Picnic Basket

My little brother is married!

It was so awesome to be able to be with him while he got married.

What a great experience that was last weekend.

And since I was able to finish their present (with time to spare!) and give it to them,

I thought I'd better get on here and post a picture of it.

 I made a large tote that I thought would be a great picnic basket,

with a coordinating picnic blanket.

The tote is from a pattern that I have made once before.

It's large, has 6 outside pockets, and 4 inside.

I don't know his wife very well, but I knew that she likes blue and yellow.

I found some great floral fabric, and lined it with yellow polka dots.

 The picnic blanket is a fabric painter's drop cloth.

I think we used the 5'x8' size.

And to embellish it, I grabbed a stencil brush, taped off a few stripes on two corners,

and dabbed on a bunch of acrylic paint.

After it was dry, I 'set' the paint by running it under a hot iron.

(But used a dry cloth in between the iron and blanket.)

 Here's some close ups of the material.

I wish it was mine!

It turned out so much cuter!  The light blue line on the outside is some

bias tape I used to make the pockets stand out a little more.

 And since we couldn't just give them an empty picnic basket,

the kids and I went down the grocery aisles at Walmart and chose

a bunch of random, picnic-friendly food to fill it with.