Five Little Orphans Vanishing 9 Patch

Pauline, over at A Stitching Frenzy asked how big would this quilt be with only 5 FQs and some additional green fabric.  Well, I thought about it and decided that I could get the best bang for my buck if I make 9 patches.  I figured out how big each piece had to be so I could use up almost all of each FQ.  The size came out to be 3-1/2 inches - making a 9 inch block.

This way, I could extend my little orphan FQs to almost double.  Then, I decided that even though this would be a cute quilt, it might be a bit boring (for my taste) and I decided to cut the 9 patches into fourths.

I took the focus fabrics and placed them across from each other in the middle of the new blocks. 

Now, I have an 8 inch (finished block) Vanishing 9 patch!!  I think I can make 16 blocks, which will give me a 36" by 36" table topper!!

Also, check out Pauline's post What's your Royal Wedding Name and which Tiara will you be wearing?  Its VERY cute!!!

Five Orphan Fat Quarters and a Bit of Green

a quilt will make!!!

Lauren's Sweater is DONE!!!

We had a wonderful day together yesterday.  Lauren's sweater actually got completed in time for her to wear it for Church.  And oh, my, she looked just darling in it!!

We started Easter with an amazing brunch at Michelle's.  She made homemade crepes with fresh fruit and yogurt and other yummies.  And Michelle made us Easter buckets with all our favorite things.

Then we went to Church as a family (we don't get to do that much because my Brother Greg and my darling sister-in-law live down in Mesa, AZ) and had a great time with each other.  It was a super windy day so we were all pretty wind-blown in this picture.

The rest of the family went back to Michelle's for egg salad sandwiches and movies everyone received for Easter.  Pop and I came home as he was pretty worn out from the big day.  We watched Cleopatra (the 4 hour version with Liz Taylor).  I watched most of it before I went to bed, but Pop had to tell me how it ended this morning!!

I hope you all had an equally wonderful Easter!!

Enjoy This Wonderful Day!

Moving Toward a New Look and New Name

Thank you to everyone who was kind enough to take some time out of their day to respond to my call out for help!!

I have decided that I am going to keep this blog but as you can see, I have made some changes to the color scheme I will be using and as soon as I figure out how to change the header, I will be changing it to:

My new name and new look!!  I will be tweaking things over the next few weeks.  I am excited about these changes and hope that you will be too!!  

Call Out to the Blogging World

Hi Everyone -

I am hoping some of you out there can help me with this situation I have found myself in.  I have been using the name THE QUILTING GARDEN for over 5 years for my eBay store and for this blog for over a year.  I have never had the need to have an official website so I never bought the domain thequiltinggarden.com.

Well, last fall when I went to go get the domain name, as now I do want to have an official website, some lady down in Texas took the name just a few days before I tried to get it and she now has a website.

So my dilemma is what to do.  I have discussed this matter with my computer web design professor and he suggested I find a new name, unlike The Quilting Garden, and start from scratch.  I have decided to do just that!!

My question to all of you is whether any of you have changed your blog names and if so what did you do??  Do I need to start a new blog with the new name?  Can I change the name of the blog but keep my existing content??  Or do I need to start from scratch and maybe have a link on this blog to my new blog??

Anyone out there that would be willing to help a fellow blogger?? 

Many, many thanks in advance!!!

And the Winner of the Fancy Schmancy Hexies is . . .

#2 - CECILIA

Congratulations, Cecilia - please email me with your address so I can send these darling hexie templates to you!!

Now This is a GOOD Friend!!

May you all have a friend that loves you this much, regardless of your differences!!!

Lauren's Sweater is ALMOST Done - Progress Report!!!

I got all the knitting done on Lauren's sweater this afternoon and then got it all sewn together tonight!!  I didn't have the right size crochet hook to finish the crocheting around the neck and sleeves, so tomorrow I will get the right one and will hopefully have this darling sweater done so Lauren can wear it to Church this coming Sunday!!

I wish this picture did the sweater justice - it is much cuter in real life but maybe the crocheted edging will just give it the pop it needs!!

Mystery Quilt Belongs to Michelle!!

For the past few weeks I have been working on a quilt called "Figgy Pudding," a MODA pattern using the Basic Grey fabric line for my niece Michelle's birthday, which is today.  I couldn't talk about it because she reads my blog and I didn't want to give away the secret.

About 18 months ago, Michelle showed me a pattern that she really loved and wanted to make - except she doesn't quilt - yet, that is!!!  So, when I found the quilt in a kit, I gave her the kit for her birthday last year.  Well, I have a reputation around my family going back about, oh, 40 years, and the rep is that if I make your gift, you will never get it in its complete form ON your birthday, or Christmas or Mother's Day or whatever occasion it happens to be, but you may get it all completed in oh, a year or two or three later.

Now, that was the old me, well at least for the most part.  Now I try really hard to finish what I start and finish it in a timely manner.  So it was a HUGE surprise for Michelle at her birthday party tonight to get her quilt completely finished - label and all!!

