Welcome to this month's Toad-Spo! I chose this particular color palette because I wanted to capture the vibrant essence of June. Inspired by the AGF Nostalgia Fat Quarter Bundle, this collection was carefully curated to showcase a range of bright and playful colors that perfectly embody the spirit of early summer. When I see these colors, I am instantly transported to the memories of going down the shore with my family - surrounded by colorful bathing suits, vibrant umbrellas, and the presence of my favorite people relaxing and having a good time!    June is typically a very busy month for me… it's a time when the weather is warm, friends are close, and I focus on what is important in my life. We've been hosting BBQs, taking last-minute day trips, meeting new people, and taking full advantage of the sun setting past 9:30 at night!! I encourage you to take a moment and do something spontaneous this summer - take a last-minute day trip to the beach (or lake), splurge on a fancy restaurant you've been eyeing, take a painting class, or go skydiving! If winter is meant for hibernation - summer is meant for adventure! Maybe even this June quilt color palette is adventurous for you? 

This quilt pattern is a special one for me. Rocky Coast is inspired by my Pop Pop named Rocky. I spent lots of time as a child making memories with him while walking the shores searching for starfish, seashells, and unique rocks. The title is multifaceted and celebrates his time on Earth.

For the quilter making this quilt pattern, Rocky Coast is a great pattern for those that love half-square triangles and half-rectangle triangles, as this pattern is solely made up of these basic blocks! If you’ve never made half-rectangle triangles before, Rocky Coast is written with some detailed graphics to walk you through the sewing and trimming process. You can use this pattern to learn new techniques, master trimming, and nest your points!

Our maker, Claire, decided this was the pattern for her as soon as she saw all of the Toad-Spo June quilt color palette mock-ups! I’m so glad that she went with Rocky Coast, and made the mock-up into a reality! With this quilt having 11 colors in it, I had to expand the Toad-Spo color palette a bit, but if you know me, playing with all of the colors until it was just right was a treat!

The Toad-Spo Rocky Coast June quilt color palette was made entirely of Art Gallery Fabrics print and solid fabrics! On the top, we went with Pure Solids in the colors Raw Gold, Mandarin, Burnt Orange, Quartz Pink, Cactus Flower, Ocean Fog, Secret Lagoon, Swimming Pool, Evergreen, Icy Mint, and Snow. All of these colors together make a very cute retro-esque rainbow!

While 11 colors sounds like a lot (sorry but kind of not sorry - I love color!), there are a couple ways to make it a little easier to pull your fabrics for this quilt! If you're having trouble picking out colors, try pairing up colors (3,4), (5,6), (7,8), and (9,10). For example, use a dark/medium tone for the odd number color and a lighter monochromatic one for the even number color. (I.e. dark pink for color 9 paired with light pink for color 10.) For this one, I paired the pinks, oranges, and the 2 sets of blue/greens together.

You can also combine some of the colors to be used in two places if you’d rather not use as many colors as I did. Combining colors 1, 2, and 3 together to use one “background” color might make it a little easier to play around with the monochromatic pairs that I mentioned above! 

I mentioned that this quilt pattern was made up exclusively of half square triangles (HSTs) and half rectangle triangles (HRTs) earlier, and I’m pretty sure that got a couple groans from some of the readers here. To be fair, HSTs aren’t my favorite blocks. They can take a lot of time to make and trim, which can suck the fun right out of quilt-making. Plus, they are kind of easy to mess up - only because they are simple blocks and easy to take for granted!!

I asked my Instagram followers to give me lots of tips, tricks, and hacks for making and trimming HSTs and they dropped lots of goodies in the comments!! Here are a few good ones I want to share:

• MANY people suggested the Bloc Loc rulers for trimming!! These are a great option for those that press their seams to the “dark side” since this ruler uses that center ridge for lining itself up! They come in lots of different sizes, so you’re bound to find the perfect ruler for your project in their shop. If you’d rather not spend extra money on a special ruler, you can DIY your own version by putting a couple layers of washi tape across the diagonal of your regular ruler. The layers of tape will catch the ridge of your seam just the same!
• Start your trimming session with a fresh rotary cutter blade! You definitely don’t want to trim any more than you have to, and going over the same spot a couple of times with a dull blade can add lots of extra time spent on this step.
• Use a rotating cutting mat to trim your HSTs on! This is such a good tip! Since you have to take the time to line up your ruler in the perfect place on your block to make your first cuts, you don’t want to have to pick it up and take that time again to get the last cuts too. Instead, you can leave it in its place on the block and just rotate the mat! And if you don’t have a rotating mat, you can use a Lazy Susan with a regular cutting mat on top instead. 

