A Perfect Picnic Blog Hop: Italian Style Picnic + Giveaway!

First of all I would like to thank our ever creative host Madame Samm at Sew We Quilt and our lovely Cheerleader Mary at I Piece 2-Mary for organzing this fun event! I loved having a good excuse for making a picnic quilt and using it!

We were going to show you a lovely picnic spot here in the north of Italy but on the big day for our picnic it started raining. That wasn't going to stop us, was it?! So we decided to have an indoor picnic. We'd made a lot of picnic food and it wouldn't have been the same eating it at the table, would it?

Ella (9) made the smoked scamorza cheese Spiedini, with Lucy (2) passing the ingredients. I made some single portion quiches and put them inside some handy jelly moulds with a lid.

They are super yummy and quick to make: ready made pastry cut in circles, just one egg, a cup of milk, prosciutto crudo (seasoned ham) or speck, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Then pop them in the oven in a muffin tray!

I made some fairy cakes (cupcakes!) and we decided to use our portable fairy cake stand:

Ella decorated the fairy cakes with sugar buttons!

Ella also made these chocolate Strawberries... yummy!

I love how this picnic quilt brightens up even a rainy day! I used a fat quarter bundle of Sweet Dolce by Tanya Whelan. My favourite print has to be the one I used in the centre of the heart: it's called "Ella"! I added the pom pom trim because it gives the picnic quilt a gypsy feel! The backing is a laminated fabric I had in my stash and the colours happened to match! It's going to be useful on damp grass and it's easy to wipe clean.

Some photos of the different panels:

Enjoying our indoor picnic:

Our picnic basket became a fun game. Lucy loved sitting in it and being carried around!

And now for the giveaway: to have a chance of winning this copy of Love Patchwork & Quilting all you have to do is leave a comment! The giveaway is open to everyone and closes on the 19th of June. Mr Random will then choose a winner. 

Thank you for joining us on our picnic!

Don't miss all today's wonderful Quilters:

Ella and Nesta's Little Room (that's me!)

Thimblemouse and Spouse

Jane's Quilting

Amanda Murphy Design

Quilting Quietly

Words & Stitches

Childlike Fascination

You can find the full program of A Perfect Picnic Blog Hop here at Mary's I Piece 2-Mary.


Linking to:

Free Baby Sewing Projects + More Great Blog Events

There is so much going on in Blog Land you can't miss. First of all there's the Oh Sew Baby! series over at Fort Worth Fabric Studio. This is especially exciting for me because the super talented Lindsey has invited me to guest post a Baby Sewing Tutorial for this special series. And I'm also looking forward to the Linky for all Baby Sewing Tutorials: starting on May 27 the Fort Worth Fabric Studio blog is opening a linky party for anyone who wants to link up any old or new baby related tutorial. Linking up you have the chance of winning a $50 gift certificate for their shop! I can't wait to see all the tutorials, I love seeing new ideas/excuses for sewing for babies!

Everybody in Quilting Blog Land knows about the Blogger's Quilt Festival! Now the voting is open and it's time to chose my favourite entries!
I've entered the Mini Quilts category and here's the post with the story of my Triangle Fabric Mountains. You can vote here for the Mini Quilts Category!

Heidi at Fabric Mutt is starting a new Quilt Along: The Graph Paper Quilt Along and it's all about using squares. I really like the idea that you can join and make a quilt or small projects. This is going to be really fun! The Quilt along starts the 29th of May.

Starting on the 2nd of June is the Perfect Picnic Blog Hop. There will be loads of inspiration for picnic quilts and for a yummy Picnic Menu too, all included! One picnic the weather isn't going to stop!

The full picnic plan is here!