Denyse Schmidt - Mix-it-up coasters

One of my favourite crafty books is this one. It inspires me a lot, in terms of colours, designs, etc. More of all, it shows me that sewing/quilting should be done YOUR WAY. No quilt police to tell you that your sewing must be 100% accurate, that your colours must consist of this & that, that your blocks must be true & true traditional, etc. The quilts are very different from the ones I see displayed at the quilt shops/workshops. DS' quilts are so refreshing & modern and I simply want to try each and every one of them.

After many months of book-ownership, DS flickr-group browsing, I finally decided to create something out of her book for a friend's new home. COASTERS! I know, I know. It's nothing challenging or great as a quilt or some of her other quirky project, but this gal gotta start somewhere, okie? ;>

Well, looking at the book, I thought: geez, I can make these coasters in 15 mins. I was SOOOOOO wrong. I ended up slaving away the entire evening over this set of 6 coasters.

Step 1: Enlarge pattern design

Step 2: Roughly cut up the pieces from the pattern sheet

Step 3: Stick each piece on a plastic template sheet & trim

Step 4: Punch out the points where the 1/4" seam lines intersects on all sides of the templates (6 pcs)

Step 5: Pick out 6 different fabrics

Step 6: Cut out fabric rectangles & stack them

Step 7: Trace pattern (mark out the 1/4" points too) on the top piece of fabric with water soluble pen & then cut them out. I rotary cut the 6 layers of fabrics.

Step 8: Switch the pieces around to make sure each top will have a different combination of fabrics.

Step 9: Match points, pin, sew, iron, repeat again & again & again...

Step 10: Square up

That's just for making the coaster tops. When I finally made them into cushy coasters and quilted them, it was just sooooo sooooo satisfying. Overall, the coasters are just nice for the couple's new home, which has a comfy basement/entertainment room, with orange walls, some nice grey tiles... I picked the fabrics with their colourways in mind... And I think my friend appreciates them, so I'm happy. :>

Okay, another house-warming coming up next week. More coasters??? :>

1st post of 2009!

It's been a LONG while! Well, it had been a busy Christmas, my hubby & I worked through the New Year and now we having the Lunar New Year coming up next Monday! Gosh... I need a holiday from all the holidays!

Found time to start a new project at the beginning of the year, though. More updates when it gets closer to a better shape to be shown! :D And I also indulged a 'little' online retail therapy, which arrived last week!

Over the Christmas period, I managed to sew up a few made-with-love (read: wonky sewing) items for some special people.

Remember the cupcakes fabrics? I made the crayon wallet for a friend's little girl since it was such a big hit with Benji :> I LOVE LOVE LOVE how sweet this wallet turned out.

For another creative little 3 YO, I made the crayon wallet with the scraps from Gram's Fairy Tale baby quilt and it turned out perfect (in my opinion! :p)

I believe I will continue to make more of these wallets for more of our little friends! :>