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4th of July Picnic Quilt Finished

Last Sunday, I posted that I was closing in on finishing the 4th of July picnic quilt that I started last summer.   A large part of Sunday afternoon was spent sitting out in the screened in porch enjoying the beautiful weather and hand stitching the binding to the back of the quilt.   Once I lost the light, I moved inside to continue stitching while watching a couple of Agatha Christie Mystery DVDs.

Monday I embroidered a label for it and then as you know I got distracted making a couple of adorable little turtles.

The quilt was put through the wash twice on Wednesday.  And may I just say, thank goodness for Color Catchers; otherwise instead of a red, white and blue quilt, I may have ended up with a red, pink and blue quilt.

Colour Catchers from 4th of July Quilt
It should be noted that while the fabric for the front was not pre-washed, the backing fabric had been washed twice before using it.

Those six on the left are from the first wash that we went to the Laundromat to do as I thought a larger front loading washer might be better for its first wash.  But we must have gotten a washer where the previous user had overfilled the detergent section because even after two rinse cycles the water was still sudsy.

I decided to bring the quilt back to the apartment and put it through a full wash cycle but with no soap… essentially giving it two more rinse cycles.  When I did that I also changed out the Color Catchers (the middle four.)

Since that second batch of Color Catchers still came out quite pink, I decided a second wash with detergent and four more Color Catchers were called for.

As you can see, the last four on the right are still a bit pink.   But I decided two washes would do for now and into the dryer it went.

Yesterday morning I sewed on the label and Dave and I headed off to the beach for a photo shoot.

4th of July Picnic Quilt Front

4th of July Picnic Quilt Backing and Label

Quilt Stats:

Started July 2012, Finished March 2013

Size: 57.5″ X 68.5″

The pattern was a free pattern called the Potato Chip Quilt (because you can’t make just one) from Mammaw’s Thimble in Knoxville, TN.

The quilting is just simple straight line quilting to frame the blocks.

On other blogs, I often see finished quilts draped artfully over things, so we took a couple of those photos too.

4th of July Picnic Quilt Draped Over Railing
4th of July Picnic Quilt Draped Over Railing

 

4th of July Picnic Quilt on a piece of driftwood
That piece of driftwood looked like the perfect headrest with the quilt to cushion your neck.

With the 4th of July picnic quilt finished and the hexie flowers used to make Lexie the Hexie Turtle and her BFF, I only have one more sewing project that was started in 2012 to complete… these embellished bird panels.  I’m hoping to work on turning those into something this weekend with breaks for making more hexies to make more hexie flowers to make more turtles!

Wishing everyone a heart-centered weekend with much Aloha!!

 

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15 Comments

  • Richard Healey
    April 6, 2013 1:05 am

    Thank you for linking up in March to Richard and Tanya Quilts on our Link a Finish Friday. We will have a new linkup available every Friday. So stop by and share what you have been working on and check out what others are doing.

  • Taryn
    April 2, 2013 7:44 pm

    Beautiful quilt! You can never go wrong with red, white and blue! 😀 And I have to say, Color Catchers are the best! They have saved me from many disasters!

    Thanks for linking up to Let’s Get Acquainted this week!

  • Annabella
    April 1, 2013 5:46 am

    The photo shoot is perfect for your beautiful finish – I love the quilt and perfect for July 4! Visiting from Let’s Get Acquainted 🙂

  • Sara
    March 31, 2013 3:10 pm

    That is some serious red dye! I haven’t had that much come out of fabric ever. I love your deep reds in the quilt though:):)

    Happy Easter!

  • Heather P
    March 31, 2013 12:50 pm

    What a wonderful picnic quilt! I love it!

  • Ida
    March 29, 2013 5:19 pm

    Very perfect for 4th of July….your colors are vibrant even with the loss of some of the red!

  • Michelle
    March 29, 2013 4:02 pm

    Glad you remembered the color catchers!

  • Maja
    March 29, 2013 3:05 pm

    So nice!
    It´s a great quilt you made!

  • Joan Old
    March 29, 2013 1:14 pm

    Lovely quilt, and great arty photography.

  • Sylvia
    March 29, 2013 1:58 pm

    Wonderful picnic quilt!

  • Foster
    March 29, 2013 12:50 pm

    Beautiful, simple quilt. Love the photos on the beach.

  • linda
    March 29, 2013 12:01 pm

    Lovely Quilt ,beautifully draped …………gorgeous !!

  • Kathie
    March 29, 2013 12:52 pm

    Congratulations on reducing your pile of UFO’s! Beautiful quilt! Also love those Color Catcher’s!

  • wendy
    March 29, 2013 12:22 pm

    it’s just beautiful, much better red, white and blue than red, pink and blue!

  • Vickie Horsfall
    March 29, 2013 12:18 pm

    Very nice! I know it feels good to finish a project! Enjoy!

Comments are closed.