Watermelon Delight

Wrapping up my celebration of summer with a new quilt pattern, Watermelon Delight!

This is my second creation with watermelon wedges, with the first being the Watermelon Twist table runner, also just as beautiful.

With Watermelon Delight, I envisioned a watermelon themed picnic quilt, 

full of a wave of watermelon slices in the border, ready to be picked off and eaten! And there's more watermelon to enjoy here, as these slices are slightly bigger than those in Watermelon Twist. The Watermelon Delight pattern has detailed instructions for making these bigger slices to form this undulating border. The pattern is also geared toward the intermediate quilter, as quilting experience is a must.

There's also the idea of watermelon fruit in the center, plus a few seeds of course.

And there's even red gingham on the back, adding more to the picnic feel.

Quilting involved stitch-in-the-ditch around each watermelon slice, then stippling in each to outline the small seeds.

The white background has the custom quilted pantograph, Pretty Paisleys, 

which means the pantograph is not quilted through the slices, but around them. I blocked out portions of the pantograph with wedge shaped scrap paper, just as in my Pantographs and custom quilting tutorial. And yes, that took a lot of time, but I'm happy with the result.

And the watermelon fruit center and outer border is stipple quilted around the watermelons of the print. That way, the print isn't muted by the black thread. Plus, no use putting a fancy design on black fabric when it's going to be hard to see it. Ah, the curse of black fabric!

Now that Watermelon Delight is finished, 

I'm ready for a little outing this weekend, with a basket full of wine, cheese, a baguette, and of course, watermelon! Want to join me?

Happy Quilting!