Summer's last stand

Hi all! It's the end of another hot, hot week here.  It started out okay, but it has been over 90 degrees for the last several days. It's like summer has refused to give up and is hanging on for dear life.  If it dials back the heat just a little bit, I'm happy to let it stay.  Stick around, summer--we love you!

Anyway, this put me in a summer kind of mood this week, and I finally finished off the Sewcial Bee Sampler from Maureen Cracknell and Sharon Holland!

This quilt was super hard to get good pictures of because in addition to it being really warm, it was also very windy. It almost became a very colorful sail:

This was a sew along that began in February and ran all summer.  For the blocks I used a fat quarter bundle called Fresh Market from Riley Blake that I got as a gift.

This was wonderful fabric and I really loved the colors.  My biggest problem was running out of some of the fabrics I wanted to use.  There was a tiny orange and yellow print that I used for several backgrounds that I really liked, but I used it all up.  That's a good thing, right?  My quilt top is about 74 inches square with a 3-1/2 inch white border.  I think I have *just* enough of the black prints left over to do a scrappy "magic" binding, which will look awesome with that border.

For the block frames, I used Kona cotton solids in Goldfish, Buttercup, Soft Pink, Cabbage, and Bahama Blue.  I think Bahama Blue may be my new favorite, and Cabbage sounds awful but it's a really nice, useful green.  The intro to the sew along included a coloring page, so I planned out the colors of the block frames in advance.  I wish that I had planned the use of the fabric colors for the blocks too, but I wasn't thinking that far ahead.

I'm thinking of calling this the California quilt. Look at those prints!  Don't they just scream sunshine and beaches?  I really am looking forward to getting this all quilted up in the dead of winter when it's hard to remember what warm weather feels like.

Speaking of warm weather-- there is a major humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico right now in the wake of hurricanes Jose and Maria.  I've been to that beautiful island, and it is magnificent.  It hurts my heart to see it in such terrible straits.  Many of the places we enjoyed while we were there have been completely destroyed. If you are so inclined, please consider making a donation to help those warm, wonderful Americans rebuild their lives. HERE is a good list of reputable places to donate if you need it.  Thanks for considering a donation. They could certainly use all the help they can get.

Okay, enough of the soapbox! Hope everyone has a great weekend.  It's actually supposed to cool off some and you know what that means-- yard work.  Hope you have something happier planned!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Friday, and crazymomquilts.