Sew Early 4 Christmas – Snow Globe Coaster Tutorial and Give-Away

Welcome to the last stop on the 2018 Sew Early 4 Christmas blog hop

It’s finally my turn to host the Sew Early 4 Christmas tutorial series organised by the lovely Joy at Days Filled with Joy. Over the last three Mondays we have been gifting you quick sewing project tutorials that you can sew now and put away for December. So that you can have the last laugh when Christmas tries to  sneak up on you yet again…… I’m assuming it is not just me who sometimes gets surprised by that stealthy ninja of a date!

So far in our series, we have had a really cute Christmas wreath pillow from Susan at Super Mom No Cape, a handy drawstring bag from Pam at Threading My Way, and customisable Christmas crackers from Joy at Days Filled with Joy. And today we complete the set with snow globe coasters (mug rugs) from me. 

I hope you enjoy this tutorial – feel free to pin or save it for later. And make sure you scroll to the bottom of this post, because I have decided to give away my coasters to 4 lucky readers, and also a coaster-making kit to a fifth. It is Christmas in July, after all, so we definitely need gifts!! Instructions to enter for the give-away are at the end, along with the details of the earlier tutorials in the series for your browsing pleasure. Merry Christmas!

Before we get started. on the tutorial though…..

I thought you might like a quick look at the evolution of an idea. Very often us designers present tutorials in the totally finished form, without any indication of the work that has brought us to that point. But the lessons and thoughts we had along the way hold valuable information too. So here’s how these coasters happened……

Coaster number one

Here is my first snow globe. I didn’t bother taking pictures while making it, I just let myself be absorbed by the process of creating as I went. I started with my rough template shape and a spare fusible snowflake that I had cut on my new Brother ScanNCut CM900 during my White Christmas quilt adventures. Recognise it? Scraps of organza from my Shadows of Auntie Green quilt seemed to be the obvious choice to make my globe all shiny. 

My first snow globe was made with three fabric sections – the globe, the stand and a base. I used an Australiana fabric to add a Cockatoo and Christmas greetings to the “inside”of  the globe. And I densely quilted the entire globe to hold everything in place.

I could have stopped there. I quite like this first try. But I ummmed and ahhhed and decided the blue at the bottom didn’t add anything to the coaster. And therefore, for the tutorial, a simple 2-fabric globe would be better. And I thought….. “What if I don’t quilt right over the features inside the globe?”

“What if?” is one of my favourite questions in designing…… 

So,  coaster number two

I reduced the coaster to the globe and the stand. And I quilted around the koala. I was happy with the 2-fabric design, and I liked the change to the quilting. And I could have left the design here too. But then….. maybe a snow globe needs snow?

Coaster number three, first attempt at snow

I looked around my house for “snow”. It had to be soft enough to sew through. Coarse glitter might work, but I didn’t have any. Paper? No, I might want to wash my coasters. Fabric…. maybe, but I’d prefer the glossy hard look of snow globe “snow”. White plastic….. hmmmm…… our garbage bags are white. 

So I cut some little pieces of plastic from a (new!) garbage bag and added them to the next snow globe under the organza. They partially melted under my super hot iron. Which wasn’t really a problem, because they were still trapped under the organza. But they’d also shrunk to barely noticeable. Not the effect I was looking for.

Do it again with a cooler iron, or keep looking for more suitable snow? Yeah….I agree, keep looking. Fool-proof is better.

Coasters number four and five

Hmmmmm….. I need a more heat-resistant plastic…. ooooooh, the handles on my shopping bag are thicker, let’s try those……

I cut the handle off my plastic bag…. guess I’ll be needing a new shopping bag now ……. Covered the pieces with the organza and ironed on stinky hot. No change! Eureka!! This is my final design.

So I finished the fifth snow globe I’d started, just to make sure I was fully happy with my process. And to work up a tutorial for you. ♥

And that’s how I ended up with 5 coasters that are related but not really a set. I ran out of the blue background fabric at this point, so I had to stop, which was probably a good thing. I’ll keep one of these as a reference for when I want to make them again, but the rest are keen to go to good homes with people who want them.

