Welcome to my home in the desert. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that it is the desert since it is so beautiful and I like to show it off. So when Jen offered a free pattern and Jen and Jan offered to host a blog hop, I jumped at the chance.
Read on to find out how to win some prizes! Jen from A Dream and A Stitch designed the pattern which can be found here just in case you want to make one too. Here’s a pic of the pattern I started with. It went from this……
Participants were encouraged to personalize and embellish the pattern. The possibilities were endless.
to this.
Personalize and embellish it, I did. It finished at 16.5″ square.
I found the perfect fabric for the back in Tucson at the Quilt Festival in February. Melva from Melva Loves Scraps was with me and was wondering what I would use it for. But I kept it a surprise.
I like Saguaros so using two for the clothesline posts seemed quite natural. If you missed my post last week about the Saguaros, you can click here to see some pretty awesome pictures and find out where in the world you can find these tall giants.
The itty bitty mini block was divided into 6 sections containing a total of 47 pieces.
The 4 inch mini took me a full day of sewing. How ironic that this quilter living in a very obvious desert chose to make a lighthouse and water scene quilt. The itty bitty mini lighthouse block was designed by Janeen of Quilt Art Designs who blogs at quiltartdesigns.blogspot.com.
Here was my first finished piece as I began to trim it. What’s missing? Oh, no, I trimmed off the seam allowance on two sides. There was no other way around this mistake except to make another one. I included this pic, just in case you think, I am a whiz at paper piecing.
I added some buttons and beads for the blooms and a barrel bead as a way for this quilter to attach a clothesline to the cactus..
Doesn’t every house need a purple brick chimney? Here in the desert area of Arizona, many houses have light tiled roofs. Of course, my house had to have one, too.
It seemed natural to quilt rays of sunshine. I used painter’s tape to mark the lines.
I am not very neat when I create and sew.
Visit other quilt bloggers to see their creative interpretation of this pattern and then download it so you can make it too. Let me know if you make one. You will find the list of bloggers below. Oh, and there are prizes too!!!! Check out Jen’s blog A Dream and A Stitch AND Jan’s blog Color Creating and Quilting and leave a comment on BOTH of their blogs to enter. Thank you Jen and Jan for hosting this fun blog hop!
What I Learned Today:
- I am not very neat while I create. In fact, I am very messy.
- I like to dabble in small pieces.
- I need to plan earlier and work harder.
- There’s nothing like a looming deadline to spur me into action or get the creative juices flowing.
Question: Do you hang laundry outside or toss into the dryer?
Visit these bloggers for Quilter’s Laundry Day.
March 10th, 2017
Jen Rosin at A Dream and a Stitch Be sure to comment here to win prizes. Thanks Jen!
Kate Heads at Smiles From Kate
Jennifer Fulton at Inquiring Quilter
Karen Thurn at Tu-Na Quilts, Travels and Eats You are here. Thanks for stopping by and do come again.
Melva Nolan at Melva Loves Scraps
Vicki at Vicki’s Crafts & Quilting
Julie Stocker at Pink Doxies
Anja Clyke at Anja Quilts
Diann at Little Penguin Quilts
Jayne at Twiggy & Opal
Susan Arnold at Quilt Fabrication
Leanne Milsom at Lizzie the Quilter
Sandra Walker at Mmm! Quilts!
March 11, 2017
Janice Holton at Color Creating & Quilting Be sure to comment here to win prizes. Thanks, Jan!
Sola at Alice Samuels Quilt Co
Jennifer Strauser at Dizzy Quilter
Amy Gerlich at Amy Scrap Spot
Sharon Denney Parcel at Yellow Cat Quilt Designs
Tami at Sew Much for Free Time
Suzy Webster at Adventurous Applique & Quilting
Tish Stemple at Tish’s Adventures in Wonderland
Susan Gordon at Sevenoaks Street Quilts
Anne Boundy at Said With Love
Barbara Wootie at The Flashing Scissors
Jan Welander at Making Scraps
Mary Marcotte at Fleur de Lis Quilts
Linking to Finished or Not Friday, and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? and Sew Can She for Show Off Saturday. Monday Making, and Main Crush Monday
Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats 
Hi there fellow Hopper, great post. I love your customisation, the washing posts are especially great and hats of to you for that lovely mini quilt, wow.
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Cacti posts, so neat, what a wonderful idea, and just like the real ones, and you hopped or travelled far and wide to find the lighthouse. Love it all.
