the dancing rug

bryson calls it the dancing rug...he apparently likes to dance on it? he must be my son...anyway - here she is...i finished it last night since my husband had some video editing to do and i had some wild hair to sew... i am very proud of myself right now. i just kind of dove in and decided i would make it up as i go and since it was for a picnic blanket - meant to get grass stains and spills (and drool and snot as today was the case) i was not too hung up on following a pattern or how perfect it turned out.

so i thought it would be easy to do squares...ummm...big squares! the less coming togethers of squares the better for me :) so i decided 10x10" squares - at first i decided it would be 6x7 but i laid them out and decided i should add another row to make it a square - so it became 70"x70" before the sewing. i pieced it all together on sunday and went to bed thinking, "now what?"

i knew i needed batting and something to piece (or baste) the quilt together so i made a trip to Joanns and got some batting...okay...so i had that. then after i put the kids to bed i looked up a couple tutorials. i found that a lot of people tape the backing down nice and taut...then put the batting on top of that and iron out wrinkles and then the top layer - a little fabric sandwich...and safety pin it together...

at first for the backing i was going to use a sheet...simple and i wouldn't have to dive into my fabric stash...although the only sheets i could spare for this project were funky materials - jersey and sateen...so i decided to use up some more of the $1 yard plaid fabric...just kinda pieced it all together with what i had left...i didnt put too much thought into it, but i like how it turned out - simple...pop of blue...but poor back of the quilt will only be seeing dirt and grass and sand...so here it is the back...

for the binding i added a 6" row of the white plaid i had to give myself a lot of play room. i decided to fold it over and sew it onto the back. as far as the quilting goes, i read somewhere that a common thing for simple patch quilts is to "stitch in the ditch" and run two straight stitches along the rows already made. i really did it because of that term...i kept singing it to myself as i was sewing...."stitchin in the ditch...stitch the ditch" catchy isnt it?


i got out for a little bit today...didnt stay too long because of this...poor Bodie...he is really miserable...he can barely nurse and is just in general not pleased with life right now...i am praying he recovers and that i manage to sneak away from this as well as bryan!

anyway - the dancing rug...overall - it was a lot of work...i have a lot of respect for quilters (i had before, but now even more so) i like the simple squares and may try one a little more complicated - i like the idea of using all my bags of scraps! but i am going to stick to stocking up the shop for now! so there goes one of my new years resolutions...now onto that marathon!