A Friday Finish – LEGO Play mat

It’s finished!  The LEGO play mat is now done – and with a day or two to spare! Woohoo! Impressed? I am! I didn’t think I was going to make my deadline!



Here’s the front of the play mat. It’s 60” square with paper pieced mini figures, LEGO blocks and a big smiley LEGO face in the middle.

And the back? I didn’t have enough grey, so I had to get creative.



Paper pieced mini figure in the centre, some bright solids around the edge, finished off with some LEGO bricks. Now it’s pretty much a double sided play mat!



A big thanks to my –tall- sister who held this up for photos. If only she lived close enough to be my personal quilt-holder: it was SOOO much easier than throwing it over the fence or on the washing line!.

I did have a moment or two with this quilt where I questioned my sanity. No, not all the paper piecing, I actually quite enjoyed that. The quilting! Oh my goodness, it nearly killed me. Okay I may be exaggerating. Just a tiny bit. But the quilting did result in a desperate email to the lovely Erin pleading for help as it was just wrong. Here’s the picture she got:



Yeah. Doing a fancy back is all well and good. But if you plan to just stitch in the ditch quilt it, probably should make sure it lines up tidily so you don’t end up with this! Thank goodness Erin is much better at quilting ideas than me and suggested making some random squares – so the wonkiness looks a bit more intentional.So with the encouragement of my quilty gals, I tackled it.



Much better. I have to say, this was a big step out of the comfort zone for me – I”m not good at random. But it does look a LOT better than the original idea! So thanks quilty gals!

I used the back folded over as binding, inspired by Fiona of Finding Fifth’s neighbourhood play mat. It sure was quick and easy! It’s safe to say I’m now a happy quilter with this one done!

A few close ups, so I can enjoy that this quilt is finished!



Oh and if you want to try a LEGO mat of your own, the paper pieced patterns for these LEGO blocks are freebies over on my Pattern page.



I hope my son stays in the LEGO phase for awhile so he makes the most out of this play mat. It represents a LOT of hours of love



I’ll be giving it to Mr Nearly Five on Saturday at his party. Mainly because I’m impatient and don’t want to wait another week to give it to him. Plus – maybe the LEGO will stay on the mat now, not in every.room.of.the.house. Every room. Wish I was kidding.

Oh and just for interest's sake - here's my original drawing of what I planned for the mat.

Think it worked out rather well. Yep. Happy quilter indeed.


Linking up with TGIFF – it’s at Erin’s place this week!