I decided I am overdue for a new kitchen mat. I still have the same one I bought from Target back in November for Christmas. It has reindeers on it and says “Happy Holidays.” Also, I live in Southwest Florida where it is 80° or above for eleven months out of the year. So yeah. I’d say I’m well overdue for a new mat.

I’ve seen bunches of people make their own with designer fabric. I’ll be honest with you, I thought they were kind of insane for putting it on dirty ground to get trampled on. Fabric does cost money, and alot of the mats I’ve seen are made with fabric I’d want to keep forever.

I have now decided to cave in and make my own. I am, however, only using scrap fabric to make it, so I feel that it is justified to make a mat that will inevitably get filthy. I’m making this very colorful mat out of 2″ squares that finish at only 1.5″. They’re really tiny! I did take a little inspiration for Anna Maria’s Patchwork Prism quilt, and pieced the mat in a similar fashion, working my way outward on the color wheel. The outer row is a little insane, but I don’t have many really dark fabrics in the purple or black families. I’m not too concerned about that knowing that withing a day or two this mat will already have stains from Olivia, Layla, and popping grease from my messy cooking.

I’m only halfway finished with the top now, but I plan on finishing the piecing tonight or tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll be able to quilt it and bind it tomorrow as well. And yes, I am most certainly machine quilting it because while it is techinically a quilt, that will not be its function, and I do not feel the need to hand quilt something that is going to be as abused as this pretty little kitchen mat. It will certainly be loved despite its seemingly low function.

That’s all I have for you tonight. I’ve got to get back to sewing and stalking Twitter for peeks of new lines at Quilt Market.

-Meredith