Modern Patchwork Coasters

Nearly ten years ago my aunt Delilah and I sat in a Mexican restaurant and over several baskets of chips, salsa and a few margaritas we brainstormed ideas for the name of our first project together. It was going to be a craft show in the parking lot of her store. We used my favorite brainstorming method (the cluster) and by the time we our glasses were empty, our pieces of paper were full.

We probably each had over a hundred words on our pieces of paper and went spent the next hour putting them together in various combinations until finally one combination felt right to both of us… “Patchwork Show”. Although Delilah had never sewed anything in her life and I was not a quilter (something the word patchwork is often associated with) we knew this was the perfect name. We thought of patchwork not only as a reference to crafting but mostly as a symbol for what we hoped the show would be: a bringing together of different things to form one harmonious whole.

All these years later, Patchwork Show is still going strong and that idea of various components coming together to make something new and cohesive is what inspired these modern patchwork coasters. This project (like many of the projects I make) is perfect for using up scraps. I love the idea of turning the leftover bits from other projects into something useful.

For the full tutorial, head over to Bernina’s We All Sew blog.