Not a Tutorial!

After a comment from Ali of Very Berry Handmade about my coasters a little while ago,  I'm slipping in a quick additional post this week to explain how I put it together. It's not really a tutorial as such but you can skip this post if you've already guessed how it's done!

So here goes, this is what I did: (the text goes with the photo beneath it)

Cut a piece each of wadding and backing 4" square......

Laid the wadding on top of the wrong side of the backing, selected a few fabric scrap strips that complemented eachother and laid one strip along the left edge........

Next, I laid a second strip, right sides together, on top of the first strip, lining up the right edge..........

Then I sewed through all layers a (roughly) 1/4" seam.............

...folded open the second strip and finger pressed it open (you can pin it at this stage to keep it in place if you wish).

I kept adding strips until the wadding was covered completely........

....then turned the whole thing over and trimmed off the overhang to the 4".

Finally, I added binding but, as there are lots of tutorials online for doing that and people have different method preferences, I'm not going to show the process.  (The truth is I'm not sure I've really cracked the binding process yet and wouldn't want to open myself up to ridicule!!!)

The most observant of you will have noticed that this finished coaster is not the same one but the original one I made.  I haven't put the binding on the other one yet as I find it the most scary part! 

Here's a back view in case you're wondering what it looks like.

I've done all the strip piecing for 8 more since  taking these photos - now I've just got to trim them and tackle the binding. :-(

I'd like to know which method you prefer?  The traditional double fold or folding the binding in half and attaching it double? And as for the corners, I try something different every time and haven't found my "favourite" way yet!!  One thing I'm pleased to have got the hang of is joining the ends of the binding even though I know I didn't do it on this (it was just too small and fiddly).

I hope this makes sense (it did to me) but if not just ask and I'll try to explain better and edit later if necessary.

Bye for now

Teresa x