While HRTs are similar to HSTs, the trimming process is not the same. Actually, trimming HRTs feels like you’re doing it all wrong and can make your head spin a little bit. Like I mentioned before, I included some really detailed graphics in Rocky Coast for trimming HRTs that make it really easy to understand and follow. Plus, the pre-trimmed HRTs are written with lots of trimming room to make it as stress-free as possible!

The biggest thing with HRTs is that the diagonal seam does not go from corner to corner on the trimmed HRT block. You’ll notice that the seam is a little off and you’re left with tiny notches of fabric on the side of the seam. This is totally normal! After the HRT is sewn into the quilt, that off-set diagonal seam fits right into the ¼” seam allowance you’re using and your points will end up perfect.

Our fabulous longarm quilter for June is Ashley Perkins of Hen House Quilting! We are big fans of Ashley around here - not only because she’s a FANTASTIC quilter but also because is a pretty cool chick too! ;) If you are in need of a longarm quilter, we definitely recommend checking out Ashley for your quilting needs!

We were looking into some flowy pantographs to contrast all of the sharp points and edges of the Rocky Coast quilt. Ashley sent us really good ideas and made it hard for us to just choose one! In the end, we went with the Jasper pantograph to give it some great movement while still maintaining those points! I feel like this looks like a mountain-y design, which pairs perfectly with the quilt design!

I’ve had my eye on this backing fabric for a long time! I knew that I wanted to use it, but I was waiting for the perfect quilt to pair it with. Then the June Rocky Coast entered the chat. Of course, I had to pair this funky, retro print with this color palette! This backing fabric is Art Gallery Fabrics Flower Power from the Flower Bloom collection designed by AGF. Honestly, this entire collection is perfect, so you might be seeing these fabrics a lot sprinkled throughout future quilts!

The binding is the Pure Solids Cactus Flower fabric that we used in the quilt top. 

We absolutely love how this turned out! Claire and Ashley did an exceptional job making this Rocky Coast quilt come to life. If you’d like to make this quilt, you can now grab the quilt pattern on sale through the weekend! Use the code ROCKYJUNE20 at checkout for 20% off the Rocky Coast quilt pattern.

If you’d like to make this quilt a reality, please contact one of these shops!

• Full Moon Fabric Company
• Pasadena Quilt Studio
• Lamb and Loom Fabrics
• Cottoneer
• Hawthorne Supply Co.
• Stash Fabrics
• Wyldwood Creative
• Blossom Quilt & Craft
• Piper Autumn Fabrics

Our featured maker this month is Claire! She is from Northern IL and has been quilting for 8 years. She’s a self-taught quilter who had lots of help from the internet to teach her. Any fabric line with cats involved is bound to be in one of Claire’s quilts or in her fabric stash. She actually has two cats of her own, Hazel and Ivy, and a dog, Stitch. They all take their supervisor (or su"purr"visor) roles very seriously!!

When Claire is sewing, you’ll often see her head-down and focused with an audiobook playing while making her next colorful quilt. No color is off-limits in her sewing room! She pulls inspiration for her quilts from other art forms--things like paintings, architecture, tile patterns. One of her big quilty goals is to make a quilt for her king size bed one day. We can’t wait to see the pattern she picks!

Fun Facts:

• She’s a Fleetwood Mac fan!
• If she could live anywhere, she would live in Boston.
• Her dream superpower would be to read minds.
• Her favorite foods are ice cream and pesto--but not together!

Meet Woodrose, my guest design for the month of July over on Modern Makes Membership! This is a delicate and dainty curved wall hanging project that will be available as a subscription project box and a digital PDF pattern. This design is exclusive to Modern Makes Membership. If you would like to make Woodrose, you can find all the information for signing up here!

COLOR YOUR OWN USING QUILTINK

If you're loving what you're seeing and want to save this color palette for future use - don't forget to pin it by clicking the image below.