Quilted Poppy Coasters

Well, I think I finally have coasters to cover me for the entire year!  I decided to declare spring here by putting out my spring table mat and didn't have coasters to go with it.  Our spring poppies haven't begun blooming yet - when they do is one of my favorite times of the year, so I decided to go with poppies.  

Materials:
*white quilting cotton
*black quilting cotton
*fusible felt
*SetaSilk silk paints - tangerine and hermes red
*black, orange, and yellow sewing thread
*pattern found here

1.  Wash, dry, and iron the white cotton and place either on a silk painting frame or on a piece of plastic on a large, flat surface.  In this past post, I introduced SetaSilk paints as part of a silk painting project - they work great on other natural fibers, too! 

2.  With a large, soft brush (such as a bamboo brush), paint on some of the tangerine straight from the bottle in about a 6 to 8 inch area.

3.  Do the same with the hermes red.

4.  Wet the brush and scrub over the colors to soften the lines.

5.  Continue until you have enough for the number of coasters you want to make.  Let dry and then iron each painted area on the back for about 4 minutes on a cotton setting.

6.  Using the pattern, cut out backs from the black cotton and fronts from the orange/red shapes you made.  Trim 1/4 from the outside edge of the pattern and cut out the batting from the fusible felt.  Fuse the felt to the back.

7.  Pin front to back and sew around the edges using a small zigzag stitch and black thread.  Trim edges even.

8.  Put on a free motion quilting foot, lower the feed dogs, and sew in three large petals.  See here for more information on free motion quilting.

9.  Sew between the petals to suggest back petals.

10.  Sew creases on each of the front petals.  Switch to orange thread and go over all the lines you made with black.

11.  Switch back to black and sew radiating lines in the center, very close together.

12.  Switch to yellow thread and sew a tight spiral in the center.

And you have your poppy coaster!  I may have to try this with other flowers ...

Happy Creating!  Deborah