The Periodic Table quilt is finished! It does come together quickly since the most intense piecing is just squares and then a lot of long seams.

I used 3 1/2″ squares, so this quilt finishes at around 48″ x 66″, a decent sized lap quilt.  I had originally planned to use a gray for the background, but didn’t have enough yardage of a single gray to make that work, but the brown sets off the colors just as well. You’ll need around 2 yards of background fabric to make your own version.

The colors and square counts are on the graph paper to the left, but for those that can’t read my handwriting, you’ll need:

• 13 yellow
• 7 blue
• 7 medium green
• 11 orange
• 38 aqua
• 6 purple
• 6 pink
• 16 lime green
• 16 red

To piece the various sections, I sewed the following chunks:

• The pink column (plus one blue square) - leftmost column
• The purple column - 2nd left column
• Aqua middle chunk (with 1 lime green and 1 red square)
• Right chunk with blue, orange, medium green, and one column of yellow
• The yellow column - rightmost
• Red / green rows - bottom

Then I cut the background fabric, mostly on the lengthwise grain so the long stretches don’t have any piecing in them (I think the 6 1/2″ x 30 1/2″ piece was the only one cut WOF). Once the color “element” chunks are pieced and pressed, here’s how it goes together:

1. Aqua chunk sewed to a 6 1/2″ x 54 1/2″ piece of background fabric.
2. Attached purple column and right chunk to either side of aqua/background chunk.
3. Attach 3 1/2″ x 48 1/2″ piece of background to top of middle chunk.
4. Attach leftmost pink column and rightmost yellow column to either side of middle chunk.
5. Attach 9 1/2″x 54 1/2″ piece of background fabric to top of middle chunk.
6. Attach 3 1/2″x 54 1/2″ piece of background fabric to bottom of middle chunk.
7. Attach 6 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ piece of background fabric to left side of red/green row (make sure green is on top).  Attach 3 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ piece of background to right side of red/green row.
8. Attach red/green chunk to bottom of middle chunk.
9. Attach 9 1/2″x 54 1/2″ piece of background fabric to bottom of chunk below red/green rows.
10. Attach two pieces 6 1/2″ x 48 1/2″ of background fabric to either side, completing the quilt top.

Then you can figure out a backing -I went a little crazy and went with a rainbow theme! I quilted with one thread color in the elements, and a different color in the background.

And bonus picture of Nina. Assuming you can find her, as she is a mistress of camouflage!