But first, let’s see how to make them!

What you will need to make snow globe coasters

• The pattern template pdf, downloadable right here:

• Iron-on stabiliser: For my project I am using Polyfuse made by Victorian Textiles. This product is described by the manufacturer as “fusible water soluble tearaway. It softens when washed and does not leave any bulk to your design but leaves a thin layer of polyester fibre…..” This is an Australian product. If your local quilt store doesn’t carry Polyfuse, a fusible interfacing will do the trick, as long as it’s washable (ie not paper-based) and you can draw on it. It doesn’t need to be wash-away type, that’s just what I had on hand. You will need a piece larger than the snow globe template.
• scraps of batting (any kind) larger than the snow globe template.
• fabrics for the globe, stand and coaster back. The globe can be covered with a 5″ charm square.
• novelty fabrics for your globe’s contents.
• fusible adhesive for your globe’s contents.
• a scrap of sheer fabric bigger than 5″ square, such as organza or fine tulle.
• stiff-ish, but not hard, white plastic. The handles from re-usable shopping bags in Australia are perfect. Or glitter. Or white fabric scraps.

• Elmer’s washable school glue, thread and all the usual notions for quilty sewing.

How to make Clever Chameleon Snow Globe Coasters

Step 1

Trace the snow globe template onto the non-fusible side of your stabiliser.

Fuse to your batting scraps. Cut out on the  outer line only.

Step 2

Lay your fabric for your globe background face down and position your batting/stabiliser shape over it (batting side down). Ensure that you have at least a seam allowance’s worth of fabric past the bottom of the globe (marked by the horizontal line).

Trim to about 1/4″ seam allowance around your globe. I used scraps of a raindrop batik from the 5″ strip bundle given to me by Island Batik in February. 

Step 3

Choose your novelty print additions for your globe contents. Turn them into fusible shapes. I chose to cut more snowflakes from an Island Batik Foundations fabric called Sky using 5 designs supplied with my Brother ScanNCut CM900.

And I found these novelty prints in my Christmas fabric stash. I have lots of others I could have used… I have a gingerbread man print that is my choice for next time! 🙂

I managed to scan this little koala and cut him from the background fabric with the ScanNCut. I was pretty proud of that.

But it was a bit of a challenge and took me a while. I  still need to get much cleverer at the scan and cut part of my new ScanNCut – specifically in choosing realistic motifs with sufficient contrast to cut out, I think. I’ll admit I cut the rest of my animals out by hand this time.

Anyway, I digress…… Turn your project over and fuse your globe contents in place.

Step 4

Overlay your globe with organza and pin to secure.

 

Step 5

Pin your globe right-sides together with the fabric you’ve chosen for your stand. I used the Blue Moon Shaved Ice Pinecone batik given to me by Island Batik..

Line up the top edge of the stand fabric with the bottom edge of the globe fabric. Make sure you have your fabric aligned so it will cover the globe stand when it is sewn along the horizontal line and pressed open.

Sew through all layers along the horizontal line that separates the globe from the base.

Once it is sewn and opened it should look like this.

Step 6

Trim the excess fabric from around the stand shape, leaving a seam allowance.

Cut your plastic or fabric “snow” into itty bitty pieces (1-2mm square) and sprinkle on top of the fused shapes but under the organza layer.  Seal the organza to the globe fabric with a little Elmer’s washable school glue in the seam allowance around the globe. Set with a hot iron. Make sure you don’t have any uncovered plastic lying around your project – it might stick to your iron without the organza covering. If in doubt, cover with a teflon sheet or parchment paper before ironing.

Step 7

Layer your work right-sides together with a backing fabric.

Sew around the edges of the snow globe template, leaving a gap at the bottom to be able to turn your snow globe right-way-out.

Trim the seam allowance and nick the curves so they will sit nicely once turned. Remove the excess fabric from the corners of the stand and where the globe and stand meet. Take care not to cut any stitching.

Turn your snow globe right-way-out and press into shape.

Step 9

Tuck the open edges inside the stand and pin the gap closed. Topstitch around the edges of the coaster to close the opening, flatten the edges and quilt the stand.

Step 10

Add quilting to the globe. I free-motion stippled three of mine and used swirls on the other two. You could use straight lines if you wish. The quilting is really there to keep everything in place when the fusible adhesive fails, so it doesn’t need to be fancy. Or if you use  a fusible adhesive you consider to be permanent, you could consider leaving your snow globe un-quilted and your snow loose. That’d be fun!

And that is all. Enjoy your very cool new Christmas coaster! 🙂

The other tutorials in the Sew Early 4 Christmas series

Here are the rest of the tutorials in the Sew Early 4 Christmas series. We are planning on doing this fun exercise again next year. If you would like to be put on an email list to be invited to be involved in next year’s hop as a host, head over to Joy’s blog now and leave her a comment or email.

And then have a look at these…..

Week 1: Christmas Wreath Pillow by Susan of Super Mom No Cape

 

Week 2: Drawstring Gift Bag by Pam of Threading My Way

Week 3: Christmas Crackers by Joy of Days Filled with Joy

And now, How to win today’s prizes?

You can win one of these 4 coasters

or this snow globe coaster starter pack to make your own. 

The starter kit has all the things in it you might find tricky to source….. the Polyfuse, organza, kangaroo and koala novelties as pictured, some bag handle plastic and two precut snowflakes hot off my Brother ScanNCut. Enough for two coasters. You will need to supply fabric for the globe, stand and backing, as well as batting, thread, glue etc.

Just comment on this post and tell me which prize you would like to win and more importantly, why?! The Cockatoo globe, the Koala globe, the Kangaroo globe, the Emu globe or the starter kit to make your own. 

Important: This is a game-of-skill based promotion, so make your comment count. I will choose my favourite 5 entries across the 5 available prizes and my decisions will be final. You may comment on just one prize or each prize, it is up to you. However, I will only be awarding a maximum of one prize per person per postal address. Christmas is about sharing. 🙂

Rules

After some research I have discovered that running free random draw competitions in Australia is complicated because some state laws prohibit people in those states from winning with no threshold for prize value. We can’t be excluding people if we can help it, that’s not very Christmas-spirited. So to keep my competitions simple to run and open to all Aussies, they will now all be skill-based trade promotions for my registered business, Clever Chameleon.

International entries welcome in this give-away. Over 18 year old entrants only. Keep it nice or I will delete your comment, assuming my spam filter doesn’t do it first. Ether way, deleted comments are forfeited entries. First time commenters will need to have their comment moderated, so don’t be alarmed if your comment is held until I am available to read it. My decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. This competition runs from when this post goes live until 23:59 2nd August 2018 Australian Central Time. I will announce the winners on the Clever Chameleon blog on the 3rd August and contact the winners for their postal address by email. Failure to provide a valid email address or answer your email within a week will render your entry invalid and a replacement will be chosen.  Clever Chameleon values your privacy. Email addresses submitted in the course of this competition will not be used for any purpose beyond running this competition.

Sorry about all that necessary stuff. You know as well as I do that the world’s gone crazy. What I would really much rather just say is “Good Luck, if you love one of these prizes, I really hope you win it”.

So, Good Luck, if you love one of these prizes, I really hope you win it!  🙂

P.S Sharing on these awesome linky parties: Cooking Up Quilts, Love Laugh Quilt, Fiber Tuesday, Freemotion by the River, 

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Would you like to keep in touch with Clever Chameleon and the fun quilty ideas I design as well as find all over the internet? You can follow directly for email updates, or through Bloglovin’, Pinterest or FB. All your follow options can be found here. And don’t forget to link up all your current quilting projects on Tuesdays at our Colour Inspiration Linky parties!

The Chameleon turns rainbow with pleasure when he hears from you. I normally respond by email instead. However, I will not be replying to give-away comments unless you have a specific comment/question about the Snow Globe Coaster tutorial instructions. Then, of course, I would love to chat.