hot, Hot, HOT!!!

It is HOT today. The weatherman says 'The hottest day of the year so far". You know how they can be. But this time- I think he's right.

My friend Kira just sent me a picture of a quilt she just finished and I think it's PERFECT for a bright sun shiny day like today.

The son that Kira made this quilt for LOVES orange. When she told me she was going to make an orange quilt I offered some of my orange scraps- I also gave her some GOING COASTAL for the quilt. See it!?

She was worried it was going to be too orange and sent me a pic a couple weeks ago of the work in progress. I LOVE how she sorted the blocks into color gradient. It gives the quilt so much life. She contemplated throwing in another color but I'm so glad she didn't. It's AWESOME!

So guess what pattern that is!?  If you haven't figured it out by now here it is.

I just love how a new color combination can give a pattern a whole new life.

Thanks KIRA for a fun summer quilt!  :o)

Key Lime cake and Binding

I cam across this recipe over at The Lettered Cottage the other day and just HAD to try it. Um....DELISH!

 I've mentioned before that I am not a great baker. In fact, I took a few liberties with this recipe since I didn't have everything on hand. For example- I didn't have lime jello, so I used a lemon pie filling and added a couple drops of green food coloring. I also didn't have OJ, so I just used a little extra key lime juice and water. Also, I made a no-bake cheescake recipe I have and spread that over for the icing instead. But let me tell you- it was a HIT!!!  My hubs especially liked it so that makes it even better.  :o)

Go on, make it- you won't be disappointed!

I spent the hot, sticky evening last night finishing the binding on this project:

I can't show you the front because it's far a special publication. But I'll be sure to tell you when it's out. Obviously I used GOING COASTAL and it turned out so fun!

This and That

I've had a busy week (-end)

.

I spent a couple of days playing with this cute guy:

 While my Mom turned my kitchen into a bakery so she could make this beautiful cake:

 for this happy couple:

Mr. and Mrs. Evan Jenny!

And while all the family was in town for the wedding- we celebrated Fathers Day as well with a pic of my Dad with all 7 of us "kids":

During all the goings on of cake baking, baby snuggling, wedding prepping, sibling teasing, etc. I kept recieving phonecalls from my LQS where this was set up:

because this pattern was flying off the shelves!

I mentioned the pattern here and have decided, because of it's popularity, to list it on my Etsy shop.

Feelin' the "Fat Quarterly" love

Today I am being featured over at Fat Quarterly. I had the pleasure of meeting John and company at quilt market and I just LOVE them. Hop over and learn a bit more about me and Going Coastal. And if you're still a little impatient about waiting 'til July for the fabric to hit stores- enter to win a FQ bundle for yourself!

Have a Beachin' weekend!  :o)

Breaking Dawn

Last week I was at my LQS talking to them about the upcoming Shop Hop.

The Corn Wagon's theme is TWILIGHT. And if you don't know what that is, I'm not sure I can help you.  :o)

Twilight is very BIG in Utah. HUGE!

At some point I volunteered to make a quilt:

It's my Diamond in the Rough pattern- that I have affectionately re-named BREAKING DAWN after the last and final chapter of the Twilight Saga.

I think the quilt is stunning in such graphic colors and gives it a whole new look.
(Thanks Around the Block for inspiring me to do a red, black, and white quilt!)

Here's a little something- just for fun. One of my favorite SNL clips from the last decade!  :o)

Kaufman Solids

Are you using solids more than ever right now? If not, I guess you haven't been bitten by the solids bug. They are EVERYWHERE in quilting. I've been using a few here and there but don't have many in my stash. But this morning I saw this:

Ribbon Candy Quilt Company is still doing giveaways and today she's giving away this beautiful bundle of Kaufman solids. I probably shouldn't tell all of you because then my chances will be that much greater to win it- but I'm so excited about it I just can't help it!  If you want to start using solids more (and you should) hurry over and enter into her contest and you may win this cute little bundle. 

Something New

 I went to IKEA the other night. I LOVE IKEA! Besides the fact that I could hardly walk or keep my eyes open by the end of the night- I had a blast!

I've seen all over blog-land how people use IKEA fabric for quilt backs, yet I've never bought any. That was, until, the other night when I found this:

It's a white background with charcoal grey houses on it. CUTE! And I knew exactly what I wanted to use it for.

Only problem was, I didn't have the fabric for the project I wanted to use it for.

So Saturday morning I packed the kids up and went to Gracie Lou's for a little of this and a little of that.

Here's a sneak peek:

I used lots of Michael Miller with some Sherbet Pips and a few others from the stash thrown in. I don't want to show the whole thing 'til I at least get the borders on. But maybe I'll wait until it's quilted. Who knows.

