Garden Stake Banner

Here's a new little banner to hang on my hall tree.

The pattern is from Nancy Halvorsen's book, Garden Song.  I followed the pattern instructions exactly, except I omitted the side border strips and used the red fabric as binding instead.  Why did I do this, you ask?  Because I wasn't paying attention and I quilted the little block together before I added the border strips.  Oops!  Oh well, it still turned out cute and I have it hanging in my living room as a reminder that Spring really will arrive in a few weeks (or months).

When I finished the block, hung it up, and stood back and looked at it, I noticed that the flowers (particularly the top yellow flower) blended into the background and the banner looked a bit blah.  My awesome daughter suggested adding stamen to the middle of the flowers.  I was too lazy to add any more sewing to this little project, so enter my Silhouette die cut machine.  I cut the "stamen" shapes with my Silhouette and applied the iron-on rhinestones to bling my flowers.  I also used Tim Holtz Distress Stickles to outline the leaves on the top flower (the color I used was Shabby Shutters).  Much better!