happy fourth of july!

we were up on the puget sound this weekend with my husband’s extended family.  it’s a neat place to watch fireworks, because we look out over the water and can see various displays going off in all directions.

knowing we’d be watching the show (and betting that someone in our group would head to the rez nearby for a few “big guns” of our own), i made a picnic blanket.  i dreamed it up and decided to make it on monday, and finished it up on friday afternoon during naptime.

it’s 11″ x 11″ solid squares (kona charcoal, aqua, jade, and olive, plus a bella solid lighter green to coordinate with the olive), backed by an old urban outfitters tapestry that i had hanging on my apartment wall in college.  the tapestry gives it a nice weight, while still remaining soft to use as a warming blanket if need be.  i have a love of blue, green, and charcoal, and am usually restraining myself from using those colors for every project i make (case 1, case 2, case 3, case 4, case 5, case 6…shall i go on?).

and look, i serged the edge!  i FINALLY threaded the serger my husband got me for mother’s day last year.  it took me a half hour to figure out, but i’m glad i took time away from actual sewing to add this tool to my toolbox.  i love it!  i was just going to serge the edge to clean it up then add a proper quilt binding, but once i serged it, i decided i really liked the look and called it done.

here it is all laid out so you can really see the pattern – it was inspired by this one.  i quilted it 1/4″ from one side of each seam with a regular sewing foot (since it was only two layers, my walking foot wasn’t necessary).  someday i’ll make a non-square quilt (em’s quilt was patchwork squares, too), but this time i liked playing with color and value and kept it simple.

finished size is about 75″ x 75″ – plenty big to load up with cousins (five under eight) with room to spare…

we let em stay up super late for her first real fireworks show, and she was so much braver than i expected!  she’s normally a pretty cautious kid, but she was waving around sparklers and ooooing and aaahing at the fireworks like a champ.  O went to bed at his normal time and slept through the whole thing (good baby).

here is em and a sparkler, with my husband doing the ol’ long exposure trick on the camera…

and some fireworks right over our heads…it looked like glitter in the sky!

happy fourth!