First ever quilting project - Coasters!

We've wondered for a while about quilting. We've never done it but know a few people that do. We haven't got any knowledge between us in this area, so I decided to buy us a book to teach us the basics. I opted for the Quilting in No Time book by Emma Hardy which i managed to pick up from eBay secondhand. In it, it has 50 step-by-step weekend projects, and ranges from very basic to more complicated but more importantly, it explains the basics and the diagrams are really easy to follow. Trouble is, from the moment it arrived, we were itching to get started!

We opted for a simple project to start with - a quilted coaster. It's not that either of us have need of one, it was simply a case of 'why not' and 'let's give it a go'!

As you can see, we both chose very different materials from our stash. My friends is more modern (pink and blue) and mine is more - well at 17 more years older than her - I'd guess you say more old fashioned! The backs are both plain. Again we used our rotary cutter which decided to teach us a valuable lesson....RESPECT! We had our first (and hopefully our last!) industrial injury with it - only a small nick but requiring a plaster nonetheless!

We learnt to sew two pieces of material together, then another two, and another two etc without starting and finishing by going backwards and forwards - saving both time and cotton - and then just snipping the cotton in between the pairs. Once we got the hang of it, we loved it! We could see the coasters 'growing' before our very eyes!

We used natural cotton batting - or at least it def wasn't polyester wadding! This batting we picked up last year in a bargain bucket at Dunelm Mill and it only had a price on it! Not being experts in this area, it could of course, be absolutely anything but we think it's batting!

 

Once we'd turned the coasters the right way and hand-stitched the turning gap closed, we then top-stitched them in concentric squares. We were originally going to draw them on with our Frixion pens but went for the quicker option! We simply stitched each square by using the edge of the foot as a guide, abutting the previous square. Although we can both see that our squares aren't exactly perfect, we don't think this detracts from their beauty! We love them, they're our first attempt and we learnt something new! Which just goes to show, that you can teach old dogs new tricks - me being a fossil and all that!