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Gooseberry Picnic Quilt



In the beginning of this summer, I decided that I wanted to enjoy lots of family picnics this summer.  My girls love eating outside and sitting on top of a blanket on the ground has even more appeal to them then eating at a picnic table.  In the past we grabbed whatever crocheted blanket was around and took it with us.  But, I decided that a dedicated picnic blanket would be better for us.  And also I think it would make for special memories and nostalgia to use the same blanket every time we picnicked.  

We have 6 people in our family- my husband and I and our 4 kids.  So, I new this needed to be somewhat big so that we could all comfortably sit and enjoy a meal.  

I settled on Gooseberry by Lella Boutique for the fabric.  This fabric reminded me of my childhood and I think it is so, so beautiful. 

I thought over patterns for a while and ended up using this one.  The tutorial by Missouri Star Quilt Company was awesome to follow and I loved how April used layer cakes instead of charm squares.  


It came together quickly, which was great since I wanted to use this right away.


I decided to make it 3 large broken dishes blocks by 3.  The finished size was 76" x 76".

I love how the top turned out.  It is so bright and pretty.  Here is my husband trying to hold it up for a picture :) pretty good try on his part.


Then I sent it to Quilting by David for quilting.  This was the first time I ever sent a quilt out for quilting and I was really excited about it.  Well, David did not disappoint.  I chose the Orange Peel quilting design.  David posted this progress picture-


I was so excited to see it and couldn't wait to get it back!


I settled on the pink and red polka dot binding and got to it as soon as it came back.  This was also the first time I hand bound a quilt.  In th past, I usually did machine binding but I was really excited to try something new.  I watched this tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Company and felt pretty confident to start working on the binding right away.  I do enjoy hand sewing so I really enjoyed hand binding and I think I'll bind my quilts like this from now on. 

As soon as I put the last stitch in the binding, my sewing buddy got really cozy and took a nap :)


Here is how it looks all finished.


I love it so much!  I can see many happy family picnics on it in our future :)   I have made a bunch of things to go with this picnic quilt and I can't wait to share those projects with you soon!  







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