A Charming Little Coaster Kit

It can be difficult some weeks to blithely write about making projects. As I’m posting this on Tuesday morning, it’s been a bumpy week already and my latest little sewing project seems incredibly silly.

Yet here we are.

I pulled out another small kit from the bottom of the drawer this week. This one was for a single coaster. I know I received it as a gift from a local shop during a Quilt Shop Hop a few years ago. It’s from a different shop than the mug rugs kit I made earlier this year, and that makes me wonder if they were from the same year — one with a coaster theme.

This kit came with six squares of cotton each measuring five inches (about 2.5 cm). I was to add a batting square of the same size.

Although this is a simple pattern, I had to read through the instructions a few times before I could follow the process. It is much easier to do than to explain.

The first step was to sandwich two of the fabric squares with the batting, right-sides out. Next, I had to fold the remaining four squares in half with wrong-sides together. I wove them into a new five-inch square layer with the raw edges to the outside.

After placing the woven layer on top of the sandwich, I sewed around all four sides with a quarter-inch (0.6 cm) seam allowance. I clipped the corners, then turned the coaster right-side out through the center of the woven block.

And I happen to like topstitched edges for small turned items, so I sewed a quick border as well.

This was a quick and easy project. Although I appreciate that there are a lot of layers for absorbency, I don’t entirely understand why I needed to sandwich the batting between two layers of fabric when one side was going to be covered by the woven block in the end. Perhaps because the woven block can be opened from the middle? Some well-placed quilting would prevent anyone from peeking there.

The charm of this pattern is lost on me. (Get it? Charm blocks are usually five inches square, haha!)

No world problems were solved by making this project. Nor were any small issues, for that matter. But there’s a little more storage space in the bottom of the drawer, and I have a brightly colored coaster on which to set a soothing cup of tea as I ride out life’s bumps.