Quilt-pattern CUTTING BOARD

This might be the prettiest kitchen helper you ever use

- Vaughn McMillan

A quilter friend recently requested a cutting board featuring a quilt pattern design. As if the challenge of incorporating a fabric-based pattern into wood wasn’t enough, I wanted to make this project an end grain cutting board. With an end-grain surface, the knife spreads the wood fibers apart rather than slicing across them, preserving both the cutting surface and the knife’s edge. The design I developed requires precise cuts to accomplish tight joinery and a crisp pattern, but the technique offers near-infinite possibilities depending on wood choices and geometric layout. Laminated sandwiches of contrasting woods and corner blocks border a core pattern. The border stock should also be oriented end grain up like the rest of the blocks, so the parts move in unison throughout the seasons. You’ll need wide boards to accomplish this, or if your jointer isn’t wide enough, edge-join two narrower boards to make up the width. Just keep the seam centered. I don’t recommend edge gluing to create the blocks that make the core, as glue seams would distract from the geometric pattern. This project is perfect for the quilter in your life or anyone who appreciates attractive kitchenware.

A complex configuration from several simple parts

The design incorporates maple, walnut, cherry, padauk, and purpleheart, but any tight-grained, contrasting hardwoods will work. To create the pattern, cut individual triangular and square strips 36 long. Crosscut these strips to 18 and glue them into two logs that are crosscut into the two sets of repeating 4-long blocks. Also, a single 4-long log serves as the center block. Glue the nine blocks together to form the core pattern. Next, glue together the three outer layers to form the