Double G Picnic

About the time I started my table runner project featuring Melody Miller's Picnic fabrics, we visited some friends for an Independence Day celebration.  Their red, white, and blue gingham place mats inspired a larger quilt featuring the Picnic apple prints:

The quilt construction is very simple, and it came together quickly using strip piecing, with little waste. (UPDATE: I have a tutorial for this quilt here.)

Since the quilt is so simple, I chose a simple quilting scheme as well.  I quilted straight lines a quarter inch on either side of all the seams, and added crossing diagonal lines through the center of the squares.  I marked the diagonal lines with a hera marker.

I considered using only prints from the Picnic line, without seeking too much of a transparency effect, but after playing around with some options in Photoshop, I decided to add in a few different Cotton+Steel prints.  I didn't particularly want to invite the bees to the picnic, but the color seemed just right (even if the highlights are orange and pink instead of red).

For the backing, I used the picnic basket print in blue, with some extra squares from the front.  As you can see, I did not have enough extra squares to get the width I needed, so I had to add on some scraps from another project.

The binding is Picnic Blanket in red:

We took the photos the day after Christmas at my Dad's place.  Here's an outtake:

I'll be linking up with crazy mom quilts for Finish It Up Friday.