Last fall when I went to Quilt Market, I met Kelly Parker Smith, a new fabric designer for the even newer fabric company Sweet Bee Designs, and we became fast friends. It took mere minutes before we were giggling up and down the aisles of quilts. When I saw her collection, then printed on sample yardage, I fell instantly in love with the lemon prints. When she was looking for people to help tour the collection, I knew instantly I needed those lemons in my life in some functional way. Enter these sweet little DIY coasters, the perfect small canvas for a fun print. I supplemented Kelly’s lemons with a simple neutral solid and a classic stripe.

I found a tutorial for these coasters here and got to work. Here’s the gist:

1. Gather materials: Your choice(s) of fabric, fusible fleece, thread and needle, fabric marking pen, cutting tools (ruler, mat, rotary cutter, scissors), iron and ironing board, and your sewing machine. Find something to trace for the shape; I used the lid to a three-wick candle

2. Each coaster needs three circles cut: 2 for the top and bottom (fabric), and one from fusible fleece. Trace your circles using the stencil you found on all the appropriate materials

3. Fuse the fleece to the wrong side of what will be the top (quilted side) of each coaster

4. Draw your quilt pattern onto the fabric piece with the fused fleece (there’s a Dr. Seuss sentence for you). I kept mine classic with diamonds made from 1/2″ spaced lines, the cross lines coming in at 30′. Then quilt all the tops!

5. Once all the tops are quilted, pin each coaster pair RST, leaving a 1 1/2″ opening for turning, and sew the coaster closed with a 1/4″ SA

6. Carefully turn right side out, using a turning tool or chop stick to run along the seam for a clean edge. You can notch the seam allowance before turning, but in this case I like thick faux-binding look it provides when combined with the top stitching. Press.

7. Fold under the opening you left for turning, taking care to keep the curve of the circle intact. This part can take some practice, on my first few I drew the line that I needed to follow for turning on each side of the coaster with a water fabric marking pen. Pin in place.

8. Top stitch around the coasters at 1/8″, being sure to close the pinned opening securely. Give em’ a final press and presto! Coasters!

I’m always on the hunt for handmade gifts that I can give people that are actually useful AND cute, so I made sure to package some up in sets of 8 to have as gifts at the ready.

Thank you and congratulations to Kelly on your first collection, and to Sweet Bee on your first year rockin’ the biz. You can learn more about Kelly and the rest of her blog tour here, and about Sweet Bee Designs here 🙂

Happy Coastering! (Yikes…)

Love,
Dylan

P.S. Won’t be long until MY fabric collection will be taking over my life 🙂