Hostess Gifts

Always looking for simple, but functional, hostess gifts.  Coasters & hot pads are now my go to gifts.

My love for coasters started last year when we were putting together Holiday Gifts for our neighbors.  We up-cycled some holiday mugs from Goodwill and filled them with John's homemade biscotti.

But I wanted something from my brand new quilting studio, that John had built, to go with them.  Then I got the idea for some coasters ... what better addition to a gift that includes a mug and biscotti?

So I made a few out of scrap Holiday fabric that I had from previous years.  I didn't make sets, just random fabric individual coasters which I then added to each of the mugs.  

We had a couple of friends we were going to see over the holidays, so I made up a few sets, of matching coasters ... and my obsession with fabric coasters had begun.

Not to be left out, I made a set of 6 for us.  Nine-months, and multiple washes, later, they are still holding up well and are used everyday in our home.

I am off to visit my mom next week and the week after that we will be staying a few days with a cousin (who already has some potholders from me & a quilt for that matter!), so I set about yesterday to put together a few new sets of coasters.

One thing I have learned based on using my own coasters is that the ones for coffee drinkers should be made out of darker fabric to keep them from becoming stained.  (My mom doesn't drink tea or coffee, so I was able to use lighter colors on hers as seen in the photo above).

I am putting together a tutorial on how to make this quick and easy hostess gift for those of you who are interested.  It's a great way to use of some holiday fabric scraps as there really is no need to have all 4 in a set match.  They just need to coordinate in color ... with green and red, that's pretty simple!

Stay tuned!

All the best,
Lisa