We’re having a heatwave! “95°” That’s a respectable heat wave. So let’s price all the desert-y hot patterns in the 95s.
$10.00 $8.95, $14.00 $11.95, $16.00 $13.95, $20.00 $17.95
I grew up in southern California. I thought I knew what it meant to be hot!! But I remember the first time I really got a handle on the thing – heat that is. Our family was on vacation and staying in a little motel at Lake Mead. When we walked out of the door it felt like stepping into an oven. After we got out onto the lake where my dad was fishing. I jumped in the water to cool off. It was like a bathtub!!
Years later, my son living in nearby Las Vegas actually cooked an egg on the sidewalk. Yes, he did! It can really happen.
But a heat wave seems never-ending. The long-hot summer! Maybe you can picture it – maybe you’re living in it. I’ve collected up all my MeadowLyon Pantographs and Pictograms that made me think about hot weather – like “Modern Southwest” pictured over a free-style, mock quilt.
My Dad and brothers built a desert cabin just outside the town of Joshua Tree, near 29 Palms, CA. It was rugged with only one room, but it did have two sets of French doors across the back and a gasoline powered generator mounted on an old lawn mower chassis that Dad could fire up when we wanted electricity at night. Before that we used a lantern.
I loved hiking up Rattlesnake Hill right behind our house. After I got to the top I could see out over the valley and into the National Monument Park where they used to “shoot” westerns. I used to dress up in my little cowgirl outfit and run around trying to “rope” our Cocker Spaniel Rusty.
Ropin’ Horseshoes 
– Rodeo Kids 
Mustang Stampede.
Snakeskin
Oh, Yes! Did you notice that straight rope twist and corner on the Rodeo Kids layout? It’s FREE right now. So put “Rope Twist” in your cart. 
While you’re at it, be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page and sign up for our NEWSLETTER so you’ll know when we have special offers, new patterns and sales!
When my friend Helen in Las Vegas asked me to draw a pattern with southwest images for her I remembered so many things I had seen and loved in my childhood. I drew them into “Southwest Vistas.” 
Oh yes! Cactus! My mom was a crafty sort and she just had to have some of that decorative Cholla Cactus wood. I can remember her with a handerkerchief tied around her face like a mask and wielding a big butcher knife held by big heavy gloves – scraping the “stickers” off the cactus!! Those stickers are terrors!! They are the enemy!
I know that from experience. But, Cactus Flower that was another thing! They were friendly and had the brightest colors!! 
I’ve rounded up all the “hot weather patterns and put them on sale for you – just for memory’s sake. Titles like: Southwest Vistas, Spiral Suns (an all time favorite!), Spinning Kokopeli, Modern Southwest, Mosaic, Laguna de Cancun, Great Plains on the Move, Mustangs, Rodeo Kids, Ropin’ Horseshoes w Knotty Pine, Snakeskin, Cactus Flower, El Dorado, Pueblo Pottery (see a special tutorial below!) , Barnyard Dreams, Sunflowers, Giant Sunflowers, Chicken Feathers, MooCow, Illusion, Tornado, Mayan Glyphs, Portico Blooms, & Bengali Mosaic. Whew! is it hot in all those places???
But don’t worry – YOU’LL NEED TO COOL OFF with FREE SODA FOUNTAIN BLOCKS SET. The first 20 orders will get a PDF set emailed to them FREE within 24 hours! Just wrap your lips around them straws! On the Soda Fountain page you’ll see ideas for using them!
Now back to the longest of the hot days. They make me think of eating MEXICAN! I’ve attached a couple of favorite recipes for you down below. That reminds me – Do you know about EPAZOTE? It is the quintessential Mexican herb. Add it to your favorite chili recipe and you will be transported south of the border! Yep, but it’s hard to find out here in Kansas. I finally asked the guy at Acapulco and he gave me some sprigs. “Where did you buy this?” I asked. “I grow it myself!”
But now a little more quilt talk. I’ve got a new pattern to celebrate the heat – “Pueblo Pottery.” It’s a fun interlocking panto with all the flavor of the southwest.
I have an idea for you to use it on a quilt Remember the “Southwest Vistas” Pictogram (that’s a non-repeating panto) up above? I made a Southwest Pueblo quilt to showcase it. I used some simple improv piecing in desert colors to suggest the plateaus and native pueblo style houses. The round oven, the round beams, the ladders and drying racks all added a bit of interest, color and nostalgia. All this supported the amazing stitching of the “Pictogram” or vice-versa, the pictogram accented the strong southwest feel of the quilt.
I added more color to surround the main body of the quilt and have loved the
border ever since. So I’ve combined the blocks from that border
into a quilt layout.
Here’s how you can put it together.
And how it will look in a different colorway with the Pueblo Pottery design quilted over it.
So crank up that Air Cond and have fun sipping your sodas and putting together this fun desert quilt! Oh and don’t forget the recipes below.
