Citronella Candlelit Picnic in the Sticks - A Country Romance

Welcome to the 
Creatin' in the Sticks 
Perfect Picnic .

Made in Kansas Ad Astra Ale and Lost Trail Root Beer.
The quilt was made in Kansas, too.  :)

We loaded up the quilt, food, and portable croquet set in the
 4 wheeler
and  headed over to the creek for a little fun.
 Just hubby and I.
 We even left the dogs behind.

We found our spot by the creek in a large grove of trees.

Let the picnic begin!

3 yards of laminated cotton fabric from Riley Blake designs arrived and I used it for the back of the quilt.
Red with white dots paired with denim.
Now THAT is country Love.

It is sooooo me.
No worries about laying this quilt on wet ground
and
the heavy duty denim can handle any other picnic mishaps...

Our picnic quilt carries everything from plates and napkins to bottle opener and hand wipes and folds up nicely for travel.

This is how the quilt unfolds revealing the plates, napkins, and flatware.

It's perfect for tabletop or remove the gear and lay on the ground.

I made a large square mat to place in the middle for drinks or dips.  The laminate makes it easy to wipe off.

Now, let's eat.

The Menu

Roast Beef Salad on (light) Rye Bread

Cucumber Salsa with chips

Mixed berry pound cake (sugar free)

and

Cold Beverages!

I'm afraid my picnic basket is on an around the world in 30 days tour, so food and beverages arrived in galvanized buckets and hand made bowls.

Cucumber Salsa

(aka 3,2,1)

3 Cucumbers chopped fine

2 10 oz cans of Rotel tomatoes (I use one mild and one regular)

1 pouch dry ranch dressing mix

Mix and chill for a few hours.

Serve with tortilla chips

The bowls were made from fabric strips and clothes line. I viewed the instructions on Quilting Arts TV.   I just lined the big bowl with a clean shower cap and filled it with chips.  The smaller ones were perfect to hold bowls of dip and fruit.

Mixed Berry Pound Cake

This makes 2 loaves

1 Box Yellow Cake Mix (I used Pillsbury Sugar Free)

Ingredients to mix the cake (mine called for water, oil, and 3 eggs)

1 small box instant pudding mix(I used sugar free cheesecake flavor) yummy.

1 cup chopped strawberries

1 cup blueberries

Preheat oven as directed on cake mix box.  Mix cake mix as directed and add the dry pudding mix.  Fold in the strawberries and blueberries.  Prepare 2 loaf pans by lining the bottom with waxed paper and spraying the pans with cooking spray.  Pour the mixture into the pans.  Bake as directed on the cake mix box.

Cool 10 minutes after baking and take out of pans.  Let cool completely before slicing.
 If you can. (wink)

We ate half of one loaf while we laid around on the blanket just talking and listening to coyotes.
Maybe the coyotes smelled our food.
Soon the turkeys started gobbling and the mosquitoes started eating us alive.
Citronella candles can only do so much.

Here is the quilt with no picnic equipment.  I love that it looks like a patchwork quilt (well it is)  but functions to store all the essentials for a picnic.

This picture shows the quilt with the insert in the middle.  This is the denim side with the laminate side down.

That is the biggest coaster I have ever made.

After laying around for a couple of hours listening to coyotes and turkeys and just catching up with one another, we decided to skip croquet. But hubby went and put our initials on a tree.
Romance is alive and well here in the sticks.

Why haven't we done this before?

Thank you Madame Samm for a wonderful excuse to have a romantic candlelit picnic in the sticks.



Here are the rest of my fellow picnickers of the day:

Wednesday June 4

Quilt Taffy

Pampered Pettit

Creatin' in the Sticks :>) ME

Miss Priss Quilts

Life in the Scrapatch

That's Sew Julie

Thanks to Mary of I Piece 2-Mary our lovely cheerleader

Mary has the full schedule for the hop HERE.

Thank you to our sponsors: 

Sew We Quilt
Riley Blake Designs 
Peterboro Baskets