Picnic Quilt Tutorial (with Fiesta Fun fabrics)

Hello!  Today we have a fun Picnic Quilt Tutorial to share with you using our friend Dana’s Fiesta Fun fabric line that she created with Art Gallery Fabric.

As soon as I saw this fabric I knew that I needed it for a picnic blanket.

Every year growing up I got to spend a magical week living in a beach house packed with all 10 of my cousins along with my siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.  Those summer vacations were so much fun…the sun, the ocean, the farmers markets, the never ending tacos, the bonfires, and the blankets spread out in the sand both for catching rays and for playing card games on…lots and lots of card games.

Those days…man…I love thinking about those days…and this fabric perfectly captures the fun and happiness that those memories of Southern California bring to mind.  So, of course,  it was my pleasure to sew up a picnic blanket for my girls to use this summer using the fabric that fills me with such nostalgia.

Because I love the prints I really wanted them to shine…so…I made the world’s biggest 9 patch block (made up of blocks within blocks) to showcase them.  Each individual block is super easy to make and you only need 9 of them so this is one of those quilts that you really can make over the weekend!

So let’s get started…

For each block you will need:

1 square of fabric that measures 10″ x 10″ (for the center of each quilt block)

2 rectangles of coordinating fabric that each measure 5″x 10″ (for the sides of each quilt block)

2 rectangles of coordinating fabric that measure 19″x 5″ (for the top and bottom of each quilt block)

That is it…not a lot of cutting required!

(Although…you need to remember that what you just cut will only create 1 block…and you will need 9 blocks to create this quilt!)

Once you have the pieces for each block cut it’s time to assemble them!  To do this follow the guide photo below (along with the instructions).

Place rectangle #1 ontop of your center square with right sides together and aligning them along the right side of your square.  Sew together using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Open and press seams toward the darker fabric.

Place rectangle #2 ontop of your center square with right sides together and alinging them along the left side of your square.  Sew together using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Open and press seams toward the darker fabric.

Place rectangle #3 ontop of your center square with right sides together and alinging them along the top edge of your square.  Sew together using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Open and press seams toward the darker fabric.

Place rectangle #4 ontop of your center square with right sides together and aligning them along the bottom edge of your square.  Sew together using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Open and press seams toward the darker fabric.

Square up block to 19″x 19″

You are done!  Only 8 more blocks left to go.

(They really are that simple to create!)

Once you have created all 9 of your giant quilt blocks lay them out in a 9-Patch pattern (3 rows of 3 blocks each) and then sew them exactly like you would a 9-Patch quilt block.  (Sewing together one row at a time and then sewing each row together….and if you aren’t sure what I am talking about check out THIS TUTORIAL starting on step #2.  The tutorial creates a shoo-fly block BUT starting on step #2 uses the 9-Patch Block method and will walk you through step by step how to sew those 9 blocks together.)

Sooooo…that is it.  Once those 9 giant blocks are sewn together your quilt top is done!

Your quilt top will finish at roughly 56″ x 56″ so all that remains is the backing (I like to make mine 3″ bigger on each side than the top so my backing was 62″ x62″) and binding (for this quilt I used 1/2 yard of fabric cut into 2 and 1/2 inch strips).

Easy peasey….now if summer could just arrive….

-liZ

PS:  If you want to make this quilt in a larger size you could either:

#1.  Construct 7 more blocks and make the quilt a 16 patch instead of a 9 patch and it would finish off at roughly 75″ x75″

OR

#2.  You could add a 2 and 1/2″ white sashing between each block along with a 2 and 1/2″ white border around the entire quilt which would then make your quilt roughly 64″ x 64″.

Happy Quilting!