I’ve been working on this new quilt for the past ten days. I started with sixteen grey batik 10″ squares and eighteen assorted beige/blue/grey 10″ squares – in effect a “layer cake.” I’d had the fabric in my stash for over a year not sure what to make with it. I didn’t have enough of the grey squares to do a whole quilt top so I added some Zen Chic (Fragile, Chalk Stamped) yardage which I also had in my collection. I decided to do an outer “border” with the white, doing the centre of the quilt using the grey batik.
I cut each 10″ square in four and constructed a total of 96 half square triangles, making sure I had enough blocks using the white to build the perimeter of the quilt top. Next I carefully laid out my HST and began sewing them together. Each block has four HSTs separated with a sashing constructed from 4 1/2″ rectangle “snowball” blocks – turns out I had a jelly roll using many of the same fabrics as the mixed batik 10″ squares I began with. I pulled out 12 strips to use for the sashing. To complete the snowballs I needed 384 one and a half inch white squares to add to the four corners of each rectangle.
Assembling The Elements
So far, I’ve assembled half of the inner panel of the quilt top – you can now see the white perimeter taking form and the grey batik interior squares are emerging.
Quilt Top – half pieced
I have two more columns of blocks to construct to add to this half panel. Then I will border the panel with more of the white patterned fabric. I have enough backing fabric that I should be able to add a narrow border of that fabric as well.
In the meantime it’s back to the snowballs – I have 48 more to construct. Once the snowballs are done the remainder of the top construction will go quickly.
jmn 
Thank you. I’m also in Canada and sometimes just decide that shipping is the tax I pay to live here instead of there.
I have smaller mats of similar material and I know what you mean about cleaning them. Lee Valley has a giant eraser thingy that wood workers use to clean the sanding paper on belt sanders. It works well on cutting mats too.
I appreciate your posts about your quilts, both pieced and pictorial. I had never pieced a back until I discovered your posts. Makes complete sense as well as adding another dimension.
Now if I could just knit as fast. The thought of finishing a pair of socks in under two weeks is laughable.
Teri
I don’t knit so fast, I just knit 20-30 rows at night in front of the TV (occasionally a bit more).
I’ll have to look into the Lee Valley “thingy”
Stunning work. The low contrast coloured fabric with the bright white is eye catching and soothing at the same time.
I’m lusting after your big green cutting mat. Do you have a source for such a lovely big one? I haven’t seen one like it before.
Teri
Teri, I ordered the mat from Speedpress: http://www.speedpress.com/products/2/2
It’s the 3’X6′ self-healing cutting mat. The cost of shipping was high because for me it was an international purchase but I couldn’t get anything like it locally. I need to be careful to use a sharp rotary cutting blade, otherwise the cuts may not “heal”. Also, batting can leave fibres in the cut which have to be cleaned – I have found a knit pot “scrubby” works well for tha