Ready for a Picnic!

For Christmas last year I made my brother's family a big denim picnic blanket. It turned out way cute (sorry no pics) and I decided that I wanted one for my family too. I just hadn't gotten around to making it yet..

I found the old jeans I had been saving for this project and got motivated to put it together!

Here are the beginnings... jeans and squares. I ended up making the squares smaller because I liked that look better.

Then the scraps - which also turned into more squares. I really like adding pockets to the quilt. It makes it so much more fun for the kids something to play with :).

When I made the first one I had the raw edges on the top so they would fray. Jeff didn't care for that look so I turned the edges under, but sitting on bunches of frayed edges didn't sound fun. I was talking to a friend (thanks Shannon) who suggested I zigzag stitch over the seems to help them lay flat. here is the zigzag stitch on the bottom of the quilt. I then trimmed down the excess so it would only have a little room to fray. It worked pretty well in the end.


Part of the fun of making this type of quilt is making it personal! I just loved adding our initials to the blanket... to make it our family picnic blanket!


Here is the finished product. It was wider than my rug, but not quite as long. We'll see how well we all fit on it :). This was before the fraying (sorry no photos of that). I'm happy with it and am excited to use it!

I know this next part isn't for a picnic, but I've been putting this project off for too long and got it all done yesterday!

I made a bag for my friend a few months back and her daughter loved the bag so much that she asked me to make her one... well, ya, it's been a while in the making. She even made me a cute necklace for payment - so now I just feel guilty when I wear it, because I hadn't made the bag yet.

So here it is!!! No more guilt!

It's a baby mini-bow bag. Mine is the large navy one and hers is so cute and little next to it.


I even stitched her initial onto the bag to make it even cuter. I hope she likes it and forgives me for it taking so long!!