Wine coasters made with coordinating quilt fabrics, making it easy to distinguish whose glass belongs to whom. Fabric line is “Reunion” by Sweetwater Fabrics for MODA.

A parent’s job educating their offspring is never done, even if said youngin’ is earning a living, paying bills, and in her 40’s. My mom came to visit me this past weekend and guess what she taught me to make?  Wine coasters that when flipped over, can serve double duty as mug rugs. Well…mug rugs are technically large enough to fit a coffee mug and a small snack…which these don’t. So I guess they are mug rugs for dieters! Point being, you can tuck the bottom of a wine glass inside one side, flip them over, and rest a coffee mug on the other. There are various tutorials on the Internet for these, but my mom adapted the size, doesn’t quilt the bottom fabric, and also makes them sans pinning so it goes a bit faster.

Materials (for one coaster)

• 5 coordinating fabrics, each at least 6″ square (Note: Choose fabrics with small-scale prints, otherwise you wont be able to see the full print on the wine coaster side since it consists of four folded fabrics.)

• Sewing machine loaded with monofilament thread in the top and in the bobbin

• 1/4″ sewing foot

• Iron and ironing board

• Fabric scissors, marking tool,  and a 5″ circle template (or an AccuQuilt GO!  fabric cutter with the 5″ circle die cut)

Directions

1. Take your five fabrics and cut them into 5″ circles, making sure they are all exactly 5″ in diameter.

2. Choose your bottom fabric (the coffee coaster side) and lay it right-side up.

3. Take your other four fabrics that have been cut into 5″ circles, fold each of them in half with wrong sides together (right sides out), and press.

4. Take your first folded circle and lay it on top of the bottom fabric.

5. Lay your second folded circle 90 degrees on top of the first.

6. Continue with the third folded circle, laying it on top of the second folded circle at a 90-degree angle.

7. Lay the fourth and final folded circle on top, tucking half of it underneath the first folded circle.

Here’s how it should look, making sure the top four folded fabrics are perfectly aligned with the backing fabric circle:

Make sure there is a small square hole in the middle, as this is where the base of the wine glass goes into, and where you will turn everything right sides out once finished sewing. See the small square hole in the middle in the picture below?

8. Very carefully take this sandwich to your sewing machine and with a 1/4″ seam, stitch all the way around the perimeter, stitching it entirely closed.

8. Once stitched entirely closed, with the small square opening, pull all of the folded fabrics through and turn right sides out. Press.

These make great gifts and housewarming presents. Thanks for the polka dot coasters, Mom. Very thoughtful!

I will be bringing a dozen of these coasters/ mug rugs to trade at our Trading Wall at International Quilt Festival/Long Beach later this week. Hope to see you there!

Tomorrow my little brother turns the big 37. (You are getting ever so closer to the Fab 40’s, Lil Bro’!)

The Chatham cousins (This is probably the last time I will ever see my brother in a suit.)

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For years, he’s been asking me for a quilt, and it’s my bad that I haven’t made one for him yet, so I’m sending him a promissory note tomorrow letting him know I’m on it. We both have fond memories as kids watching TV, huddled under one of the numerous quilts my great grandmother lovingly hand stitched.

Challenge is, he’s of the rugged, hunt/fish, Bass Pro Shop variety. Owning and running a farm and cattle ranch in Washington state, he spends his days wrestling rattlesnakes and irrigation woes, harvesting fruit, and herding cattle. (One time while talking with him over the phone, he put his cell down to tell some guy, “Dude! Watch out! That bull isn’t castrated!”)

In his free time he fly fishes, camps, sails, hunts, and actually broke a horse in (that he delivered) and now gallops on all over his property. Get the picture?

So it’s time I make him a quilt, but it needs to be something more macho than say, maybe grandmother’s flower garden (although it would be a fun challenge to make that in taupes, greens, grays, and blues). I have been looking at a few patterns, and think something with a more modern quilt aesthetic would most likely work for him.

What do you think of the following?

Bachelor Quilt #1

This Asymmetrical Diamond Quilt inspired by Lisa Roddy’s quilt on her blog, Shiner’s View, came up in my Instagram feed yesterday from Robert Kaufman. The color scheme is perfect for Davy with the sandy beiges and watery blues, a throwback to his professional sailing days.

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Bachelor Quilt #2

I bought this pattern from the Jaybird Quilts booth at Quilt Festival in Long Beach last summer. Looks like I could whip this quilt up pretty quickly, and I like the positive/negative interplay in the pattern.

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Bachelor Quilt #3

Also by Julie Herman of Jaybirdquilts.com, I think Varsity would be fun to make in a variety of beiges and blues.

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I am leaning towards Varsity but would love to hear what you think. And have you made quilts for the men in your life? Share in the comments area and if you have pictures on blogs or websites, please link!

Oh. And Happy Birthday, Davy…

Last week just as I was leaving my last work meeting and embarking on my long holiday weekend, a song came on Sirius’ 90’s on 9 station that I hadn’t heard…well…since the 90’s: Alanis Morissette’s “Thank U,” a song about gratitude.

Listening to the lyrics, I remembered a friend of mine’s daily practice of stating a gratitude–one simple thing she was thankful for. Every day. If she was having a particularly bad day or hard time, she might have just stated she was thankful for running water or electricity. For years I thought this daily gratitude business was, well…corny. I didn’t quite get it, and I realize now how silly I was, and how there have been instances where I could have given myself a lift had I just remembered to be thankful for something big or very little, or remembering that out of every negative or seemingly despairing situation, existed a small seed of positivity that just needed to be discovered and nourished.

I was very grateful for a long weekend, a weekend where I engaged in a few social events, but was peppered with stretches of welcomed solitude.

It got off to a very patriotic start:

Flags flying high in La Grange, TX.

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I set up my machine in my backyard and I “bikini quilted” (my tongue-in-cheek term for quilting outside).

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I was invited to a 4th of July BBQ and I did something I rarely ever do: I ate meat (…but just a little).

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And I didn’t go to the BBQ without bringing a red-white-and-blue dessert:

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And after eating, I raced to catch some fireworks (which for the most part I caught by my dashboard light…’cuz I got lost):

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And when home that night, I realized how thankful I am for these two little ones.

I hope you all had a nice 4th,