{Scrappy Christmas Coasters}

I will be honest and tell you that I made these a couple of months ago, and I'm pretty sure I was surrounded by pumpkins and skeletons at the time. You can never be too early, no? I guess I was on a roll.

I had leftover holiday fabric from an apron I made for my mom like this one. I wanted to make some scrappy coasters with it, so I looked around the internet for some info. I did find several tutorials, and even tried a couple that seemed easy, but honestly they all still seemed too hard. Like I was re-inventing the wheel.

I will apologize ahead of time for the lack of process pictures, but I decided to cut a square template out of old file folders that measured 5.5" x 5.5" (the unfinished size I wanted the coasters to be). Then I started cutting scraps...piecing them to other scraps...and machine stitching them to each other.

Yeah...it was a hodge podge, which was exactly what I wanted.

My only 'rule' to follow was that I made sure that each scrappy piece I finished was LARGER than my 5.5" x 5.5" template. Here are all of my top pieces:

 I then laid the template on top of the scrappy piece and cut it down to size.

I cut a backing piece out of solid fabric to 5.5" x 5.5".

 I adhered a piece of fusible fleece to each side (one to the scrappy side and one to the solid side). I wanted them to be thicker since they are coasters.

I then pinned them wrong sides together, stitched on 3 sides, turned back around, and top stitched all around the edges. I also "stitched in the ditch" along the seams of all the scraps...just to make them look "scrappier".

And the final product...

I'm really pleased with how they turned out, and I love it when I use up scraps.

What have you been up to?

Take care,