Thursday, June 10, 2010

Low Fat Picnic Quilt

picnic quilt in progress 1
Way way back in August of 2009, I bought myself a couple of Anna Maria Horner's Fabric Stack Palette Piles. Instantly, I knew I couldn't bring myself to cut up those lovely fat quarters. So, I spent an afternoon piecing fat quarters together building a sweet and colorful facing for a new family quilt. You might remember the couple of photos I posted on Flickr here and here. I took that nicely ironed facing and tucked it away in my yarn stash suitcase where it sat through the start of the school year, the 2009 Fine Craft Show prep, the holidays, a blustery winter that saw the release of my book (Totally Twisted, of course!), my first experience teaching nationally, and one of the warmest springs on record. This week, prompted by the word "Picnic" from the Creativity Boot Camp, I finally pulled that facing back out to finish it up. The plan in mind being it will be our family picnic quilt.

picnic quilt in progress 2
Monday morning I was feeling different about cutting the fat quarters. Time didn't make my heart grow fonder, LOL... I still love love love every pattern, but I was okay with cutting them this time around. I took each one, and this time, cut it in half. LOL... now it is a "low fat", half a fat quarter, get it? Hee, hee, I kill me. Anywho, I laid them all out and sewed them up. I was giddy about how they were all coming together. When I squint at this picture, I see orange, yellow, and seafoam green. Doesn't that combo sound delish?

picnic quilt 1
picnic quilt 2
picnic quilt 3
Yesterday was a rainy cold nasty day, and I am fighting this nasty head cold, so I didn't have a whole lot of energy to "work". But, I didn't mind sitting at my sewing machine and stitching a few straight lines. Now, this beautiful diddy will be folded up and tucked in the back of my van ready to serve as the best-ever-color-butt-kicking-coolest family picnic blanket. I am looking forward to spotting it in the background of photos from trips to the park, sitting on the sidelines at the kids' sports, and finding warmth under it when outside adventures get a little chilly.

Do you and yours have a favorite family picnic quilt/blanket? Maybe you ought to make one...

11 comments:

Courtney Breul said...

Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful. Thinking I may have to unearth some of my cut fabric.....

mairedodd said...

this is beautiful... i think you are right!
feel better...

Unknown said...

Wonderful idea it came out great! I made a picnic quilt yrs ago it was made of all different denims and some of them had the pockets and all. This will have all your warm fuzzy memories! Cold? Wish it were cold here *once in a while!

Kristen said...

Wow, Beautiful!! I love it, it's so unique and will be so nice to have in the background of so many family events to come! Great idea! :)

AliBaubles said...

Gorgeous! Loving the colours. It really is the nicest picnic blanket I've ever seen :)
I wish I could sew *sigh*

Brandi Hussey said...

Oh, that's fantastic! I love the colors, I love the low fat rectangles. It's beautiful!

Regina said...

What a great project for a rainy day. It is beautiful. Wishing you and your family wonderful times on this beautiful blanket.

Anonymous said...

I'm totally LOVIN this quilt, beautiful!!! I found you on Kelly Rae's class list, The class is great isn't it.

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful picnic blanket. I wish I knew how to sew!!!

Cindy said...

I like the low fat quarters better, too. Lovely fabrics.

Mel C said...

That's a gorgeous quilt. I have a lot of big prints I've been hanging onto that I ought to do something like that with!

(Most quilters would call those "fat eighths" but I like your way better.)