Fabulous Friday Finish

I accidentally deleted this post after I had scheduled it to post today, so now I am rewriting. I hope I can convey the sentiments the same in this version as in the previous. I will try. I have been very excited to share this finish with you. I wanted to make a special something for a special friend of mine. I was sitting in my chair and looked down at my lap and saw my picnic quilt. Then it hit me...a mini picnic quilt!

 Here is the original quilt that I made for a blog hop on Sew We Quilt. I made my own gingham in reds and white low, medium and high volume. It has a black and white strip binding. This is my new favorite quilt for evening relaxing with my hubby. (who are we kidding? I seldom relax)

 Here is the original quilt with the mini. The original is about 50 or so inches square. The mini is about 12-13 inches square.  I could not use all the scraps left from the original because cutting them smaller changed the value of the fabrics sometimes.

 I even found a black and white sort of stripe to use for the binding on it. This was meant to be!! They are so cute together.

 Here is the original folded up next to the mini. I still can't get over the way they look together. I took tons of pictures.

 Here is the back of the mini. I used a birds on a wire print from Sweetwater's Wishes collection I think. Definitely Sweetwater at any rate. Not much of that left in the stash.

 And here is the mini, all rolled up and ready to go on a picnic of its own. How cute is this!!

Happy Friday to you all and I hope you have a great weekend doing wonderful holiday things with your loved ones. I know I will.

Blogger's Quilt Festival Time

I love looking at all the quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival that Amy Ellis puts on twice a year. I though a lot about which quilt to show off this time. I have made many quilts this year, but the one I am in love with the most is of my own design. I made it for a blog hop last spring and I still love it so much. I keep it close to my chair, now that the fall weather has cooled things down.

 I started out with these, and then sorted them into dark, medium and low values, just by my eye's perception.

 And then I laid them all out. I have long wanted a red and white quilt, but the design always halted me. What to do? This was just what I wanted.

 I made my own gingham picnic quilt. This was a lot of 3 inch squares to sew together and keep straight.

 And to hold them all together I used a black and white stripe. The perfect frame for it all.

 I love the way the sun and trees dapple the shadows on it here.

 The backing I have had for years and this is the perfect use for it. Now it can be a beach quilt too. And it did go to the beach this summer with us.

The text print was my "white" for this project. Many of these fabrics have been in my stash for awhile. I love this quilt!
Quilt size is approximately 55 x 60 inches.

My Perfect Picnic

Okay, I took way to many pictures and it's hard to cull some out. So I am including lots here. Consider yourself warned. This is what I started with:

A picnic quilt, to me, needs to be red and white. I sorted by saturation of color and drew it out before I began. That is a first for me. Here is what I ended up with:

I wanted gingham, but I had none. So I used only fabrics from my stash. Didn't buy a thing. And I. Love. It.  I even had the perfect backing fabric in my stash:

So I used it.  And my perfect picnic quilt is also perfect for the beach, which is where it got it's first test run.

 Mr. GQ and I went to the beach to participate in a race on our anniversary weekend in mid-May.

 We took the quilt and the picnic basket, which is soooo awesome, with us. It made the perfect little table between our beach chairs and a perfect place to stash food an beverages out of the sand and sun.

 And the backing being a beach print was serendipity. I loved every minute of it and said so often.

Mr. GQ agreed with me. It was perfect.  Now, it was time for the next test, an actual picnic.  We picnic in our yard or on our deck.  That is where we set up and you will see why.

 This is my favorite planter in the deck area. I can't seem to capture the beauty with my camera, but those flowers are so blue!

                           These little guys come around often.

                                 Pretty...

                         More pretty...

                           And here is our picnic...

 We love snack style picnic meals in the summer. Cheese, sausage, wine, fresh fruits...

                          More pretty...

             Best purchase ever...thanks Madame Samm...

 So cheers! We listen to Pandora with some of our favorite music; sometimes lite jazz, sometimes Frank Sinatra and other great stuff our parents listened to...

 Relax and enjoy. You don't have to travel far to do this. And clean up is easy. We can spend the day, or the evening after a long work week.

          The black and white stripes made a perfect binding to capture all the red and white.

                            Here is the back and front together...

 And this is the view from my deck, so you can see why it is our favorite place to be. It took a long time to get it this way.

So now, I bid you adieu...go and visit all the other wonderful picnics taking place.  I must thank Mary for a wonderful job as our head cheerleader on this one, and Madame Samm, I can't thank you enough for coming up with such an exciting and fresh idea for a hop. I have loved every minute of this one and will continue to enjoy it for a lifetime, with my quilt and my picnic basket. Here are the wonderful quilters I share my day with:
Monday June 2

Sew Incredibly Crazy
How Art You?
The Reluctant Quilter at Hazelnut Deux
GrammieQ's-you are here
I Piece 2 -Mary
Pig Tales and Quilts

Time to Quilt

This is the first post I have done in a while that hasn't been linked up to someone else's post for some reason. Feels good. I have been piecing like a mad woman over here, with so many baby quilts and a few other things with deadlines. Now, It is finally time to quilt.

This is the back of my picnic quilt for the blog hop. Can't show the front yet, but this baby is quilted and ready for the binding, as soon as I figure out what that is.  I do have an idea.

 Then I began making backings for the baby quilt tops that are finished. My baby quilts tend to be about 40-42 inches, more or less square. I have lots of one yard cuts that are wide enough, but not long enough, so I started adding a piece of something else to lengthen it.

You can't tell here, but the strip of yellow is off center, as is the brown above. That makes it a bit more interesting, I think. I have one more done, but for some reason I can't get that picture to upload. I tried 3 times. So anyway, I have 3 baby quilts that will get basted and quilted over the next week or so.

 And lastly, I have begun playing with these. I tried them on some neutrals and on some black and white fabrics.

I haven't decided yet, but I am leaning toward the neutrals. We'll see. Have a great week and I will talk to you soon.