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Laundri day on cacti! That is just marvellous! Lovely, how that turned out. Karen, you like dabbling with small pieces… uhm… would you like me to send you a bag of small small pieces. They are ever multiplying and I have no real need for them.
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This is so beautiful and I love love all your embellishments! I shiver just to think of how tiny the pieces of your lighthouse must be for a 4.5″ finish…well done 💖
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What a marvelous job you did on this quilt. I grew up in Arizona. I have spent more years living in Arizona than anywhere else. But I was born an Army brat and have lived in over 30 places in my lifetime. I still remember getting off the airplane the last time I visited Arizona. It smelt like “My Arizona”. I can’t describe the smell but can just love it!!
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Adding the cacti was a brilliant way to make this your own. So clever and cute!
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I grinned from ear to ear when I saw your rendition of this cute pattern! Saguaro as clothesline posts!!! LOVE! Love the little details like the buttons and the mini-mini’s irony. That mini-mini–!!! Unbelievable and most excellent work.
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I love the details-perfect fabric for the brick house!
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How fun did this turn out?! I love how you changed it up to reflect who you are! I use my dryer…but back in the day I hung clothes on a line! Nothing like that fresh smell!
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Hey Karen!! What a fabulous mini!!! The saguaros as a quilt holder is genius!!! I was born in Yuma and my 2 brothers were born in Tucson! We moved away when I was 3, so I don’t remember it. My Mama said she would hang the clothes out to dry. When she got to the end of the line, she went back to the beginning to take the clothes off since they were already dry!! Amazing! She also said that they never had to buy a sandbox for us kids since the whole yard was our sandbox!!! I live on the NW side of Houston, TX, and don’t have a clothesline. In the summer, I do sometimes put some items out to dry! There is something about the fresh air drying clothes that is nice!!
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Karen, your Quilter’s Laundry Day is wonderful! I have been visiting the desert for years, ever since my parents bought their winter home in Mesa, so I love it there, too. The cactus are such a fun idea, and I love the addition of the sun up in this corner. Of course, your backing fabric is perfect!
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In Haiti, they just laid their clothes on the cactus-like bushes to dry. You are so creative!
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wow I love your take on this mini quilt. and your clothesline quilt is perfect as the ocean in the desert.
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I live in the very rainy Pacific NW, but as soon as the sun shines, I hang laundry on the line. Love the way it smells, love the scratchiness of it!
What a wonderful quilt-within-a-quilt! Wow!
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You did an amazing project. Love every thing about this mini. ❤️❤️❤️
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Oh, my goodness, that is a lot of tiny detail on that itty bitty quilt. I love how you personalized this one to be more like home. The cacti is such a clever addition 🙂
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Wonderful! I love all the personal touches. The cacti! Love it! Thanks for joining us. 🙂
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Karen, you made me smile! I’m out west looking onto the desert this very moment, and your take on the block is perfect!! Love, love the buttons on the cacti, too! As to your laundry question: We use our dryer very little, and each family member has their own drying racks. We are line dryers whether summer or winter, and as a benefit our clothes last longer.
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What a fun little quilt! I like the clothesline post so much!
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Love the cacti – great way to add interest!
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Karen, this is so cute and such a perfect reflection of you. Love the cactus and the buttons/beads, the rays of sunshine, and that mini quilt that took two tries. It is wonderful!
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Love it! Especially the backing 😄
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Thanks. That backing was perfect and I wish I would have bought more than a half yard of it! Since now I have less than a fat quarter left.
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Ah, what a fun interpretation of the clothespoles!! Well, the whole quilt, really. A lighthouse in the desert–there has to be a metaphor there somewhere. I do use my dryer, but hang a lot of my clothing (black tee shirts and pants–big part of my wardrobe) from the shower bar in my guest bath to air dry. I do wish I had a clothes line, if for no other reason than to hang quilts when I photograph them. Clotheslines are sort of frowned on in my neighborhood–I don’t know why because I love the nostalgia of them and the heavenly smell of sun-dried laundry.
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Thanks for the compliments.
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Love the clothes line posts and your sun! What a cute idea and the little mini contrasts so well
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Thanks. I was originally going to make an itty bitty paper pieced butterfly but saw this pattern in my file and thought it would be quite ironical to see a lighthouse in the desert.
