Here is a cutie for you!

I just finished this baby quilt for a friend who is having her second baby.  Although I like surprises, it sure is fun to know the sex AND the name of a baby when making a quilt.  Yes, this little quilty is quite orange with a dash of red.  The outer border is kona cotton in Papaya.  I love that color!
And I had some more fun with pieced letters using Tonya Ricucci's book Wordplay. 
 So much fun putting a name into the quilt!

 After I got the letters all pieced together, it looked like it said 'cotton' because the crossbar on the T was touching the L.  It was bothering me and some friends that I consulted so I unpicked some center seams and pieced in a tiny white strip.   Aaaaah, much better.  The applique patterns are from a Don't Look Now pattern called Peak Hour.  You must check it out.  I mean it, go there now.  I'll wait.............

                                                   
                                                     I used the leftovers to piece the back.

 My inspiration fabric.  A Kokka print I got when I went to New York City to see the Red and White quilt exhibit.  It came in a bundle with most of the other fabrics in the quilt. 

 I spent all day saturday at a sewing marathon with some friends.  And thank goodness for that because we are having a mega heat wave here and our air conditioner breathed its last cool breath.  No fooling peeps,  it was 91 degrees in my sewing room and I'm pretty sure the humidity was 112%!!  Thank goodness we are blessed with a swimming pool.  I may have perished Friday without it.  By the way, if you have never been skinny dipping, you really should put it on your bucket list.  You can draw your own conclusions about what made me mention that.  All I'm saying is that sometimes it's just too darn hot to drag a suit on, you just have to strip and JUMP.  (the closest neighbors we have are family and none of them can see our pool from their houses. In case you were worried.)

        So I have a wonderful friend, Chris.  A true sweetie, generous and kind to all.  Would you just LOOK at what she got me!  For no reason at all except that it made her think of me.  She was dead on when she thought I would like this cool retro print.  It's called 'Hoe down' and I am nuts about it.  Right now, I just have it pinned on my design wall like a piece of art.  It's a generous 2 yard piece and I am going to have to make something very cool out of it. 

 I went straight to my stash and pulled out these fat quarters that I knew I had.  Aren't they perfect?  And I hope you're impressed because I plucked them right off the shelf.  I've had them for at least 4 years.  Let that be a lesson to anyone who wonders about quilters and their stash.  Yessiree, we absolutely DO know what we have.  And sometimes we can find it, lol.   If you are wondering, I still haven't found the step stool.  We've decided the only way to find it is to buy a new one and I just don't know if I want to do that. 

Also,  a priority mail envelope is stuffed and on its way to Dortha in Alabama.  Enjoy!