Wedding Gift

A friend of mine was married last weekend. I honestly had no idea what to make for a wedding gift - due to my sister's wedding I didn't have time to make my usual wedding gift. Next thing I knew it was two weeks before the wedding, and I still didn't have any clue what to make. I asked my Mom is she had any ideas, and she mentioned a set of coasters that a friend had sent her. Mom emailed her friend for the pattern, and I made them in an afternoon with a week to spare!

Finding just the right fabrics was difficult. I could have used 5 different fabrics, if I'd wanted, but I had a hard enough time just coming up with three. I was going to make 8 coasters, but there was barely enough of the maroon fabric to make 6. I used my rotary cutter to cut everything out- aren't rotary cutters great?
The back is just a solid square. For some reason it didn't photograph very well - it has some feathery swirls or leaves, and the little sprays of purple flowers.Okay, I just uploaded the picture to the post, and you can see all the detail.

After cutting out all the pieces and pressing the top pieces in half, it was time to stack everything together. I used a lot of pins to make sure the pieces didn't shift while I was sewing and leave a gap in the middle. I'm very pleased with the way they came out, and someday, maybe I will have time to make a set for myself.

Wedding Gift: Quilled Coasters

Having become slightly paranoid about privacy lately, and wanting to protect the privacy of others, I will be referring to my sister and brother-in-law by their initials; G and A.

  The wedding is over! I'm still recovering, but everything went smoothly. Upon seeing the quilled coasters that I finally finished last year, G and A requested a monogrammed set of coasters. They chose the letter style and coaster shape; the rest was up to me! They decided on square coasters, which I ordered from the Quilling Superstore. I have to say, I was not overly impressed with the quality, compared with my original coasters. Although they were clearer, you could see little bubbles and swirls in the plastic. Once the quilling is in, you don't really notice. The other snag I ran into was that the sticky background was just a plain sort of cardboard. The original coasters had a white background, enabling me to rearrange pieces a bit. This was one chance only since I had to glue everything to the background paper I chose. Deciding on a background color was fairly simple - I originally wanted to use cream, but Mom didn't have the perfect cream paper in her stash. She did have a perfect brown, though.

 To vary the designs, two were made square, and four go diagonally. I also wanted to keep them somewhat monochromatic, in keeping with the happy couple's decorating style. This worked for the first two designs, but the third needed something to make it pop. This was where my little Altoids box of extra pieces came in handy. I've saved every shape that didn't get used in a project; playing with the different shapes makes it much easier to visualize and plan a design. I had some blue S Scrolls, and kept coming back to the color. It ended up being perfect!

Has anyone ever made coasters before? Where did you get the coasters from? My original coasters came from Michaels, but they only come in a six-sided shape, and are almost always nearly out of them. If I can find a coaster/paperweight at a decent price, that looks nice, I plan to design a few for my Etsy shop.

Quilled Coasters

I finally finished these quilled coasters. The pattern is from The Book of Paper Quilling: Techniques & Projects for Paper Filigree by Malinda Johnston.

 

For some reason I had bought 4 of the coaster 'blanks', so I decided to design my own coaster:

I'm not entirely happy with it, but for the first time designing a quilled piece, it's pretty good. I also challenged myself to use up the short strips and random shapes that seem to be accumulating at an alarming rate. 

~Sarah

Weekly Goals

Last weeks goals & progress :

1. Join LovePurl ~~I sent the e-mail, and am waiting for a response.
   
2. Finish the tatted medallion ~~I finished another corner. I'm going to have to start taking it to Church - I always get there early, so it will be some Enforced Tatting Time.
3. Knit: shawl or Warm Up America Squares ~~I finished two more pattern repeats. That leaves 4 to go. However, I have too many stitches on my needles. I'm going to buy some circular needles tomorrow.
4. Mending - my mending pile is expanding rapidly, and taking up too much space. ~~3 items were mended.
5. Cross Stitch: Pick a project, any project! ~~I worked on Appomattox Courthouse. Here's a picture to prove it. (Compare to picture here)

Some other things I did this week:

• Made a second attempt at the door slammer stopper thing. (First attempt here.) Pictures coming soon. Can anyone come up with a better name??
  
• Continuing in the I'm-tired-of-it-sitting-around-so-I'm-gonna-finish-it mood, I pulled out this quilled coaster tonight. It didn't quite have space for the pearls, so I used some leftover half-pearls from this project. It sort of works, but not really. As you can see, I'm holding the bottom piece on with my basketry clamps. Any suggestions for how to make it stay stuck to the coaster??

Goals for the week of February 19:

• Knitting~At least two more repeats on shawl, or better yet, finish it.
  
• Sewing~Make another door slammer stopper thing. (And clean up the mess I made in the sewing room.)
• Tatting~Finish the medallion.
• Misc.~Cross stitch or quilled coasters.

Have a happy crafty week!
~Sarah