CRISS-CROSS COASTERS ANOTHER WAY

As promised, here are the directions for making the Criss-Cross Coasters another way -- with triangles. Again, I used a Moda charm pack. This time it's Hoopla. I was looking for something bright and springy, with lots of contrast.

It takes 6 charms to make one coaster, so a charm pack makes 6 coasters with 6 charms left over.

Decide which charms you want for focus -- the triangles. Put them into 6 sets of 4, with lots of contrast within each set.

You will need 2 charms to form the base of your coaster. Place these wrong sides together. Lay it on your work surface for your base. The one toward the table will hardly be seen, if at all, and the one facing up will end up being the back of your coaster.

Fold your charm squares in half, wrong sides together, point-to-point, forming a right triangle. I pressed mine to keep that fold nice.

Lay your first folded triangle on the stack keeping the raw edges together, and the fold to the center.

Place the right angle of the your second triangle on the next corner. Always keep the folded edge, the hypotenuse, toward the center, and the raw edges even on the outside of the square base.

Lay the third triangle like so......

Lay your fourth triangle down in the same manner, but as you do...........

flip half of the first triangle over the fourth one.

This is what your stacked set should look like at this point.

Stitch all around, pivoting at the corners.

Trim the corners to reduce bulk.

Stick your thumb in the center to turn it right side out.

And voila! Your finished coaster. Easy - peasey!

Have fun making these!

CRISS CROSS COASTER TUTORIAL

As promised here's my tutorial for making criss-cross coasters. You will need one charm pack to make a set of 6 and have 6 left over to make whatever you choose.

Divide your charms into sets of 6 with good contrast in each set. It takes 6 charms to make one coaster and you want that contrast so your criss-cross shows.

Place two charms wrong sides together. Lay them on your work surface to form the base of your coaster. Note that the one facing up will end up being the back of your coaster, and the other one will barely be seen, if at all.

Fold the other 4 charms wrong sides together. These will be referred to as fc's -- folded charms.

Lay your first folded charm (fc) on the base, keeping the raw edges together and the fold will be at the center of the base.

Lay your 2nd fc on as shown. Always keep the folded edge to the center and the raw edges together at the outside.

Continue with the 3rd fc in the same manner.

Likewise lay the 4th fc on the stack.

Flip up the first fc to cover half of the 4th fc.

This is what your stack should look like. The base is there, but can't be seen.

Stitch through all layers all around the outside edge with a 1/4" seam, pivoting at the corners.

This is how it should look after sewing all layers together with that one seam.

Trim the corners to reduce bulk.

Stick your thumb in the center and....

Turn it right side out, and voila! You have it!



Here's a link to another version made from 4.5" squares and using batting in the bottom layer. There are 6 layers of fabric anyway, so I don't think the batting is needed, but it's nice to have options, isn't it? And if you find my directions clear as mud, these are pretty clear and pretty much the same thing. Just smaller and with batting.

There's another way to fold your charms to get another look with these. I'll post that soon.

Remember, I have a contest going. Can you recognize the fabric line my charm pack was from? It's a current line. I just bought it last Sat. If you know, drop me an email at nana.quilts@gmail.com with your guess, and I'll enter the correct answers into a random generator next Mon. to select a winner of a small but nice prize.