Bricks, bricks and a few mini figures for good measure

I may have mentioned before that my son is a bit obsessed with Lego. So what does a Lego obsessed child need? Why a Lego themed play mat of course! I’m just hoping it’ll encourage him to keep the pieces ON the mat, not in every room of the house (though that does keep me on my toes when vacuuming).

So I am happy to say I have made progress on the Lego play mat! All four borders are done. See Exhibit A.


I chain pieced the bricks together, and paper pieced the bricks at the ends. It does drive me a little crazy that I have made a border that is actually impossible to create in real life with Lego bricks. I can only hope it doesn’t do the same to J – because I’m really not unpicking and resewing those blocks…

Well bricks aren’t quite enough for this Lego mat. So it will be getting some cute Lego mini figures for the corners. Here are two of them. Paper pieced, of course. But no faces yet. That’s still to come.



These blocks take about two hours each to make. That’s how much I love my kid. I’m spending a ridiculous amount of time making a mat that will mostly be covered in Lego and accumulated dirt and snacks. But hey, it’s washable. And that’s why it’s grey. To hide the dirt hopefully.

Here’s a bit of a hint of how the Lego mat is going to go together. But obviously without that bare expanse of floor in the middle and that line of bricks in the centre is actually the border for the bottom of the mat. I was in a hurry to take these photos while the kids were outside. So far they have not yet twigged it’s a play mat though they have seen it in various stages of sewing.



It’s going to be a big mat. 60” square – without borders. I’m debating adding solid borders if I need extra room. Still deciding on that. The centre of the mat is going to be fairly plain – grey solid-  to make it easier for Mr J to find his Lego pieces. He has Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) and that can sometimes make it difficult for him to find things if the background is too busy. I am hoping too that I can use the Lego borders of the mat to show the boundaries of where his Lego needs to be contained. Yeah, wish me luck on that.

So that’s my big WiP at the moment to link up with WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. I haven’t added any more Diamond Stars to the collection, that project doesn’t have an expiry date. Whereas this one does. 23 days. That’s if J has counted down correctly to his birthday.



Speaking of Mr J, prior to the Lego obsession, he had a fire truck obsession. It comes in second now, though he does love fire-themed Lego. I designed a little fire truck block for him, and have since turned it into a tote bag which he loves (yay for kids loving what mummy makes).

Anyways the reason I’m mentioning it again is that Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts has just tested the block for me. This is her fabulous version:


Now that I know it pieces okay for someone other than me – I have listed it for sale in my Craftsy shop.


So are you loving paper piecing yet? Keen to try it? Need some guidelines? Well - there's a great giveaway happening over at Where Jane Creates. Carol Doak, the Queen of paper piecing herself has offered one of her books for a giveaway prize for the Practically Paper Piecing Blog Hop! All you need to do is pop over to Jane's fab blog, admire her amazing paper piecing, follow her blog (you won't regret that - she's an amazing quilter) and leave a comment for the giveaway! Too easy right?!




And for the curious: here’s this week’s schedule of the blog hop. Hope you’re enjoying it and finding some great inspiration along the way! Time’s ticking though folks, not long til it’ll be your turn to link up your projects (and have a chance at winning a prize! Yay prizes!!). You can read more about that here.

13th Taryn from Pixels To Patchwork
14th Jane from Where Jane Creates + a giveaway
15th Laura from Quokka Quilts
16th Emily from Emily the Enabler
17th McKenna from Textile Diva
18th Sat Lauren from Renrad Craft Studio