As is our tradition, the girls all made gifts for each other and their mother.  Not all were done with embroidery – one girl made a night stand for her sister’s American Girl doll.  Another Mod Podged fabric flowers on an old suitcase that was the just the right size for her sister’s laptop.  The gifts for Mom, however, all included using the embroidery or sewing machine.  We will share these over the next few months since they are all pretty quick and easy.  The first is a set of quick and easy coasters that match the décor of their living room made by our eight-year-old.  We’ll share the stipple design we used below.

Here is what you need for each coaster

Two 5” squares of decorator weight fabric (plain cotton would probably work as well)

One 5” square of thin, fairly dense batting

Cut away stabilizer

White embroidery thread (or color of your choice)

Stipple style embroidery design (you can download the one we used at the end of the blog below)

Pinking shears

Here is what you do

1.         1. Wind a bobbin with the same thread you will be using in the needle.

2.           2. Load the embroidery design.

3.            3 Hoop cut-away stabilizer in a 5 X 7 hoop.

4.             4.  Embroider the placement stitch square onto the stabilizer

5.          5. Slide the first décor fabric square, face down, underneath making sure that it is centered, covering the placement stitches.*

6.          6. On top lay first batting square and then, face up, the other décor fabric square centering to cover the placement stitching.

7.         7. Stitch the rest of the design.  Remove the hoop from the machine and the stabilizer from the hoop.

8.         8.  Using pinking shears trim evenly about ¼” outside the stitching.

9.          9. Repeat to make as many coaster as you desire (we made six).

*Note for step 5:  you could also slide the hoop off, flip it over and lay on a flat surface and use a temporary adhesive to adhere the bottom fabric square.

We put these in a small basket that we had received sometime earlier and tied coordinating ribbons on the handle.  Mom loved her new matching coaster and displays them proudly on a small table in the living room. 

Shh!  For Valentine’s day she is going to make a candle mat using the same stipple pattern.  The instructions will not change just the size.

Take care,

DB