Sunday Afternoon Drive . . .

The local Iris Society had their tour this weekend and so a friend and I went to for drive this afternoon to look at some of the gardens ~ For a closer look, click on the first picture and go through the pictures full-frame!!  Gorgeous!!

 Hey, wait - you guys are not irises!!

These are one of my very favorite flowers!!

Saturday's Smile!!

This is Such a Fun, Fun Quilt!!

My sweet friend Bev, pictured in the photos below, was asked by her brother, also in the photos below, to make a quilt out of the exotic shirts that he loves to wear but had gotten tired of - Ha! - he probably just wanted to buy new ones!!  LOL!!  Hmmmmmmm, is that one he has on a new one??

She asked if I would make a back for it and quilt it.  Well, how can one say no to that offer - AND she would pay me to do so!!  Yiks!!

Then the binding was my gift to her (well, and to me too because my favorite part of making a quilt is hand stitching the binding)!!  And to top it all off, I am working on a second one for her - she said she might keep the second one because she loved the first one so much!!  Isn't it wonderful to have such great friends??  :-))

Thank You for All Your Help and Giveaway Winner!!

Oh, wow, I guess all these years that I have been making 2 Hexie Flowers at a time and sending them off and receiving 2 flowers once in awhile, I really had not done much thinking about what it took to put them all together into a quilt!!

Yiks!!  Lots of thinking and planning and LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of work!!  When I get this completed, like a million years from now, I think it will be gorgeous!!  

I took into consideration all the comments everyone offered and suggestions and decided this is going to be my plan ~

Like most of you, I liked picture #3 the best until Wendy said:

I like having two rounds on the flowers and then what is called the path around those two which would be finished like the last set of pics with one round after the batik fabric...this allows for a larger flower which in turn will make your quilt larger..

And then Daryl said:

Typically a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt has a "path" that surrounds each hexagon flower. Choose a color you want for the path and use it throughout. I have also seen diamonds sewn as the path instead of hexagons. Here is the photo of the Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt that my mom made the top for over 40 years ago and that I finally quilted and finished 2 years ago: http://patchouli-moon-studio.blogspot.com/2012/03/grandmothers-flower-garden-quilt.html  My mom used a solid pink for the garden path.

Then Nancy liked the middle one and sent me a picture of a Grandmother's Flower Garden she wants to make some day.  And then Janarama suggested:

If you want a path around the flowers, I think the white is too strong against the blue. I would use a different color ... maybe a green to match the green in the batik? 

With the flower I used for the picture, the batik and green dot seem to overwhelm it but I do have much stronger colored flowers, so I think all and all it will be gorgeous!!

Congratulations Alice, Mr. Random chose your name!!

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:5Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Alice, would you please email me and give me your address so I can get this gorgeous piece of batik off to you??

And again, thank you to everyone who took the time to leave a comment.  They were all so helpful and made me realize that if I want a traditional (well, except for the bold colors - Tee! Hee!) Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt, it takes more than just making a few flowers here and there!!

Saturday's Smile!!

Calling Out for Help on My Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap Collection

I have been collecting hexagon flowers in this swap for well over 2 years.  And even though I have not received flowers every month, I have accumulated quite a few - I would say 30-40.

Well, I have decided to start putting a lap quilt together and I saw one gal use a blue-green batik for her second round.  I loved the look and so got some of this gorgeous batik with blues, greens and a bit of purple in it ~

All of my flowers are dots of some sort with white centers.  You can see some of my flowers HERE.  Only the flowers with polka dots - all the others are flowers I have made and sent to others.

Here is my dilemma and would love some advise from anyone who has advise to offer!!  I am not sure what to do next.  Do I add a full second round around each flower making the batik a double width like so ~

Do I add another hexie, say in white, like the centers as a third border?

Or lastly, do I just have one batik round go around the flowers?

I would love suggestions and any other way you think these flowers would look fabulous snuggled into the batik rounds.  

GIVEAWAY!!

