Quiltmakers 100 Blocks! All this from one inspired idea!

Its my turn to share with you my block and remind you to leave a comment here to be entered into a drawing for lots of great prizes!

This story is all about inspiration! I was working on a new Mug Rug pattern for my Mug Rug Club and I was babysitting my twin granddaughters. We were watching cartoons and a fish poked his head out of the water and my heart jumped and I knew I had my new pattern. While I was designing and making my new Mug Rug pattern I decided to make my block for Quiltmakers 100 block volume 11 magazine.

My first Fish Mug Rug

Then I had another idea

and another, all Mug Rug patterns then I went to the block

Here is my block that you have in your magazine with the pattern and templates! But I wasn't done yet, I was on a roll!

From the there my mind was still spinning and I decided that this would be a wonderful fabric line so I designed the small stripe after my Mug Rugs and block and sent it off to see if my fabric company, Quilting Treasures was interested in me developing the line, they were very excited and I started developing the whole line. 

This was the painting of my idea for fabric I sent to QT and I went on to develop the panel with all the characters and the coordination fabrics too. 

The Under the Sea Panel

But wait! Thats not all! I thought to myself that it was too cute to not make a baby with this idea, and so I designed this cute quilt that matches everything! 

Same idea, worked a bit differently. And just when you thought I was finished with this idea I thought that these adorable and now very popular fish would make a wonderful embroidery CD to go along with everything else and so Free in the Sea Embroidery was born!

All that from one afternoon watching a cartoon and being inspired enough to keep developing my idea! 

So if you are interested in anything you see here today you can find it on my website at www.desireesdesigns.com but you can get the block pattern now in the Quiltmakers 100 Blocks Vol 11 out now!! Leave a comment and be entered into a drawing to recieve a free magazine and gifts too! I will also be giving away a free panel to one lucky person who leaves a comment here! 

Right NOW!! Blog Hops with tons of giveaways!!!

This week is a crazy week of blog hops for me but that makes for a great week for you and it all starts Today!! Make sure you check back often in the next week and a half and leave a comment for chances to win some amazing prizes from magazines and authors and other creatives!! This is going to be a killer week for everyone!! I am so excited you will be joining me!! First we have the Quiltmaker Blog Hop Tour featuring the 100 Blocks Magazine that is available now!!

  

Check out the designers that are featured today and leave comments on their blogs for chances to win some great prizes! I will be on Thursday so come back and leave a comment here too!!!

Today also starts my good friend, Sue Bleiweiss's Blog Tour to celebrate her newest book called Colorful Fabric Collage! Friday the 8th is my day! I am honored to be one of the featured artists in the book and I will be talking about my little quilt I made for the book and if you leave a comment on that day you will have the chance to win all this prize package that includes a book, a stack of 10" squares of my hand dyed fabric, some spools of Aurifil thread and a package of Mistyfuse.
Click on the book to see more, its a link to Amazon where you can get your copy! Below is a list of the contributing designers that will be doing the blog hop and offering free prizes!! Don't miss out!

May 4: Sue Bleiweiss: http://www.suebleiweiss.com/blog/

May 4: Jamie Fingal :http://www.jamiefingaldesigns.com/
May 5: Leslie Tucker Jenison: http://leslietuckerjenison.blogspot.com/
May 6: Terri Stegmiller : http://stegart.blogspot.com/
May 7: Deborah Boschert : http://deborahsjournal.blogspot.com/
May 8: Desiree Habicht : http://myclothesline.blogspot.com/
May 9: Kathy Sperino : http://finishinglinesbyksperino.blogspot.com/
May 10: Barb Forrister : http://www.barbforrister.com/blog/
May 11 Kathy York : http://www.aquamoonartquilts.blogspot.com/
May 12: Lyric Kinard : http://lyrickinard.com/lyric-kinard-blog/

Then on to my dear friend Lyric Kinard who just released her amazing DVD called Thermofax 101, which is all about thermofax screen printing and mixed media. I took one of my paintings and had her make me a thermofax screen and I will be showing off my project and offering not only a free give away of Lyrics DVD but also I will be giving away some of my prints of my screen on fabric and paper for you to do what you please with! More on May 12 here on my blog. Here are links and the blogs to visit starting May 1st and check out the Thermofax 101 picture is a link to Amazon!

