My quilts are sturdy and useful!

Here's Beach Quilt working hard in the sand.

Making this quilt with a bed sheet as the backing was a great way to make it sturdy. Typically, pros don't recommend using bed sheets as quilt backs because the thread count is too high, making it too hard to quilt through. But since I hand tied this quilt and I knew I'd be using it exclusively on the beach, I decided that a bed sheet would be the most durable backing fabric.

I've lost count of how many times I've taken my quilt to the beach. It pretty much stays in my beach bag in the back of my car all summer, just in case. It can be rolled up pretty tight so that it doesn't take up a lot of space. And it's completely machine washable and dryable. A quilt like this is a great opportunity to use some of those bright colors and crazy patterns that you might not be comfortable using in your house.