Patchwork Picnic

These new arrivals provide a wealth of projects for avid quilters and sewers. Suzette Halferty and Nancy Martin's Patchwork Picnic provides a blend of quilts and recipes for hosting picnics. From a 4th of July starred red, white and blue quilt to a blue willow pattern for a concert in the park, this pairs projects with holidays and food ideas.

It's been a long time since I've been on a picnic. I used to love them, and I'm not sure why we never go on them anymore. But this book is a visual picnic of quilts, foods, and color plates of antique cars and wildflowers and cello's and wild countryside with fine china and the soul of every fine picnic you have ever dreamed about. This volume is full of the kind of quilting projects I like best--practical and beautiful. There is a bee and bee hive quilt tablecloth to make for your patio and there are recipes for poached salmon and mango salsa to set on it. There's an Indian Summer quilt to spread on the ground beside your old black convertible to nibble on your sweet hazelnut pound cake. There's even a pastel dream house quilt to drag out to picnic at the building site of your new home. The book is a nice size and has full sized applique patterns and detailed color photos of quilts, accessories and country vegetation at it's peak. The directions and recipes are clear and there's a chapter at the end on quiltmaking basics. The best part of this book is that after browsing it for a lazy Saturday afternoon--it incited me to plan a picnic--maybe I'll make one of the fabric lined baskets and invite my husband to a ride in the country on his old silver wing. I've got a t-shirt quilt with dragon flies quilted on it and the dogwood and azealias are in bloom.