How to Make an Easy, Folded, Quilted Coaster

©joaniebaby 5-1-2012

Several years ago my sister-in-law, who is an avid quilter, gave me a gift of four of these quilted coasters. And they have been used almost every day since. They are always on display on our end tables, for decoration as well as for use.

This quilted coaster is a very simple project, makes nice gifts for special occasions and takes approximately one hour to make. The only materials needed are scraps of cotton quilt material and lo loft batting, and your sewing machine and iron.

First decide what colors and materials you want for the coaster, which will include three different contrasting materials. Then cut out two 5x5" pieces for the backing. You also need to cut out two 5x5" pieces of a contrasting fabric, and two more 5x5" pieces of another contrasting fabric. (The materials I used for the pictures are bright colors so you can see what the finished product looks like. They probably are not any colors I would ever choose for coasters to give as gifts as they would not be appropriate for many living/family rooms.) For the inside, cut out one 4½x4½" piece from the lo loft batting. It is necessary to make the batting smaller than the backing so the seams are not too thick for turning.

Iron all pieces before starting to assemble them. The four pieces of contrasting fabrics need to be folded and ironed in half. Next, assemble the back of the coaster by putting the two backing pieces together, right sides out, with the batting in between. Then pin, or baste, these pieces together and sew with a ¼" seam. Reinforce the sewing at the corners of this square and clip corner diagonally, being careful not to cut the stitching. After that, place two of the same folded contrasting pieces on the backing, side by side, folded edges to the middle. Next take the other two folded contrasting pieces and place one on top of the folded pieces, putting half of the folded piece under half of the folded piece already in place, folded edge to the middle again. Now put the last folded piece on top of the other folded piece and take the opposite half of that piece and put it under the other folded piece already in place, folded edge to the middle. It will look like a small checkerboard when finished. (See photos) This is so difficult to explain, but once you are working with the pieces, I think you can see how it works.

Now pin, or baste, all of these pieces together carefully keeping the folded edges together in the middle of the square. It is a good idea to pin or baste these folded edges so they do not move when sewing. Following the stitching on the backing, stitch all together, again reinforcing the corner stitching. Trim the corners diagonally. Now you need to turn the finished product so the seam will be on the inside and the material in the corners needs to be pulled out as much as possible. As you notice in my photo, the corners are not perfectly square because there is just too much material there. But the slightly rounded corners look good. Thoroughly press the finished product.