Joy ~ Another UFO Finish!

I got my March UFO finished, and there is still 2 hours left in the month of March ~ How's that for cutting it close :)

Here's my Snowbound quilt all quilted and bound.  (Excuse the pictures, it's late here.)  This pattern was a free BOM given out on Anne Sutton's Bunny Hill Blog in 2010 I think. She had offered more blocks than this, but I had decided to stop at five snowmen blocks.  My March UFO challenge was to get it quilted, but I went ahead and put a sleeve and binding on it while I was at it...

so it's Finished!

I took a couple of pictures earlier today of the quilting.  This is the first official quilt that I've quilted on my HQ Sweet 16.  I definitely have room to improve, but I had a good time playing with the quilting.  (I had started doing some of the quilting in the ditch on my Bernina the other day before the UPS man delivered my HQ, then as soon as I got the chance, I finished the quilting with my new HQ.)

This is a portion of the back so you can see the quilting a little better.  I'm having a lot of fun experimenting with the HQ, and am pulling a bunch more UFO's out of the closet to baste up :)

Hop on over to Patchwork Times Blog and see some of the other UFO Challenge projects getting completed.  The magic number for April is #10, which on my list is to quilt my Jo Morton Mini Baskets quilt, so if life doesn't get in my way, there's more quilting in store for me this month!

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Another Pattern!

I excited to have another new quilt pattern available here at Spring Water Designs!  This one is called Prairie Pinwheels.  It's a great large bed-sized quilt (96" x 96"), and is easy to piece for a beginning quilter.  I designed it using the Garden Maze Fabric collection from Andover Fabrics (their current International Quilt Study Center fabric line).  I love the shabby retro feel of the fabrics in this quilt, but I think it's also be cute in fresh modern fabrics too :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

 

WIP Wednesday

This is my current Work In Progress.  It's my UFO Challenge project for this month (I don't know why I always wait until the end of the month to work on it?).  These are my version of the BOM Blocks that Ann from Bunny Hill Designs gave out about a year ago. 
 

See all the pins?  Last night I basted it all together...

So today, I'm quilting away on this little quilt, while I await the arrival of my HQ Sweet 16 machine that's due to be delivered today. :)

Check out the WIPs of others by clicking on the button above and going to the Quiltsy Team blog!

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

For the Love of Samplers

Just popping in with a little Show & Tell today.  This beautiful sampler was cross stitched by my daughter Heather (insert Mom bragging tone here).  Heather loves Repro Samplers, and this one was a Stitch Along that she took part in at The Stitching Post, our local needlework store (they also did the framing job for her).  It's called Birds of a Feather Mystery Sampler designed by Brenda at With Thy Needle and Thread. 

Heather changed the color of the alphabet, because she wanted the letters a little darker, but other than that, I think she followed the pattern.  I love the colors in this one!  Since Mom was willing to go pick it up from the framers, it's living at my house for a while until Heather's new house is built.  I seem to be housing a few of Heather's samplers, and come this summer when she moves into her new home, I'm going to have some empty spots on my walls!  I better get busy with some of the little things I'm working on...

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Easter Ornaments are Finished

Here are the pictures of the finished Easter Ornaments that I promised the other day back in This Post.  This is the Angel that I hadn't had finished last Wednesday.

And I did add a few jewels to that crown.  

 They all have their hanging cord on them now...

And now their heading to my church in time for Easter.  The children will have an Easter Tree and add an ornament to the tree each week of the Easter season.  For such simple, stylized shapes I think they came out pretty cute, and I had a lot of fun making them :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

For the Love of Snoopy

I've always loved the Charles Schultz's Peanuts characters (I think I had a different Peanuts lunchbox every year in elementary school ~ boy I wish I still had one of those lunchboxes!)  So anyway, when I was asked if I could design a fun and easy quilt using the Peanuts fabrics from Quilting Treasures Fabrics, I jumped on it :)

So this is my quilt design called Snoopy and Friends, and you can find the pattern in the Summer issue of Simple Quilts and Sewing, on newsstands right now!  And I just so happen to have Kits for the quilt and some Bolt Fabrics available too :)  (But hurry, they're going fast!)

 

Btw, my good friend Mary Nielsen did the quilting on this one, check out some of her other beautiful work at her blog Keep Me In Quilts :)

Enjoy the day!

~ Dawn

WIP Wednesday

So it's WIP Wednesday again, and here's what's on my plate at the moment.  The Pastor at my church asked if I would make some ornaments for the Children's Easter Tree.  These are some of the symbols that she requested.  I'm fusing the shapes to Timtex stiff interfacing.

