Jazz up your idea of a picnic blanket and make it interactive for you, your family, or your friends! Choose games you like and create the 'board' on the blanket. Then create some playing chips or use ones you have from the real game. This is a simple idea to make any outing, picnic, or parade watching fun! Oh, and another plus to this blanket... no soggy bottoms with a vinyl base! ;)

Lets get started! Here is what you will need in any sizes you want, I have given the measurements I used...
(Measurements include my game boards of: Checkers, tic tac toe, and the peg game, create your own measurements for other games) (The only fabric I bought was the edging(brown/yellow) and top(green) fabric, the rest I used scraps and leftovers of what I already had)

1 vinyl table cloth (I cut a 50"x50" piece from a larger rectangular one I already had)
1 thick/soft canvas type fabric for game board top. (also 50"x50")
4 side pieces that will join top and bottom pieces (10.5"x50")
4 corner pieces (5.5"x11")
1 checkerboard background (16"x16")
32 pieces for each checker square (2"x2") (add bonding to whole piece of 16"x8" before you cut)
8 tic tac toe strips (1"x13") (Add bonding to whole piece of 8"x13" before you cut)
2 equilateral triangles (17"x17"x17")
30 pieces for the peg game, 15 in each game (1"x1") (keep it in a 15"x2" piece to easily add bonding)

Add Heat and bond lite to the bolded items

Step 1: Cut Fabric and Add Bonding

With the measurments from the previous step cut all of your fabric, leaving game piece fabric whole to add heat and bond with iron. Cut up your heat and bonded game pieces and apply them to the correct surfaces.

Iron:
*checker board- 16"x16" fabric gets the 2"x2" squares
*triangle peg game gets the 1"x1" squares
*tic tac toe game goes directly on top surface of blanket (I waited until I had the first 2 items sewn and laid everything out before I bonded these)

Step 2: Begin Sewing Pieces Together

Sew your fabric game boards in place. I used a zig zag stitch to cover all my edges and provide for a stronger finish. I used a piece of computer paper to back the checker board as I began to sew so my thinner fabric wouldn't bunch up in the stitching. Sew on your game boards onto your top fabric in any order you want, I found the center of my fabric square and zig zagged the checker board on first then placed my other pieces symmetrically.

Step 3: Add Edging and Corners

At this point I switched to my serger for adding all the edges and creating a strong seem. I first sewed on my longer brown pieces, then added the yellow corners and then sttiched the yellow corners together and began adding the vinyl table cloth backing. Sew 3.5 sides, I chose to get all my corners done and serge a little bit in from each of the remaining open side corners. Then turned it inside out. Be careful if you have a thin vinyl tablecloth, mine was thin and when I was going to turn it inside out it created little tears in the side I didn't finish, nothing major, just something to watch out for. Hand stitch the rest closed. And you may also have to do a straight stitch around the edging to hold it all together, both top and bottom.