Party on with the Picnic Quilt

This was first named wallflower quilt because that is how I think of pale yellow or gray fabric creations. Next name came to mind was Picnic Quilt because I intended it on being a large square, but it ended up being a twin bed sized or large lap quilt. 

Linking up with amyscreativeside 

Linking up with crazymomquilts for Finish It Up Friday (monthly linkup)

For the backing, I went "all me" using pineapple print and My Little Pony flannels. I am an adult MLP fan and thought "why not?" use that remnant fabric to finish off this quilt. I had all sorts of difficulty at the quilting stage. I thought all the blocks had squared up but Nooooo, and the gray thread I chose was lackluster. When I switched to dark blue thread for quilting on the diagonal, it was the right choice. I thanked quiltinggail.wordpress.com for posting her diagonal quilt finish. It caught my eye because it was a serpentine stitch but my Singer let me work only in straight line. This is an end of summer quilt that I am keeping. Because of the flannel backing, it has some heft to it. It was an experiment of combining color outside of my comfort zone. It is neither a masterpiece of piecing nor quilting, but when everything came together - it was like a symphony. 

Since I am finding pieced work and nearly finished blocks in my thrift shop wanderings, I am merely sewing those pieces together and supplementing from my stash or retail fabric. 

I went a little over thrifting budget to buy this Pfaff serger ($22.50). This item has been on my thrift shop bucket list for some time now. I grabbed it when it was being rolled out for sale. At the very least, it is threaded which I have read is half the battle with these machines. 

Finding entire quilt kits means I have done very little piecing this summer. This Coastal Beacons set has supplemented two quilts and a quilt in progress so far. 

One quilt challenge I wanted to complete this year was the Pantone color of the year but ultra violet was my undoing, I had none of that in my stash. Here is a link pantone-2018-challenge-winners with a heavy  emphasis on matchstick quilting and modern design. 

Participating in the 2018 Monthly Color Challenge has pushed me into making pieced blocks. I had promised my daughter another quilt. I made one for her a couple of years back but it is an early work fraught with numerous mistakes and questionable fabric color choices. (Link here quiltorama.) I will be posting my progress on this quilt in the weeks to come. 

The Art with Fabric Blog Hop is happening again (a twice yearly event) in November. That motivated me to finish the picnic quilt so I could begin my creation. The one thing I want to do is incorporate a solid color and I chose Kona's Caribbean blue. I do know I will be doing matchstick quilting again - it really makes a wall quilt pop!