Roll-Up Tea Towel Beach Quilt

It's been a while since I've posted. After a quick trip to Ohio and a busy week and a half here, I was having trouble finding time to take pictures of my latest project - my tea towel beach quilt. Alas, stop weeping, I have finally documented it.

As I mentioned in my last W.I.P. post, I have been working on my first quilt for a while...for over a year, in a way. When I was in Australia last February I bought an armload of tea towels from a store across the street from the hotel. They were all piled in a huge bin, priced at just a buck or two each, and I loved their nautical stripes and sun-bleached look. I'll also admit that digging them out of a waist high bin was part of their allure, kind of like a ball pit for a fabric-hoarding adult.

I knew when I got them I wanted to make them into something else, but I wasn't sure what or how. So they sat in my closet for a year until I got my current job at the craft center. While watching a quilting class I was inspired to try my hand at it. I decided that I would make a beach quilt after several lunch trips to the very close beach ended in sitting on plastic bags so that I didn't get sand down my pants. And what better project for my sun bleached nautical tea towels? 

After a lot of cutting, pinning, and sewing, I'm finally done. I added an orange sea fan print backing and a spring green and blue polka dot binding. The front and back of the quilt have very different looks, but I think somehow it all works together. I hand sewed a red kangaroo on one of the patches to commemorate the fabric's origin.

 I also added ties on the bottom so that you can roll it up and carry it with you to the beach, park, wherever.

I'm very happy with how it turned out, especially how it looks rolled up. And I'm already finishing up my next quilt...I might be addicted!