Custom Coasters - Wedding Favors

I am so used to making items one at a time, but a recent order has me experimenting with assembly line construction techniques, at least for certain components.

One of my clients has asked for 100 sets of coasters, which is the largest order I've ever filled. The next-largest before that was 10 flannel blankets with names embroidered on each, so this definitely is one for the history books.

Since there are so many sets of coasters to make, I decided to make a rough map of how many coasters would be produced in each color way. Then, I cut all the peltex for the 200 total coasters. A large project deserves a large project bin, so here it is:



The bigger stacks are of the colors I know are in their main wedding colors - yellow, green, and blue. The client requested very spring-like colors - so I won't have any black or gray - and they also don't want anything too 'rainbow'-like, so I will stay away from odd color combinations.

These coasters are all being made from my quilting scraps, so that they don't look like they came off an assembly line, but scraps are considerably harder to work from since you are always trying to put things where they fit. It doesn't always work out, which is where creativity and "make do" comes in very handy.

I decided to start with the purple/lilac/violet set first, because that is the scrap bin I've been promising to deal with for weeks. I wanted to get these to a point where I could show the client, but I am focusing on assembly and not final stitching. So here is the first batch I put together:



These are the first 16 coasters, hot off the sewing machine & the steam iron! Once I get all the purple ones done, I can take them to the serger & finish them off. These can either be paired together based on the block centers, or paired based on their backing fabric, which is a single 4x4 square made from a fabric featured in each block.

Happy quilting!