The Cart Before the Horse OR The Boo Before the QAL

So I am planning to do this Super Mario Bros QAL through Angela's Cut to Pieces.
 
Combine this with the RWB Blog Hop (see my post here...psst...there's a giveaway)

Where I meet this crazy cool quilter, Karen of The Recipe Bunny,  who's made her own Mario quilt and patterns...a bit of bartering later...and voila...I am making Karen's "Boo" pattern which I believe is my son's fave character.

 This is all 324 - 1 1/2" squares laid out over my new 30 x30 ironing board (see post below).  It is on top of Pellon P44F stabilizer and a muslin grid.  This technique is from Elizabeth Hartman's great Stamp Collection block tut here.

 This is a pic of the back after sewing the vertical seams, cutting those seams, and pressing them open.

 This is a pic after sewing the horizontal seams and having cut 3/4 of them open and running out of steam last night, lol!

This is Boo in "time-out",  I think I have had enough iron time for today but he probably could use a bit more pressing into submission before I trim him square and call him done ;)

Now, I am still interested to see how the methods differ in the QAL from what I did with this one...it is a bit pot-holder-esque with the stabilizer and Angela is using a wash-away.  Karen is too cool for us both and just sewed all those itty bitty squares together without stabilizer...may we all bow before her!  ;)

Thanks so much Karen for letting me use your awesome pattern!!  Be sure to visit her blog as she is rapidly putting the finishing touches on her quilt and the sneaky peeks look amazing :)