After fusing both sides, I'm machine satin stitching around the edges.  They are coming out nice and stiff, so I hope they can be used for many Easters to come :)

They all need to have their hanging cord added (I have some gold thread that I'm going to run through the shapes with a needle), and the crown is in need of a few jewels ~ don't you think?  I have an Angel ornament still to make, and then I'll take them to church this week.  I'll snap another picture to show you when they're all finished :)

For some more WIP Inspiration, check out the Quiltsy Team blog by clicking the button above.

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Cuddly Happines Shipped in a Box

I wanted to share that another box of Mountain Baby Blankets went out last week to the folks at the Christian Appalachian Project.  These were all donated by friends, some needed binding, some needed quilting, and some were complete but we needed to get some more story books to pair up with them, so they've been here for a while waiting to have enough to fill a box.  Well we finally had enough cuddly happiness ready to go, so it was time to ship to Kentucky :)

My good friend Cathe even donated this lovely adult sized quilt to go to some happy big person.  I'm sure it will be appreciated and provide warmth for many years to come!  Thank you all for your generosity, I'm so blessed to have such good friends!

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

The Winner!

 

I'm a little late announcing the winner of my blog giveaway in honor of my interview on the Sew In The Snow Blog (You can read about it in Friday's Post in case you missed it).  I was busy this weekend with visiting family, and I attended the Lancaster Quilt Show on Saturday with friends...where I ordered my Handiquilter Sweet Sixteen Sit Down machine ~ and let me tell you, spending all that money took a lot out of me, LOL, but I'm so excited for it's arrival :)

Anyway, back to the subject at hand ~ You guys really should have entered this giveaway, there were only 7 comments that were left on my give away post...that's pretty good odds for winning!  The picture above shows the goodies that I'm sending out to the lucky winner, A book, a needle book starter kit, and a Prairie Paisley charm pack.  And the winner is...

 

Comment number 3 ~ Teachpany is the winner!  I'm emailing you for your shipping info to get your package out to you :) 

Enjoy the day!

~ Dawn

Quilty World News & A Giveaway! (Read to the End)

1. Big News in the Quilty World: It's that time of year again ~ The AccuQuilt Barn Quilt Design Contest starts today!  Design a Barn Quilt Block (or several) and submit between now and April 9th.  One lucky winner will receive a $1,000 AccuQuilt Shopping Spree along with a trip for two to Omaha, NE, to visit AccuQuilt’s new headquarters for the public unveiling of the winning barn quilt design.  In addition, the runner up contestant will receive a $250 AccuQuilt Shopping Spree...And the winning design will be proudly displayed on AccuQuilt’s new home office!  Click on the button above (or on my sidebar) to go to the Barn Quilt Contest page for all of the entry info.  The past two years I've waited until too late to submit and entry, so this year I wanted to jump in early.  It's easy and fun, check it out and design a block with me!

2. And in other Quilty World news ~ Have you heard about this in honor of National Quilting Day?  The Quilt Show with Alex and Ricky Free all weekend!

AccuQuilt and TheQuiltShow.com have teamed up to give you the ultimate experience for International Quilt Day! Join us March 16-18, 2012 as we celebrate all things quilting!

*Visit TheQuiltShow.com community for FREE and watch more than 100 shows hosted by Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims featuring the Top Quilting Teachers in the world

*Explore classrooms, unique tutorials, inspiring slideshows, and much more

*Enter the contest to win amazing prizes from companies you know and love—here a sampling of the prizes you can win:

• A BERNINA 550 sewing machine (yes! a new machine!)
• Gammill's Deluxe Chair—perfect for sewing at any machine
• Fantastic assortment of books from AQS Publishing, plus a 1-year membership to American Quilter's Society
• A selection of inspiring quilting books from C&T Publishing
• AccuQuilt's GO! Baby die cutting machine, GO! Value Die, GO! Birds die, and a 6x12 Cutting Mat 
• Bundle of 41 fat quarters from Ricky's Blended Solids collection, compliments of Red Rooster
• Box of silk threads from Superior Threads
• One of five DVDs from Why Quilts Matter
• One of five Stitched: The Movie DVDs

Plus, you'll have exclusive access to an episode of Why Quilts Matter, Stitched: The Movie, and many other sources of excitement and creativity in The Quilt Show community. Simply click here to get started. Enjoy, and we look forward to celebrating with you!

