When I first started this Beach Towel Quilt Tutorial I had such great hopes.  As with many crafting projects this one has taken me into the deep dark valley of crafting.  At one point I almost gave up and quit.  There were several problems that almost put a stop to this Beach Towel Quilt. The first one was that when I sewed the towels together they were not the same length.  I ripped out the seam and tried again and they were still not close in length even with some stretching.

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Another problem with this quilt was the actual quilting.  I was going to do it using my home sewing machine but the straight stitching did not look right.  I did something kind of unconventional, I quilted it using a zig zag stitch.  I like how it looked.  I used the stripes on the towels as guide lines and quilted it in vertical lines.  This is a utility quilt and not a heirloom so I think this works.

I like how the overall design turned out.  This is a bright quilt that because of the patterns and colors will not show dirt.  That is important for a quilt that will be used.  The weight of the quilt and the cuddle factor are a plus for this quilt.  The towel gives it some weight and the batting makes it cuddle well.

I made a quilt sandwich, backing, batting and top.  I used a lot of pins to stabilize the quilt before I began to stitch it.

I quilted it using the stripes of the beach towel for a guide.  

The towel as backing worked great.  I will definitely buy the same kind of towels again for this project.  The stripes made this perfect.

This fun quilt still needs binding.  I have the material cut and ready to sew on. The reason I did not finish it yesterday is that I have to deal with the uneven towel problem.  It is a problem that can be worked with but I did not have the energy last night.

You will have to come back next Thursday to see the binding, the beach bag that I have made for the quilt to travel in and the official picture  of this new quilt.