May 1- Elizabeth and Sue Gibson-http://pgfiber2art.blogspot.com/
May 2- Judy Coates Perez http://www.judycoatesperez.com
May 4- Linda Stokes  www.lindastokes-textileartist.com
May 6-Jane Davia http://janedavila.blogspot.com
May 7- Liz Kettle http://www.textileevolution.com/index.php/our-journey
May 8- Carol Sloan  http://carolbsloan.blogspot.com
May 9 - Kathy York- http://aquamoonartquilts.blogspot.com
May 11- Susan Brubaker Knapp http://wwwbluemoonriver.blogspot.com
May 12- Desiree Habicht- http://myclothesline.blogspot.com
May 13-Jamie Fingal-http://JamieFingalDesigns.blogspot.com/
May 14- Deborah Boschert- http://deborahsjournal.blogspot.com
May 15- Sarah Ann Smith-sarahannsmith.com/weblog

Whiling away the Summer Days

This summer has been a mix of extremes, super hot days then cool days, then humid days. It recently decided hot was where it would stay. I have still been able to open up the house at night to cool things off and then close it up in the morning to try and keep the heat out so I don't have to run the air conditioning. The mornings are wonderful and the evenings are perfect for swimming, walking but the hot part of the day you will find me hiding inside. How have all of you guys been dealing with the summer so far? I made some Hibiscus sun tea yesterday and sat with my feet in the pool enjoying the breeze of late afternoon and talking to my husband who was in the pool brushing it down.  My peach tree was so loaded this year, and with us being away, I was unable to thin enough to save one of my limbs which is now being supported by two by fours until the fruit is picked and then it will have to come off.

It makes me so sad to loose another major limb, the tree is just so productive. The peaches are white flesh, free stone and I love them so much. There is just nothing like fresh peaches over ice cream, even now over vegan ice cream.

Its just not summer without that. Last year I canned jams, preserves, chutneys and relishes. This year I am going to make more fresh fruit things for a change. Some fresh relishes, fresh fruit pies, every morning my cereal is loaded with peaches, its been a bumper crop!

My vegan scone recipe, turned out a bit loose even though I dried the peaches before adding. They didn't look like a normal scone but they taste pretty yummy. 

They are great to grab and go for breakfast or to snack on, fat free too!

Since I don't want to heat up the kitchen, cooking and baking are kept to a minimum and then I have been setting some time aside to do some Spring cleaning. I have been avoiding this for too long and I make myself go through magazines, paperwork etc and organize for a few hours then I get to go and work on a sewing project or paint. I finished a block to submit to Quiltmakers 100 Blocks, if they except it I hope to see it in Volumes 9 or 10. I would like to submit another, we will see. I have some art quilts also that need to be finished up.

The Queen

I did this small wallhanging art quilt for a challenge in my art quilt group called Sub-Q. The challenge was holes. We were free to interpret anyway we liked and being an avid gardner had been dealing with damage to my hollyhocks from snails. I had declared all out war actually as they had practically skeletonized all the leaves on my poor bushes. It was perfect for the challenge and I painted it and then quilted it to some black felt. I then cut out the felt and leaves to produce holes. I have now decided it needs a bit more color on top and I am going to back it with another fabric. I am contemplating wether to cut through the fabric like I did in the front and make the holes go all the way through or back it with black and leave it. I am kind of leaning towards cutting it out. I think it will be interesting to see all the way through the quilt to the wall. I really love this little wall hanging more and more as it hangs in my studio. I still have my Hollyhocks too!

Hollyhocks, handpainted, machine quilted. Available 

I also have another fabric line due so I need to focus and get going on that, time is flying by and I just haven't been inspired. That is my goal this week, get it done!!

Oh and just a few other Summer things of note so far. My oldest grandson graduated from High School even though we all know I couldn't possibly be that old. But anyway, my daughter made him a money lei that she found on Pinterest. It was awesome!

Congrats Mikey!

And finally, it is Jennifer's birthday tomorrow. Its hard to believe she will be 37! Although she is in a wheelchair now I will always remember her free, independent spirit, and riding our horses through the hills together. She is an amazing person and although physically challenged she still continues to amaze and inspire me everyday. Happy Birthday Jenn!!