You may remember that at the start of the year, Mia and I were making Snail blocks. One block every Sunday. The original plan was 42 weeks and 42 snails as part of a quilt along with @gnomeangel. Well half way through, the plan changed and the quilt along was shortened to end in July. Which was perfect: I had a brainwave. How about I finish all 42 blocks by July and turn them into a picnic blanket for our holiday?
So that's what I did. Scattered through the post are some of our favourite snails.
Mia picked the feature fabric for most of the snails. I snuck in a few of my favourite fabrics. My niece, Ellie-Jo picked a few when she was visiting on a Sunday, and even Jess picked a couple.
The block was designed by Pen and Paper Patterns and is all rotary cut. I framed each of my blocks and alternated a black or a white background to give me a chequerboard finish to the quilt.
My next brainwave was to use a shower curtain as the backing to make it slightly more water-resistant as a picnic blanket. I found a fabulous one on Amazon!
When it came to layering up the quilt, I have to confess that the shower curtain scared me a bit. It was very slippy, but enough spray baste will hold anything.
Then came the quilting part. I just planned to very slowly use my walking foot and and quilt a quarter inch each side of the block seams. And you know what - it quilted up beautifully. Not a single issue with tension or skipped stitches. It didn't slip or pucker! I bound it in black and the finished quilt is 45x59"ish.
And you know what - we haven't actually used it yet.... :(
This was on my original Finish Along list, which you can find here.
So that's what I did. Scattered through the post are some of our favourite snails.
Mia picked the feature fabric for most of the snails. I snuck in a few of my favourite fabrics. My niece, Ellie-Jo picked a few when she was visiting on a Sunday, and even Jess picked a couple.
The block was designed by Pen and Paper Patterns and is all rotary cut. I framed each of my blocks and alternated a black or a white background to give me a chequerboard finish to the quilt.
My next brainwave was to use a shower curtain as the backing to make it slightly more water-resistant as a picnic blanket. I found a fabulous one on Amazon!
When it came to layering up the quilt, I have to confess that the shower curtain scared me a bit. It was very slippy, but enough spray baste will hold anything.
Then came the quilting part. I just planned to very slowly use my walking foot and and quilt a quarter inch each side of the block seams. And you know what - it quilted up beautifully. Not a single issue with tension or skipped stitches. It didn't slip or pucker! I bound it in black and the finished quilt is 45x59"ish.
And you know what - we haven't actually used it yet.... :(
This was on my original Finish Along list, which you can find here.
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