World's Most Epic Picnic Blanket

For several years, I did a lot of I Spy swaps.  Inevitably, a lot of the fabrics would be food items.  I think one swap might have even been entirely food-themed.  For many years, I have wanted to make an all-food I Spy quilt to use as a picnic blanket.  I can't even remember when I started it, but I took some scraps of solids and my favorite food I Spy 5" squares and made square-in-a-square blocks.  I had about 42 blocks made, and all my food I Spy squares separated out, and it sat in a bag in the closet for years.  I think it's been on my PhD (projects half done) list with Gail every year, and every year I have not touched it. 

 

 

Now that the world is waking back up after Covid, it seems likely that my family will need that picnic blanket, so I buckled down to finish it and I couldn't be happier!  There are 113 blocks with a food square in the middle.  There are a few that are food-adjacent, like an ice cream truck, a farmer's market, etc.  The most fun thing about this is some of the foods that exist as fabric!  Pigs in blankets!  Chex Mix! 

 

I finished this on a recent family trip.  We used it right away, you can see my niece and my son pointing to the S'Mores on the quilt while waiting for real s'mores near the campfire.  

Clearly it's a hit!  While making this, I kept calling it The World's Most Epic Picnic Blanket and that's still how I think of it.  So happy to have it to use for lots of future picnics!