16-Patch Picnic Quilt
I don’t know why I started thinking of this quilt as a “picnic” quilt–the landscape here rarely includes any sort of green lawn on which to spread out a quilt and enjoy a meal … but if I ever find myself living in such a place again, I’ll be ready. Coincidentally, this is my back “yard” and the view from the studio space in my house.
Like the scrappy 16-patch blocks we made for the Block Lotto in 2008, my blocks weren’t completely without rules. Our lotto blocks were scrappy with 3 black squares. My checker-board style 16-patch blocks were scrappy with ONE tan square in each. Here are the lotto blocks I made way back when and a detail photo showing one block from the picnic quilt.
Why tan? The plan was that these blocks would be used as a border for the scrappy flying geese quilt. I remembered too late that that my original idea was NOT to include the cream … but to create more color-saturated 16-patch blocks, similar to the lotto blocks, using tan instead of black to tie them together.
My bad memory created an opportunity for a new quilt and an easy scrap/stash-reduction project. My blocks are also larger than the 2008 lotto blocks–made from 3 1/2-inch squares for 12 inch blocks. 25 blocks plus a border of 3-inch half-square triangles make a 66 inches square quilt.
The quilting design was pretty simple–non of it marked:
- Diagonal lines through the non-cream squares using a walking foot.
- A loopy flower shape with a spiral center, 5-to-7 petals and echo quilting to fill the 200 cream squares
- A pointy leaf shape with echo quilting to fill cream triangles in the border.
Even though it would be pretty silly to spread a quilt out around here … I was going to take some artistic license and do it anyway … but it was just too windy. But, with this quilt finished, I’m ready for a picnic … one of these days.
Have lived most of my life in semi-arid areas and our quilt is to cover the picnic table at what ever place we are at, whether it’s roadside rest or park. You’re all set for those times.