At the start of this month I joined the Easiest Sew Along Ever and decided I was going to make a picnic quilt for my two little boys. You can see my original post on the topic here and a work in process post here.

Today dawned unusually bright, sunny and warm and saw some speedy slip stitching of the binding from me as I aimed to get the quilt finished off in time for lunch and what could be the last chance to picnic for days if not weeks to come. Somehow in between the usual Monday morning chores and a morning trip to the pool with the boys I managed to get it done. The Bug picnic Quilt was ready to be christened.

The quilt itself has finished up at a nice 57″ square. It is backed in a layer of microfleece. Following the Sew Along guideline “use what you have” I opted to use a microfleece blanket I had bought in Ikea some time ago. Of course it turned out that it wasn’t wide enough for the task at hand so I dug out a second one and spliced a strip of that into the original blanket using a joining stitch to give me flat seams and avoid excess bulk.

When it came to the quilting I stuck to straight lines roughly 3/8″ either side of each of the major seams. I used some of my King Tutu threads for the quilting – Thebes (tone-on-tone teals) for the top and Limestone (tone-on-tone lime greens) for the back. I must admit I would not normally use these threads for my quilt back but this time I chose to because I like how it distributes the colour of the inserted fleece strip throughout the quilt back and also because it was the only matching thread I had sufficient of to sew this quilt (there’s the “use what you have” guideline coming into play again).

I choose a scrappy binding, using leftovers from all of the non-solid fabrics that I had used in the quilt. I used my standard doublefold binding, machine stitched to the front then slip stitched to the back of the quilt as I really love the finish this gives. In a second break from my normal practice I opted to join my fabric strips for the binding with straight seams rather than diagonal ones purely because I felt the straight lines would better mirror those throughout the quilt.

There is so much I love about this quilt. I love the colours, so bright and cheery.

I love how the appliquéd creatures turned out. The addition of the eyes and the straight stitch detailing really brings them to life for me.

I love the central woven panel. I have used this method in the past to create table runners and table mats so I find it fitting to have it in the centre of the picnic quilt, almost like a table mat on which to serve up a picnic.

I love the symmetry and the simplicity; the nine patch within a nine patch.

I love that in less than a month I have gone from chosing fabrics, to creating a design and then have followed right through to a finished quilt.

But most of all I love how much my boys already love this quilt and I love the thought of all those fun picnics that will be enjoyed in the summer months ahead.

This Sew Along, my first, has been a really wonderful experience for me and I have enjoyed every moment of it. Now that you’ve seen my work, why not swing by the Sew Along Flickr page and check out the wonderful work of all of the other very talented participants.

4 thoughts on “Time to picnic

  1. Wow – it looks amazing! I love the eyes too 🙂 what a great excuse to have a picnic at every opportunity!

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