure that the last stitch would be right on the row of stitching and then cut my threads. I then pulled the threads to the back, tied them off and snipped my loose threads. Voila! Quilted coaster!

Here is my bundle of coasters all done, tied up and ready to be gifted.

I'm one of those people who gets really hung up on perfection (read: anal retentive) and usually takes so long to make something intended for someone else I become a Scrooge and decide to keep it because it takes so long to make. Silly really. But these coasters are such a quick, simple and practical project that I am sooo happy that I could give them to someone. An instant shot of accomplishment and gift giving.

This is such a versatile project because you can make them any size you want, so you could make a matching placemat. There is also the option of making it out of any kind of fabric you want. You could even cut out someone's initial in felt and stitch it on instead of quilting. Hmmm. That's not a bad idea. I think they would make a really great stocking filler.

Thanks for reading my post. I hope it inspires you to make something to gift to others.

Until next time, do something that makes your heart sing.

V xoxo