Picnic Blanket

I finally have my first finished quilt for 2012!  (Yes, the end of July seems a bit late to brag about a first finish.)

This has vintage sheets, Moda solids, DS Quilts fabrics, Canning Day from Connecting Threads, Amy Butler Full Moon Dot, and some Pezzy prints.

I've wanted to dig out some vintage fabrics and make one ever since my last picnic quilt.  For this version I used 72 ten inch squares of fabric for the top, a white thrifted sheet for the middle layer and a dark sheet from IKEA for the back.  The three layers of fabric give it a good solid weight and the sheets wash up really well in the laundry.

This quilt is for a good friend who is getting married to her sweetheart this weekend.  Those two go on more picnics than anyone else I know (two to three times more than anyone I know).  They also go to the beach pretty often and picnic blanket is the perfect place to lay out on the beach.

In the process of making the quilt, I trimmed about 4 inches of fabric from around the perimeter of the quilt.  Let's just say that there was an incident involving a basting pin and blood from my thumb which turned into a second incident of hydrogen peroxide to remove the blood making the purple dye from the backing bleed through to the front fabrics.  Grrr...

I am pleased about the purple back.  It doesn't exactly match the front, but it doesn't clash.  It seemed like a nice dark color that wouldn't look muddy right after it was used for one picnic. 

Of course, Henry thinks it belongs to him.  He tried to sit on it while Ben was trying to hold it up for pictures.  In fact, getting him to sit here and not roll around in the middle of it was quite a feat.

 
I'm really happy with the binding and ties.  I was shopping for binding with Flaun and she talked me into the Flea Market Fancy green seeds instead of a solid that was kind of "eh".  But this green was just perfect with the green stitching I was using to quilt it.

If you've never made a picnic quilt I encourage you to try it.  I like to spread mine out in the shade on a hot summer day and then enjoy the feel of the cool, smooth sheet on my skin when I need a break from the sunshine.   The three layers are perfect for soaking up some of the moisture of a wet swimsuit without getting sand everywhere, too.  We put ours out for little babies at parties, we put toys and books on it for Henry to use when we are camping, and we use it for music nights at the park downtown.  I've even used it on the couch in summer for napping under and it was great for making a table fort for Henry.  If you have any other good ideas for uses for a picnic quilt, let me know.  I can pass on suggestions this weekend to the newlyweds.