When I shared my quilt plans for 2025 I said a quilt that wasn’t supposed to be there had crept onto my list, and it was these scraps in a random scrap box from Helen Steele that made their case very well!
When I ordered the scrap box I wasn’t sure what would arrive, or how much - I knew the weight of the pack but in real terms I was unsure of how much fabric that actually was. When it arrived I fell in love with the bright colours and quickly made a plan for using them, working out that if I cut them into 3 inch squares I’d make the most of what I had.
It wasn’t until June though that an idea started to form, and along with the gold specked charcoal Essex Linen that I’d ummed and ahhed about I started to lay out the crosses, or kisses as I prefer to call them.
Liking what I saw I started to sew my blocks, which are inspired by Quilty Love’s Plus Squared quilt, and I needed to do this while the design was fresh, or else who knows what I’d have sewn to what!
It wasn’t long before I had a series of blocks made from nine smaller squares, and that’s when I got a real idea of the size of the quilt - and it was smaller than I’d imagined.
But I knew with some sashing and borders I could extend that, a bit - but I didn’t want to lose too much colour, so I decided to break up the sashing between the blocks with a pop of colour, and it’s amazing how much difference this made even though I was still only visualising this part in my head.
By September, and with a narrow colour wash border which echoes the colours of the kisses closest to the edge now also added, the quilt top was completed.
And that’s how it stayed for a good few months. Having got it this far, and already falling in love with it the truth is, I didn’t want to mess it up. I knew that I wanted to straight line quilt this, but I wanted to practice my straight lines - in fact it wasn’t until January this year when I practiced using the adjustable guide on my Dresden Buttercup charity quilt, that I felt it was time to finish my picnic rug.
In the interim I’d deliberated about the colour of the backing, I’d bought some plain ochre cotton but that didn’t work even though I loved the colour. Feeling that it needed a brighter colour on the back I ordered some orange and apple green cotton, again I loved them both but chose to use the green, and for nothing more that it perfectly matched the greens on the top of the quilt, and also because I was hoping that any grass stains would show less! Well, you’ve got to be practical haven’t you?
Now when’s the picnic?
Using the guide, and having practiced using it, meant my quilting lines were straighter than they’ve ever been. I used a variegated Aurifil thread called Spring Prairie which matched perfectly, although at some points so much so that I couldn’t quite see where I’d sewn, but now that it’s done it was definitely the right way to go.
The metallic gold binding is from Frumble Fabrics and as soon as I saw it I knew it would be the perfect match and the perfect way to finish this quilt which will be our picnic rug.
I can’t wait for the weather to improve and give this its picnic debut!
