Picnic Quilt

Subject: Picnic Quilt

Quiltmaker: Emily

Stylist: Sophie

So here's the finished quilt I was telling you about. You've seen it before, here and here. (Yes, Kay, you told me that I was making a nine-patch and I didn't believe you! I forgot! Forgive me.)

The original plan was to make a king-sized quilt for our bed. But as I started laying out the several dozen/hundred-ish blocks that I needed for the king-size quilt, I realized that it wasn't turning out as I had envisioned. My color scheme was that it would be red, white, blue, and pink (very Cath Kidston) but heavier on the pastel range, with just a few more lively, brighter reds and blues for spark.

I realized that I had been making an equal amount of pastelish blocks and bright blocks and that it was going to be way brighter than I imagined. Don't get me wrong, I love the brighter range too, but it just wasn't what I envisioned for the bed quilt. However, it would be beautiful for a little picnic quilt. (I keep calling it a "picnic" quilt--it is about 65" square. I guess some people would call it a "throw". But it doesn't belong on the back of our sofa--it belongs at the park, the back of the car, the floor of the girls' room.)

So I pulled out a lot of the brighter blocks and a few of the pastel blocks, and sewed up this throw-sized top. There are still several dozen of the pastel blocks that are waiting in the basket to see some action, so the king-sized bed quilt is still on my list.

Sophie was delighted to help me stylize the photo shoot. She could play tea party all day.

Me, I like to play "what is your favorite square?"

Hi Mom! Whatcha Doin in Here?!

Hi guys! It's been way too long! The last month of school really flew by and now we're speeding through summer.

We've been gone a lot of the summer so far, which is usual for us, but there is one lesson I learned last summer that I have applied to this one. I got really cranky last year when my sewing machine gathered dust all summer and my sewing table got piled high with Other People's Stuff. I have made it a priority to keep the studio tidy so that when I do get a few minutes here and there, I am ready to sew.

The result? Quilts! I've got a picnic quilt finished, an art quilt top completed, another bed quilt in-process of quilting, and here's one that I started laying out on the floor yesterday when I woke up at 6:15am and couldn't get back to sleep.

I started with all 6 colorways of Kaffe Fassett "Bekah" (maybe my all-time favorite print), one yard each. That's what you see in the front row. Then I added some other splashy florals from my stash. I cut 8" squares of everything I had. That's over 200 squares, which will be enough for 2 twin quilts with some left over (picnic quilt?)

Each of the girls picked out their favorites, so I will make 2 quilts with mostly the same fabrics, but Molly's will be heavy on the light blue and Sophie's heavy on the hot pink. They share a room, so their quilts will co-ordinate, but be unique.

Just to be clear, all this cutting and choosing was done before my 6:15am quilt-fest, so all I had to do was move a little furniture out of the way and start playing with my squares.

Trying to decide whether I like the random arrangement (above) or the light/dark checkerboard arrangement (below). What do you think?

Then I got a visitor.

"Hi Mom! Don't let me interrupt what you're doing. I'll just make myself comfortable."

Well, that's all for now, since I've figured out how to blog again, I should be back soon! xo