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Clothes go in dryer or hanger in bathroom. Too dirty outside (no grass) to hand clean things.
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Many years ago we had the siding on our northern house replaced and the attached pull-out clothesline was never reinstalled. So now I dry most things in the dryer and line dry indoors my shirts and pants as I think the dryer is shrinking them.
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Oh my word!! Your teeny mini lighthouse quilt is amazing. 😀 I also completely love the cacti as poles. Such a fun share.
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Thanks. It was a real light bulb moment when I came up with the desert idea.
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OMG! The cactuses are FANTASTIC!
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Thanks. I’m planning on making another for my other house using apple trees to hold up the quilt that might have something to do with cacti on it.
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I love the desert theme and of course the cacti are to die for.
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Thanks. Those cacti were thorny things that I had to take apart twice to get the right proportions.
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hehehe! The cactus are great!!!
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Thanks. Tampering with a Saguaro in Arizona is illegal. I hope I don’t get arrested.
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This is awesome! I love your touches.
I used to hang laundry on a rack on my deck, but my husband and sons complain too much about scratchy clothes.
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Thanks.I’m finding it fascinating to hear how my readers dry their things. I use a combination of line drying inside the house and the dryer. I stopped outside line drying when we resided and the pull-out clothesline attached to the house was not reinstalled. But I do miss it. I usually line dry my shirts and pants as I find the dryer shrinks things too much.
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Excellent interpretation of this mini. I am having so much fun looking at all of them. Great desert scene with your. The cactus, the backing fabric, the rays of sun- it is wonderful. Especially love the mini that you used as your quilt on the line.
In the winter I use our dryer and also a drying rack for all the shirts and sweaters that I don’t want in the dryer. In the summer I use our clothesline quite a bit so I don’t warm the house up too much.
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I first was going to make a butterfly mini but when I saw my pattern for the lighthouse I knew it would be perfectly ironic to have that one plus it added some blue that my quilt needed.
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Oh, you are so clever! This is adorable!
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Thank you. This was a fun pattern to add personal touches and embellishments.
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OH MY GOODNESS!! The creativity and detail in your mini is unbelievable! The cactus poles just delight my soul. I’m chuckling even as I write this. I’m curious how long it took you to piece the lighthouse quilt. WOW! The sun and sunshine rays quilting is the perfect finishing touch. You outdid yourself, Karen!
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Thanks. The mini lighthouse took me a full day—I started in the morning and finished after supper. Ok there were a few breaks in between. It was difficult at first and the first two sections had to be redone..the first I explained in the post as I cut off the seam allowances on two sides and the second section because I started with number 8 instead of number 1 and used the wrong color fabric for those numbers…the sky and cliff were reversed.
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I love your dessert version!!!!!! This is a fun pattern and I love seeing how each of you personalized it.
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Thank you. It was fun to sew and I plan to make another for my North Dakota house using apple trees for the posts.
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What a great mini you’ve made here! I love your laundry – just wonderful!!
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This is such a good adaptation Karen , with the cacti – love it!
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I like the way you really customized your quilt. Yes, sometimes I hang laundry outside when the weather is nice–mostly large things like sheets and blankets.
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Sorry, I am a little late!
Your block is so cool! I love the colors that you choose for your house and those giant cacti are pretty darn neat!
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Great story, Tuna! I love your lighthouse mini quilt …. cacti for clothesline posts ….. and the way you quilted the sunrays! Wonderful!
When the weather is good I like to hang my laundry outside ….. I do love that fresh smell when the washing comes in from the line ….. but come winter it goes in the tumble dryer!
Nice to meet you!
Barbara x
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Love the details and love the ocean in the desert!!!!
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On the laundry front, When it nice out all the bedding is hung to dry. Along with towels and such . The rest hit the dryer ….I sooooo want (and need) a day for hanging out the bedding right now
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Dryer, even when I lived in Phoenix – too dusty! Here, I’d be waiting a while most of the year because it rains so often. I think your quiltlet is perfect! I’m a great fan of the saguaro, and your little flowers are perfect. The house almost looks adobe brick with that great fabric, too. Thanks for a morning smile. I came for QQQ, but this is fun, too!
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Wghat a fun quilt!! You’re so creative!! The cactus pictures are Awesome! I lived in Phoenix long while back..looooved the desert when the cactus bloom!! 🙂
Thanks for sharing!! 😀
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Very cute fabric!! Love giraffes!
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