I will use Mr. Random Picker to chose one comment to receive a yard of this gorgeous batik to say thank you for taking the time to offer up your help!!  I'll pick a winner on Sunday night so I can get a package out first of next week!!

Thank you one and all for your suggestions!!

Last Quilt With a Deadline . . .

Well at least for now!!!  This darling quilt is for the 12 year old daughter of a a single young Mom who wanted to give her kid a great gift!!

Liz had cut the blocks and she cut a million of them (there are still enough blocks left over to make another huge quilt) but just was so busy that she could not get them into a quilt.   So she asked me to help her get it done!!

Her daughter loves Cat in the Hat, so here is what we came up with ~

The sashing, border and binding is the same stripe as the Cat's Hat!  Pretty cute, huh!!  And we used a few extra blocks on the back side for a bit of fun!!

And because this quilt was already so whimsical, Sue over at Summit Creek Quilts did a fun, swirly overall quilt and I decided to add a bit more fun to the binding in several places!!

Mom comes over tomorrow to get the quilt and will give it to her daughter this weekend!!  Then they are all moving to Texas!!  We'll miss you Liz and family!!

Saturday's Smile!!

Oh What Joy . . .

when you create a quilt for someone and they LOVE it!!

A darling family commissioned me the first part of the year to make a quilt for their daughter's birthday this coming Thursday.  Mom and Dad told their daughter that they were going to have me make a quilt for her, so she had a say in what she wanted.

Maren purused Pinerest to find a quilt syle she liked and came up with a funky looking chevron pattern.  When asked what colors she would like she brought me these ~

And I decided Scrumptious by Bonnie and Camille would be perfect, added a little more funk and here is the finished quilt ~

Sue over at Summit Creek Quilts did the beautiful quilting ~

And I used a fun lime green in the Scrumptious for the back and the binding ~

And then of course, can't forget to put a label on it!!

Such a contented feeling when a project is done and the new owners are happy with you and with the quilt!!  Happy Birthday, Maren!!

Saturday's Smile!!

Birthday Gifts From Tag . . . .

arrived safe and sound!!

The last time anyone saw these wonderful goodies was over a week ago in southern Florida at Tag's place!!

Now they are home here in northern Utah!!  But what you didn't get to see was all the fun stuff that arrived with my mug rug, Tag pin and Corgi bells ~

Oh yeah!!  Tag must be a mind reader because I lovvvvvvvvvvvvve Salt Water Taffy!!  And the Keylime milk chocolate . . . . WOWSIE!!  I don't think my tastebuds have ever experienced such an exhilarating  taste sensation!!  It is just too hard to describe but man is it yummy!!

And then here is what Tag (well, yeah, yeah, okay, his Mom) wrote on the back of the cutest postcard ~

Thanks Tag and Mom, I love everything!!  And thanks for being the cutest little Corgi on the planet!!

Love, Miss Kris

Quilts of Valor Quilt . . .

all completed and ready for presentation this coming Tuesday at Quilt Guild.

It turned out so beautifully and Sue over at Summit Creek Quilts did such a fun job on the quilting ~

She did a design with eagles and stars using gold thread!!  It looks fabulous!!  And the fun thing about Quilts of Valor is that each quilt is presented in its own envelope ~

Thank you to all the gals at Needles and Friends Quilt Guild who made blocks for this gorgeous quilt!! And thank you to Debi for keeping everyone so inspired for such a wonderful cause!!

Saturday's Smile!!

This One is Mine!!

Do you remember about three weeks ago I took a picture of the challenge quilt I made for Judy for our Guild's yearly Challenge Bag Quilt?

Well, this is the quilt top Tammy made for me from a bag full of MY fabrics ~

Most of these fabrics are from Audra's Iris Garden by Patek and Brannock.  I love how Tammy fussy cut the center block.  I think I am going to try to hand quilt this.  Of course, I have no idea how to hand quilt, so it is still in the "thinking" stage!!

Thanks Tammy - I love, love, love it!!

Saturday's Smile!!