Picnic Blanket Quilt Tutorial

I'm pretty new to sewing and quilting... but I have completely fallen in LOVE with it! Connecting all the pieces of fabric together to form a larger product is just exhilarating to me!!

Other than my love for beautiful quilts... I have ALWAYS wanted to have a cute picnic blanket that I can take to the park, Stone Mountain's Laser show, and many more places!

So I was browsing through my favorite website... Pinterest... I ran across this ADORABLE quilt tutorial called "New Wave Quilt". I immediately fell in LOVE with this quilt! So, I decided to make the quilt using the FABULOUS *free* tutorial given on the site, and add my own twist to it!

The only additional material needed is about 5 yards of clear, plastic vinyl. I found mine in the Home Decor section of Joann Fabrics. I chose this as my favorite because it is the largest width available. It was on sale for $1.99/yd!

After picking out my fabrics and completing my quilt sandwich through the "New Wave Quilt Tutorial", that is when I put my own spin on things.

Here's what I did:

• Cut a piece of vinyl about an inch larger than the quilt on all sides. 
• PIN THE VINYL DOWN onto the back side of the quilt sandwich AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE! This will keep it from moving during the next step.
• Sew the vinyl to the quilt sandwich about 1/4 inch away from the edge of the quilt. Be sure that the vinyl stays tight!

After you do this, you can trim the remaining vinyl from the edge of the quilt. 

Resume the tutorial as directed. The only thing left after attaching the vinyl is doing the binding. This is my FAVORITE part of quilting! (weird... I know.)

Here are pictures of the finished product:

You can also use the leftover pieces of fabric to make a smaller quilt to hold the picnic basket, food, etc. during your picnic! Just follow the same directions as the quilt! 

I apologize that I do not have any pictures of the quilt "in action" on a picnic. Perhaps when it stops raining in Georgia... I will take a few and replace some of these with those!

I hope you enjoy this tutorial! I also REALLY appreciate the "New Wave Quilt" tutorial given by "Oh, Fransson!"!!