A big project

An advert came up on Facebook, probably as a result of my search for craft kits for kids, for this mat.  It's about 3ft by 4ft, made up of 12 decorated central blocks, and several additional edging blocks, all of which have to be lined, and then sewn onto black cloth.  Then you stitch a white line down the remaining "roads", and then the whole lot is quilted.  It was downloaded as a pdf, and all the A4 sheets are then fastened together.  In addition to the blocks already sewn, there are some other lovely ones, including one with a barn, containing animals, one with a castle and a dragon, and one with a volcano and a dinosaur. .  

I am managing to sew one block a day (just) - and that hasn't included attaching the linings.  Today's block was the playground, which was made more complicated by the fact that this block was actually meant to have an automatic car wash, but I wasn't very taken with it, so substituted the playground.  I had to make up the pattern for the slide, and make the roundabout and swing from some suggestions in the 100 page instruction document, rather than proper patterns.  And some of the blocks are more complicated than these.  So although there is nothing too terribly complicated, and it is advertised as suitable for sewing beginners, it is certainly not a quick project.  I won't be finished in time for Christmas - or not this Christmas, anyway.  It's fun to make, I hope the boys enjoy playing with it (eventually).