January 1-3: Quilted Coasters

Better late than never.  It's January 10, and I just sewed the project for January 1-3.  Whatever.

I like quilted coasters around the house, because it's an easy way to sneak a little pattern or add a little color to a room.  These coasters, originally from The Long Thread, small versions of a pinwheel quilt block.  The write up also says that they're good practice for quilting, which is true.  I felt better reading her original tutorial because just like me she says that quilting calls for much more precision than I have the patience for.  It's pretty obvious that my pinwheel points didn't line up perfectly once I was done, but since I used a few different prints I think it's harder to tell they're not precise.  At least that's what I'm telling myself.

The quilting is stitched along the seams of the pinwheels, which I made from a patchwork of a few different prints instead of a solid/print mixture like the calendar photo shows.  I've got a big stash of small scraps that aren't good for much else but patchwork, and this seemed like a good excuse to use some of them up.  The backs, which you can't see, are a plain white linen.  A few of the scraps were linen and the rest are home dec fabrics, which, when paired with the linen backing and some quilt batting, make for a pretty sturdy coaster.

The next project in the book is a yoga mat bag.  Seeing as I can barely keep my clumsy self standing somettimes this is clearly not a project that I'll have much use for.  I'm going to try it out, but I think I'll try and modify it into something a little different.