Did you know the Peteetneet Quilt Show starts this Thurs, June 17 - Thurs, July 1. It's not too late to submit a quilt if you get it in TODAY (Monday!) before 4pm!

Change is good

Have you noticed anything different around here? I've been trying to clean-up this blog a bit and make it a little easier to get around.

I've eliminated the "PATTERNS" section on the right side of the blog. But have no fear! You can still view all the patterns I have available by clicking the "Patterns" page at the top.

That's also where you can find the link to many other wonderful and interesting things including my ETSY shop. And speaking of my ETSY shop- I've added a few new patterns.

Animal Crackers
Fleur de France
Flower Power
Counting on Christmas

With the exception of Counting on Christmas, this is the first time these patterns have been available in my shop.

All these changes are in an effort to make it easier to get around this blog. A few more might be in the works. However, if something is missing or there is some information you would like to have that you can't find- please let me know. I want to make this blog fun and easy for all of you!

Quilt Group Blocks

My Quilt Group was supposed to meet tonight but had to re-schedule for next week. Because of market and all the other things I've had going on I haven't been for the last couple months. But this time I was planning on going. Let's hope I can make it next week because I already have my blocks made!  (It's a miracle, really)

I'm not even sure who's blocks these are, but they sure were fun to make.

I was given 27 squares and instructions to use this little tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew

 So, I made my (3)  9-patch blocks and followed the instructions to get the cute blocks below

Can you believe I've never made a disappearing 9-patch block or quilt before!?  It's almost CRAZY.

Guess what!?  It's Wednesday.

That means I get to pick a winner to see who gets the pattern of their choice:

My son says #16 is the winner!

JENNIFER who was hoping to win so she could get LILIANA in the mail next week.

(that is, if she emails me her address so I can send it)

Ok, now I gotta run or I'm going to be late for my trunk show!

New quilt patterns

The thought occured to me this weekend that I never showed you all the new quilts that I designed to go with 'Going Coastal'.  So....better late than never, right!?   :o)

All of the patterns I designed (or re-designed) to look like quilts you might actually see somewhere coastal. I stayed away from too much detail on purpose- the beach is a care-free, stress-free place people. I hope you enjoy them as much as I am!

 First is BEACHIN'.  I know, I know, I even slipped once or twice saying it myself. But I HAD to name it that. It was BEGGING to be named that.  :o)  As you can see, it's a fairly simple design but I LOVE it in my fabrics!

 I don't need to explain why I named this one BOARDWALK do I? This one is a tad busy with my prints but I like it anyway. I chose to use only the blue, white, orange, and red background fabrics. I think it turned out pretty cool with a slight patriotic influence. This pattern uses FQ's and is pretty fun to piece because you really don't see how cool the prints and design come together until it's all done and you can stand back and admire your work. 

 Right now this one is my fave!  CABANA is SO FUN!  Ok, so there are lots of flying geese blocks in this quilt but it's well worth it. The pattern has instructions for 2 sizes so you cen decide just how many FG blocks you want to make. What I like is that the whole quilt speaks as one print instead of focusing on each individual print itself. Does that make sense?

So about a hundred years ago when I first started designing quilt patterns I designed this quilt. It was the perfect man quilt....and nobody bought it. The thing is, I really liked the idea. So, I redesigned it using GC and added a few fun words and Bada-Boom! Bada-Bing! ROAD BLOCK was re-born. I kept the original name even though it doesn't really go with the whole "beachy" theme but it's probably been the most popular one yet. Go figure!

Recognize this beauty? Of course I had to re-do SURF SHOP in some GC. love, Love, LOVE IT! And I don't care what all those land-lubbers say- I never get tired of the surf boards.   :o)

Lastly my dear, sweet LILIANA.  I didn't intend for GC to be a masculine line- I wanted it to be gender neutral. Afterall, the beach is gender neutral, right? But after I started getting feedback people were saying what a great "boy" line it was. Don't get me wrong- I think it's great and I agree. However, I wanted to show it's versatality. This quilt is so cute with GC I can hardly stand it. So for all those Betty's out there that don't like 'girly' and 'pink' this one is for YOU! 

So, what do YOU think? Leave a comment telling me which is your favorite and I'll choose a random comment on Wednesday and send that lucky winner the pattern they picked!  :o) 

Here comes summer!

Wow! Summer came in with a bang this year. (No, not the weather)

Between running back and forth to basketball camp and getting another ready for camp it's been CRAZY around here.

I did manage to get a little more stitching done- but I don't think I'm going to show until I have the whoe project done.

I have some fun things coming up in the next couple of weeks. A trunk show at a guild and my market display at a Shop Hop. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures so I can share.

What are you doing with your summer?