Sue, over at Summit Creek Quilts picked the best pattern in the world for this quilt.  Its called Christmas Trees 3 and it mimics the trees in the quilt!!  If you click on the picture you can see the darling quilting pattern!!  Cute, cute, cute, cute, cute!!

Michelle loved it!!!

Wonderful Quilt!!

As many of you know, I have "semi-retired" to come to St. George to help my darling 93 year-old Dad through the rest of his life.  In order to be able to stay home with him I have really worked hard at having some great products in my little eBay store and the Lord has blessed me greatly, selling enough to accomplish my goal.

Most of the time buyers buy and go their way.  Every once in awhile a buyer is gracious enough to stay in touch with me long enough to finish their quilt and send me a picture!!  That is exactly what Mary did!!  Mary bought Moda's "Happy" by Me & My Sister for the back and the "Happy" in Daffodil Yellow for the napkins.

Is this a darling quilt or what??  And look how fabulous the black stripe looks!!  I want to run right out and make of of these myself!!!

 (Click on the picture to see the detail!!  You'll be glad you did!!)

Mary, I so appreciate you spending the time to send me a picture of your gorgeous quilt!!!  I love it!!!

My First Attempt at Making Hexies and Hexie Flowers!!

Ok, I made the leap!!  Here are some of my first Hexies and I have started sewing together little flowers!!  I, of course, chose Kaffe Fassett fabrics for my first go around and I think they are going to be very colorful!!!

After looking at several blogs and videos on how to sew the hexies together, I have been trying different ways of sewing them and even though the picture below does not show it, some of the seams show the stitches in the front.  Slightly, but enough to make me crazy!!!

Well, I thought I had a good start until I read one blog in which she told me she was going to need 8000 hexies to complete the quilt she is working on!!!  8000???????  Is she nuts??  If it is true that I would need 8000 of these little guys to make a quilt, I'll be something like 93 years old before the quilt TOP even gets done!!  I was thinking I was going hand quilt this project!!  Ask me again in 5 years - I may send it off to Sue to machine quilt!!

Kool Kaleidoscope Progress Report

Well, I have to say that this phase of the process was very intimidating.  I was so afraid that I was not going to get the seams locked so that my two mirror pieces were just that - exact opposites.

Ricky Tims suggests that we don't worry about getting the whole length of the strata locked in and that was good advise because it just wasn't happening.  But I was able to get the seams locked in for each piece and got all six pieces cut out.

Once cut, I opened them up right there on the cutting table to see if they did good and I think it looks pretty KOOL!!  The only thing is that I have a hole in the middle and the picture in Ricky's book does not have the hole.  I am hoping that the hole goes away once everything gets sewn together!!

Really does look like a kaleidoscope, doesn't it!!! Click on picture to see a close up look!!!

GIVEAWAY!!! 400 + Fancy Schmancy 1" Hexie Templates!!!

Ok, you guys - you have caught me up in the Hexie Addiction!!!  And after deciding on how I was going to make my paper templates, I decided to use up some of the Scrapbooking cardstock I have been accumulating for the past few years.  Long ago I decided scrapbooking was not my thing!!  :-)

These hexies turned out so cute I thought I could just make a paper quilt using the hexie templates!!!  Ha! Ha!  Only kidding!!!  but look how cute:

Now, I decided as a way to say thank, I thought a "Thank You Giveaway" was in order.  So, on April 15th - Tax Day of all days - I would give away 400+ of these cute templates.  The templates are 1" templates (measuring 1" along each side).

I even added a few Christmas hexies just in case anyone was thinking that far ahead.  Now, I would imagine that some of you will not like the idea of colorful templates - you know- the die hard  traditionalists, but for the rest of you, heres what is to be done:

For one chance to win, please leave a comment - I love comments!!

To win a second chance, I would love it if you will leave a link in your comment to some of your hexie projects!!

And then finally, if you would like a third chance, I would love it if you would become a follower and if you already are a follower, just let me know!!

DISCLAIMER!!!  Now, for those of you who might be thinking about becoming new followers, please know that I am ADHD (so my best friend Regena, the Special Ed Teacher, tells me) and lots of times I start a million new projects and my older projects take a back room.  But know that once a project is started it is finished - SOME DAY!!  I just see so many things I want to do, I start them and then  . . . .

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!

I May Be Slow But I Am Sure!!!

Last November I was reading Carin's blog at Margaret's Hope Chest and was so impressed that I emailed her and asked if I could make a quilt top to send to her for a child that may like a quilt to keep them warm and safe. Well, here it is April 1, 2011 and I finally have the top done!!

I would imagine that Carin has long forgotten my email to her but hopefully the quilt top will be made into a wonderful quilt and off to some darling little kid that is in need of a love hug!!!  Thank you Carin for this opportunity to help!!!