A Portable Grid

In my last post I talked about how I use my white cutting mat with black lines to help lay out my applique block. If the mat you have is too dark to use this way and you don't want to buy a white one (mine is quite large), I have an alternative solution for you. It is inexpensive AND quite portable. A friend of mine who lives in England looked everywhere for a white mat and this was what we came up with.

I went to Jo-Ann's and purchased an interfacing with a 1" grid printed on it. If you order it online you have to buy a whole bolt, but in the store it is sold by the yard. The blue grid lines printed on it were not quite dark enough for the purpose I needed, so I drew over them with a fine black Pigma Micron pen. Just be sure to put some type of paper under the interfacing to absorb what bleeds through.

Here is what it looked like after I had drawn over several rows. It will give you an idea what the finished product looked like.