Welcome to day two, and my day, of the 2020 It’s a Garden Party Row Along, hosted by my friend Marian of Seams to be Sew! Marian does a wonderful job each year and works soooo hard to bring great sponsors and prizes!! Thank you, Marian! I hope you made a visit to Tuesday’s bloggers and picked up their free patterns and you will visit my fellow bloggers today, as well.

There will be a giveaways on each blog. But there are rules. Be sure to read them on Marian’s post announcing the sponsors and prizes. My giveaway will be listed in the Rafflecopter below!

I was so excited when the decision was made for the theme of this year’s row along. I love flowers and garden critters so it was easy to come up with a design. Pattern drafts were turned in in June. Once our state eased up on restrictions a little, I took a short trip with my grand loves and daughter to the Sunflower Field. That inspired me to change my pattern up somewhat for the final. Here is a pic of my inspiration! Look at those giant blooms! They were literally the size of our heads!

After visiting the Sunflower Field, I decided to change up a couple of my flowers. First of all, I changed the larger one to be a sunflower (of course!) and then changed the middle sized one to be more like a daisy. There were also dahlias and other flowers at the Sunflower Field. We had a fun time and brought home a bucket of them!! Unfortunately, the bucket turned over spilling the water, and since we stopped at the Peach Park on the way home, they were pretty wilted by the time we got there. But appliqued sunflowers never die! Yeah!!

Marian gave us multiple size rows/blocks from which to choose, so I chose a block that finishes at 12 x 18. That will be a good size to donate to our guild’s silent auction at QuiltFest next year. The last two times, we’ve donated the proceeds from silent auction to Meals on Wheels. We are hoping by next June, things will be opened up so we can actually have QuiltFest!! Speaking of guilds, our guild will hold it’s first virtual meeting next Monday, the 14th! It will be interesting to see how many of our 100+ members join in. I am hoping for a great turnout!! Life has changed so much due to Covid, and we have all had to adapt to the best of our abilities! I think Zoom is great for this purpose! But I digress … (sorry!) Without further ado, here is my block.

I added some veins and defined the petals on the sunflower, detailed the wings on the hummer, and of course had to bling it up a bit! LOL You can download the block here. It will be free until the end of the hop. UPDATE: The hop is officially over. But it is available for purchase here!I hope you like it. It’s a simple pattern, but includes some of my favorite elements…a hummer, butterflies, and flowers! I added one inch borders all around to make it a small wall hanging. Once it is quilted and bound, it will measure approximately 14 x 20 inches. Many thanks to our sponsor Northcott for supplying a quarter yard of each of the two pink and purple fabrics. These fabrics are from the Shimmer Radiance line, 9050M-22 and 9050M-28 (pinks,) and 9050M-81 and 9050M-86 (purples). They all have gold flecks in them, except the lavender which has silver flecks in it. These are gorgeous fabrics…and there’s a whole line of colors!!! Northcott also makes Stonehenge, another favorite line!

Now for the giveaway! Be sure to read the rules at the link above for shipping information. My giveaway is Bargellisimo from Anita Goodesign. Please note, you MUST have an embroidery machine with a hoop 5 x 7 or larger. This prize is valued at $179.95! It can be shipped anywhere, but the winner must pay the shipping. Marian will ship, so be sure to check her instructions here, if you are the winner!! The winner will receive an email from Marian and has three days to respond. To enter, complete the Rafflecopter form below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In addition to the prize above, during the Row Along, Electric Quilt is offering readers a 20% discount on everything on their site except for EQ Academy. I design my quilts in EQ8 and love it!! I have used EQ since version 5. It’s an awesome program and they have lessons and challenges on their blog, as well! To receive the discount, use the code GARDENPARTY20 to save!!

Thanks for visiting my stop on the hop!! Please visit my fellow bloggers today, leave them a kind comment, and join their giveaways! Each one is different!! Here is the schedule for today. Check Marian’s blog for the full schedule!

Thursday, September 10, 2020

Bobbin In Quilts Blog
Kissed Quilts
Patchwork Breeze
Songbird Designs YOU ARE HERE!!
Stitchin’ at Home

One final note. For those of you who follow my blog, you know I’ve been playing online teacher for my grand loves these first few weeks of school Monday thru Wednesday and they were in school on Thursday and Friday. As of today, I am no longer teacher GiGi!! They are back in the classroom full time! So, I’ll be able to start working on my next projects!! I’ll be linking up with my favorite linkies as they become available. Until next time…