My picnic quilt finish

I decided I wanted to make my Thimbleberries quilt into a picnic quilt.  I got the idea from an old Quiltmania magazine years ago.

I first experiemented with different ways to fold the quilt that would get me the size I wanted for the finished quilt.   My quilt measures about 80" X 88".

I then needed to decide where I wanted to sew on the webbing.  I have a brown section (above), a gold section, and the middle in a rust and gold.  

I really wanted an off white but I knew it would show the dirt.  The webbing would be on the backside that would go on the ground or grass and the handles would receive a lot of wear too.

I decided on the brown section.  I bought 3 yds. of brown webbing.

I measured it on my quilt and trimmed off about 20".

(The color is terrible in some of these pictures.  It is a nice warm brown, not the dingy brown that it looks like here)  

I pinned it in place with my long pins and then basted it with size 8 pearl cotton.

I triple sewed the cut ends (because it frays terribly) and then overlapped where the two ends meet and sewed them together before sewing them down on the quilt.

I used this niftly little Quilty Hemastat tool I got from Fatquartershop.com to pull out the tight basting stitches.  It really helped. (no compensation, I just really liked it)

This one side of the webbing all stitched on and. . . 

this is the other side.  I had to go slowly and I broke a needle.  But, I think that is my own fault because I was using a size 80 and should have used a stronger needle.  I replaced it with a 90 and it sewed like a dream.

I didn't do this on purpose but because I chose to sew the webbing on the side rather than the middle of the back, it was much easier to sew by machine.  I only had the narrow outside of the quilt inside my machine instead of the whole bulk of the quilt.  I sewed from handle to handle four times if that make any sence. 

I used an off white in my bobbin because I thought it might look better with the ecru pearl cotton I used to quilt this quilt.  It looks fine but if I had it to do over I would probably use a tan or light gray.  

This is the right side of the sewn strip. . . 

and this is the left side.

This is what the quilt looks like spread out on the floor with the webbing sewn on.

This is what the right side of the quilt looks like with the webbing sewn on.  You can see the stitching on the right side and there is a lttle  raised area where the handles are but not much.  My daughter said she would have made the handles longer so she could carry the quilt on her shoulder as she unpacks the car of ice chests and horseshoe equipment.

Good idea~

To fold the quilt up getting it ready to carry, I first folded it in half on the long side.

Then I folded it in half again.

From both sides, I folded it toward the center . . . 

and toward the center again leaving a small space in the center so it can be rolled together.

It measures about 18" wide and 14" from where the handle starts to the bottom..

All ready to grab as I walk out the door.

Robin