Watermelons are the epitome of summer for me. Summer is all about refreshments and that fruit is basically a drink!
When friends of ours welcomed their baby girl Emily in the middle of summer that’s where my thoughts went – making a watermelon themed quilt for her seemed perfect.
You might remember the set of fruity coasters I designed last summer? I took the watermelon drunkard’s path template from the coaster pattern and sized it up a good bit. The sewn up and trimmed drunkard’s path blocks now finished at 7 1/2” square. Like with the coasters I decided to include quarter slices of a melon (1 drunkard’s path), ‘half melons’ (2 drunkard’s paths combined) and three quarter slices (3 drunkard’s paths combined).
The different melon shapes are wildly scattered across the aqua hued background. I wanted to capture the sweet and fun feeling of a summer. Like eating slices watermelons by the pool.
The backing I once again pulled from my stash. I sometimes buy sale fabric by the yardage with the intention of some day using it as a backing, without having a specific project in mind. I thought the colour fit nicely with the reds I had already used. In general for light coloured quilt tops I prefer darker backings.I had already cut a square from the fabric, so I had to add a patch to square it up. An additional strip was needed to make it big enough.
Do you notice that the backing looks almost like a folded over sheet of paper? To stay with the theme I used the College Ruled stripe fabric from Heather Givans’ Paper Obsessed collection. The stripes are printed on the bias, and thus make for an awesome fake bias binding look.
pattern: my own | finished size: 39 x 46” | batting: warm & natural | quilting: straight line and echo quilting around the drunkard’s paths | backing: forgot to check, can you identify it?
I think Lupa wanted to add the Milly Melon quilt to her collection of puppy blankets. No such luck! Since finishing and photographing I have gifted it to Emily and her parents. They appreciated the handwork and thought I put into it very much, I love when that’s the case.
Happy quilting!
This post is linked to Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts, Needle and Thread Thursday at my Quilt Infatuation, TGIFF this week at Georgia Girl Quilts and Finish It up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts
veni vidi vicky 
Gorgeous, just as all your other work ! The shapes and colours work really well, I think I am not up to bended pieces yet, but I sure do admire them !
Thanks for your kind comment on my very first quil, Carla
I was super intimidated by curved piecing before I sewed my first. It’s not as hard as it seems. My tip is to pin the hell out of it and nothing will shift. Thank you for stopping by my blog!
What an interesting quilt! The colors are bright and the circles add a lot of interest. Great job!
Dorian, thank you so much for your loely comment.
This is just darling! (Both the quilt and the pup!)
Aw thank you Alison. Meet my quilt model Lupa, she gets paid in dog quilts ;-)
What a beautiful color combination! I love how simple it looks…and really love the circles!
I’m having my doubts if it isn’t a little too simple. If I make another one like this, I’ll probably cut down on the negative space and throw more melons in for good measure. Thank you for commenting, Jayne =)
I love how you quilted differently, some straight lines and some curves. It really adds interest to the quilt. Very nice!
Thank you for picking up on that, it’s the first time I dared to quilt curves and I’m pretty happy it worked out so well. My idea was to highlight the melons, which I left unquilted.
Very lovely quilt, simple as well as impactful.
Thank you so much Jereena, I love how you put that!
I really like the random watermelons scattered over this quilt… and the colors are really fresh and lovely.
I very rarely buy fabric with a spedific project in mind. I know my colors and know how I like to combine them, so when a fabric speaks to me, then it usually goes in my stash. Little “mistakes” that look intentional are always the best!
Allison, thank you so much for your lovely comment on my latest baby quilt. I’m like that with fabric buying and I think it makes for the more interesting quilts, since we really mix all the lines up! I could just never use my very treasured favourite fabrics for backing, what a waste! So I have a drawer of yardage of ‘okay’ fabrics that can go on the back, hehe ;-)
What a wonderful and cheerful quilt!! It’s going to be much loved by baby and parents :)
Aww Preeti, thank you so much. Little baby is a darling and super sweet, so the quilt seemed even more fitting when I actually met her =)
Super awesome quilts…
Thank you so much for visiting my blog and leaving this nice comment!
Perfect quilting!
Thank you Katie, I’ll never tire of my walking foot!
Fantastic quilt! I love the colors and the wildly scattered melon shapes. Great choice for the quilting too. I am with you on darker backings for lighter colored quilt tops. Love that contrast! BTW, Lupa is ADORABLE. Thanks for linking up to TGIFF this week!
Hey Sarah, thank you for you lovely comment (Lupa says thank you, too!). I’m happy I found you blog through TGIFF this week =)
This is beautiful! I love it!
Thank you so much Katy!
This is too much fun!!!!!
Thank you Tammy! I love to make baby quilts colourful and bold, gives those little eyes and fingers something fun to discover!
That’s a very lucky baby! I love everything about your quilt.
Marla, thank you for your lovely comment, that’s so nice of you to say =)
This is a fantastic design! I love the small border you added too.
Oh yes, I forgot to talk about that. It wasn’t in my original plan, but after finishing the main part of the quilt it was missing some interest. Thank you for your lovely comment Lisa!
Such a fun quilt, and gorgeous photos. I love that your dog is included. :)
Thank you Hope! Meet Lupa, my quilt model in training ;-)
Oh wow that is gorgeous; fresh and summery and yet snuggly at the same time – what a very lucky little girl to have such a gift :)
Carie, thank you so much! Never hurts to keep some summer memories throughout the winter!
Your quilt is marvelous! I love the colors you chose for this really fun pattern.
Kathi, thank you! I’m not sure the melons are that recognizable, but even if they aren’t I guess this can just pass as a playful abstract pattern.
Your vision really shines through with this quilt. I can already taste the watermelons and want to sit at the pool – now, please!
Aww, meine liebe Mell! Ich setz mich dazu und bring noch ne runde Melonenstücke =)
Such a wonderful babyquilt and an amazing idea- watermelon. Love the colors.
Judith
Lieb Judith, danke fürs Mitlesen und deinen lieben Kommentar =)
Lovely quilt Vicky!
Liebe May, schön, dass du meine kleine Ecke des Internets heute gefunden hast. Danke für deinen lieben Kommentar =)