The Beach Cottage Beach Mat

Hi guys.  How you going?   

A good Sunday here, it was Father's Day in Australia and we headed off to a beach a good drive from where we live, it reminded me of our commute to the beach in England and hung out, played beach games, had a barbie and just really did not a lot. 

Before I go on, can anyone enlighten me to the coffee-on-the-feet thing?  I'd come across this on my scrub-recipe-finding-marathon and wondered if any of you lovely gals would mention it.  But sorry for being a complete ignoramus, do you put instant coffee in the mix, coffee beans, or what?

So anyway back to beach mats and my first attempt at quilting, which quickly turned from a quilt for the littlest member of the Beach Cottage to a beach mat for our trips out…

It all started with a thrifted boat pillowslip I recently found at St Vincent de Paul, otherwise known at this blog as Vinnies and a copy of English Country Living.  In the magazine was a quilt and a window dressed in a coastal theme pair of patchwork curtains.  I liked it – a muddle of gingham reds, soft blues and white, very English nautical chic.

So with my urge at the moment to sew, one Friday night at home after school, with the boys chilling out watching tv, drawing and playing chess all at the same time in the Family Room I sat with them and started cutting.  I gathered a couple of old striped doona covers, some old red gingham fabric given to me by a friend and the thrifted pillowcase with the boats.  Thank goodness I decided to go the under-ambitious route and go for big squares 'cos the cutting I didn't enjoy – far too impatient and gung ho for that. 

Once it was cut and pieced together and pressed, I added the batting and then cut up the back of a thrifted striped doona cover picked up from a garage sale for the backing.  

And then there it sat for a long time without being quilted and without the binding.  I was a trifle scared of binding, I Googled it and got even more scared (I was about to email Brenda the self-taught quilt expert for help)and then I found a blog, which I have yet to find again, that praised the fact that it didn't matter if it was done 'correctly' – quilting was about using up bits of fabric and making something to love.  And so I followed her self-basting lead and just folded the backing fabric inwards to make the binding.  Probably next time I will use bias and I'm thinking I'll buy the squares already cut…(can any of you recommend good cut squares, I've found Moda Jelly Rolls and all sorts but would like to find a great collection of prints that might go with my decor..?)

I have to say the whole project was just, I dunno,…good…I found myself weirdly proud of it and almost sort of awed at the fact that I'd morphed this from bits of old  thrifted fabric which coulda ended up in landfill (and go see the lovely Rhodas efforts to save things from landfill at her weekly blog thrift marathon) to something I loved to roll up and put in my beach basket…and I wish I'd done it a very long time ago – a beach mat, I'd made, that would give my family memories – hopefully it still will. 

Today we just hung out on it and that was the best part and I think that's what it's all about and why so many love to quilt probably as much as I love to thrift…and I don't wish to shower you with soppiness here but unrolling that mat on the beach, with it's wonky quilting and lumpy binding it just felt…nice. 

What do you think of my toe-dipping into the world of quilting?   See you…

blogged for Susan's Metamorphosis Monday, thanks!