When you have two toddler daughters, a large picnic quilt is a must have! My daughter had a couple of smaller quilts already but requested a larger picnic quilt for their many outings. I actually made this quilt for them last summer before I started blogging. I didn’t have many photos but now that we share a home I borrowed it and took some long overdue photos of it.
This quilt started with a center panel called an “Instant Bargello” that I made in a quilt workshop. But it was SOOOO boring! I decided to add some applique beach theme items to brighten it up.
I had accumulated quite a few surf themed fabrics in my stash and wanted to incorporate them into this quilt. Ashley from Film in the Fridge had a great tutorial that I thought was perfect for these prints. You can find it here. However, after making enough blocks to go around the center panel, I decided I needed to do some larger blocks or it would take me forever to make this quilt large enough for the family.
I cut large rectangle and square blocks and used the same tan sashing to create another border around the center portion. The size of the rectangles were modified to make the border fit. I added one more plain border and then bound it with one of the blue hawaiian prints used in the quilt.
I had quite a bit of yardage of one of the surf fabrics so that became the backing with a strip of the other fabrics for interest.
You can see that it is the perfect picnic size for the family - photo from Halloween in San Diego.
Now that they have moved to Santa Barbara, the quilt gets a workout several times a week at the park or at the beach.
Thanks for checking in to see my surf picnic quilt. I’m linking to QuiltStory today.
Irelle
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