Family Picnic Quilt

Family Picnic, 2009

Here is our family picnic blanket that I made in 2009. This is the first quilt I designed and made utilizing my Electric Quilt software.  I made this quilt in about a week (start to finish).  It is entirely machine pieced and quilted.  This quilt is made up of 5 1/2" squares and measures approximately 80" square.  I wanted to make a blanket large enough for my 6'2" husband.  I found that most pre-made picnic blankets are far too small for my liking.  I mean really, what good is a picnic blanket if the whole family can't fit on it at the same time?

When I made this quilt, I was very motivated to make something quick, easy, and durable.  I knew this would get a lot of love (read "wear and tear"), so I didn't want anything fancy or fussy that I would worry about "ruining."  So far, this quilt has been puked on, drooled on, pooped on (by children and wildlife), spilled on, and otherwise abused.  It's holding up pretty well so far.  It HAS faded a bit, but that's to be expected since I have it in the sun almost every time we use it.  Most of the time, I keep this quilt in my car.  It comes in handy for the spontaneous outing and also can be used in winter if we should happen to become "stuck" somewhere when it's cold out.

Here is a close-up of the center square of the quilt.  The writing was supposed to be on the inside part of the flap, but I made a mistake and it ended up being on the top outside part of the flap instead!

The center square opens to reveal this hole, which I designed for a beach umbrella pole!  Honestly, I don't know why anyone else hasn't thought of this yet.

And here's a picture of my daughter in July of that year.  She found the hole and the umbrella pole quite interesting!

And my husband with the children enjoying a picnic at the park on our new family picnic blanket!