3. And finally, something fun in my little corner of the Quilty World ~ I was interviewed (yea, little ole me!), and I'm being featured today on the Sew In The Snow Blog!  So hop on over to Colleen's blog ~ bundle up ~ she's in Fairbanks Alaska :)  and read the interview.  (Colleen has a neat Etsy Shop too with some really cool items ~ I have my eye on some of the Knitting Needle cases among other things!) 

**Then I thought a little give away would be fun, so come back over here to Spring Water Designs and leave a comment and answer one of the Fun Fact interview questions (with how you would answer it)...just for fun...Then on Sunday I'll randomly choose one winner for a fun little Quilty surprise :)

Enjoy the Day!
~ Dawn

A WIP Challenge

This is what I've been working on this week.  My quilt guild issued a challenge ~ they handed out Flamingo fabric donated from a long time member who was downsizing and she was quite a flamingo fan.  I received two yards of this blue fabric with flamingos on it, and a little of the dark pink fabric.  We were challenged to make a quilt to be donated to a charity.  So this is my "Flamingo Paradise",  I knew I wanted it to be bright and happy, so that's why I went with the neonish yellow ~ I hope some young girl gets a kick out of it!  Now I'm working on using up the last remaining scraps of flamingo to piece my quilt back, and then I'll try to quilt some happy shapes on it :)

If you want to see some more Works in Progress, head over to the Quiltsy Blog by clicking the button above and get a little WIP Inspiration :)

Enjoy the Day!

~ Dawn

Be Big!

Do you like free project sheets?  Well I'm excited to announce that my Clifford Be Big Quilt design is now available as a free project sheet on Quilting Treasures website! (Scroll about half way down the page and look for Clifford, and click on it to download the free pattern).  I was asked to make a quilt design using these fabrics from Quilting Treasures, and I came up with this happy color-block style 55" x 61" throw size quilt.  It's big enough to lay over a Twin size bed, but small enough to carry around and nap just about anywhere :)
 

The fabrics in this collection are really cute and bright (I love the messages), and best of all, they're available in quilt shops now!  Be Kind, Play Fair, Help Others, and...

Enjoy the Day!
~ Dawn

I went on a day long Thrifting adventure about two weeks ago with my friend Heather, and one of the little treasures that came home with me was this little linen table topper with hand embroidery.  It has some damage and a bit of staining, but the color was just too sweet to leave at the store ~ and the price was right :)

...Plus there are a lot of little embroidered motifs...with lots of possibilities...

...And it came with four little bonus napkins!

Most of the hand embroidery is in wonderful condition, so I knew I would want to re-use the ones that I can in some way.  After all, someone went to a lot of trouble to stitch all of these cute little flowers, they need to be enjoyed, even if the linen they're on is in not such great condition any more.

The Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild was having a pincushion swap at this month's meeting, so I added a few fabric scraps, and a piece of twill tape from a Moda fat quarter bundle, and I made a nice long pincushion to sit by the sewing machine.  It was quick and easy, and I have plenty more little blooms left to make some more :)

This is the stunning little pincushion made by someone else in the guild that I came home with from the meeting!  I love miniatures and the colors are so vibrant in this little beauty.

Doesn't it just brighten up this shelf in my sewing room :)

And it was the exchange day for our Bee Blocks.  Here are the ones that came home with me in my colors of yellow, green and purple.  You can see the blocks that I made in This Post from last month (because yea, I made mine early by accident).  I now have 13 blocks, and hope to participate in another round with the same color combination to have a nice collection to put together in a really cool scrappy looking quilt some day :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

In Another Magazine!

Meet my Cherries Jubilee quilt design ~ And this is it's photo as it appears in the current issue of Fon's & Porter's Easy Quilts magazine (Summer 2012 issue)!  Doesn't she look cozy :)  I designed and pieced the quilt, and my friend Mary Nielsen of Keep Me In Quilts did the quilting on it. 

This quilt really is easy to make from just two simple to piece blocks...

And aren't these fabrics just yummy?  This version has a warm and cozy traditional feel made from the Cocheco Mills III fabric collection from Marcus Brothers Fabrics.  As a bonus, the magazine also shows a snippet of the quilt done in scrappy batik fabrics which look really cool, and I have plans to make it again using some fresh modern fabrics too :)

Kits are available for the quilt in this pretty pink & brown version Here on my Website, and you can get bolt fabric of the Cocheco Mills III fabrics Here while supplies last :)

Pick up a copy of Fons & Porter's Easy Quilts Magazine on sale now.  There are some really cute projects in this issue ~ I've already dog-earred four pages in my magazine :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn