The Coasters

For her birthday, I made my sister a set of custom-designed and
-stitched coasters. I started them in the spring and managed to finish them by October.

I found most of the stitches in books and on the internet, and I adapted them to the coaster size. I used DMC threads throughout.

The colors of the first one were inspired by an abstract painting she has in her living room:

The second one was just kind of pieced together. I wasn't happy with how it came out, but everyone else seems to like it. The little lavender bits in these two were a motif I intended to carry through all the coasters, but abandoned the idea when I started designing the rest.

The third one was almost straight from an internet design, except it wasn't big enough and I added motifs on the outside. The picture doesn't show the color (ecru) too well.

The fourth one I designed completely, and I love it. My sister has a lamp in her living room that was our parents'. It is an Indian (dot, not feather) design with a stylized elephant and polo player. I mimicked it for the coaster, then added a background that I hoped would resemble madras.

A pretty design from a book with my own color choices, including a variegated thread in the middle dark flowers. The lighter flowers are both white and very pale pink. (The photograph is overexposed in the highlights, alas.)

Another pattern from the book, this time adapted with a colonial color palette:

A third design from the book, with a sunburst that was achieved pretty well with standard DMC colors.

And my pièce de résistance, the coup de grâce, my stylized flowers and grass. Had a lot of fun with this one, and it came out even better than I imagined.