Fun Trip to the Mailbox

Don't you just love a great mail day?  I'll be playing with these over the next few days :) 

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

I Have a Friday Finish!

It's been kind of quiet here on the blog lately.  I have been sewing a lot, but not on anything that I can blog about right now.  But yesterday I took a little break and went to a Guild Summer Sew In day, and I started on my UFO Challenge piece for July. 

My #3 for the UFO Challenge for the month was to sew together my swap blocks for this quilt, and today I finished the top! I made the blocks with my friends Mary & Starlyn, and we swapped them so we got a nice variety of fabrics for the scrappy look. 

The quilt pattern is called High Cotton designed by Kim Diehl, and it's the cover quilt on her book called Simple Comforts (A book I highly recommend by the way).  So now that I've moved it from the unfinished-project pile of bins to the un-quilted pile of tops, I'm really sparked to tackle that pile :)  Can you relate ~ How many piles do you have going in your sewing space? 

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Tipsy Tuesday :)

So what do you do with Pool Noodle floaties after the trip to the beach house is over? They don't really store well in the garage (They're always in the way, no matter where you put them, and if you have more than one, just try to coral them together if you need to move them...they try to escape in all different directions...things can get knocked over...expletives can fly...possibly ~ anyway, I got my revenge...)

So on with the today's Tip:  If you're a quilter who participates in block of the month programs, or you take blocks to guild/club meetings for show & tell or swaps, you know that if you fold them to transport in a tote bag, the result is a crease in the block...
 

...and depending on the fabric used, the resulting creases can be hard to press back out.

Here's the solution (and my revenge on the Pool Noodle).  I know it sounds petty on my part, but chop those babies up!  With a serrated knife they slice like butter ~ a smaller knife can be used, but at the time this one seemed right :)
  

I cut about a 15 inch length of Pool Noodle for a 12 1/2 inch block.  Stack the blocks, and place the resulting Pool Noodlette (Pool Penne?), centered along one edge of the blocks...

Roll the blocks up, and pin right into the Pool Penne...and Voila!  Just drop it in a tote and head to Guild.  This works great for small quilt tops too, just cut the Pool Noodle to whatever length you need :)  I store my Baltimore Album blocks this way (because Lord knows it's going to be years before I have enough of them for an actual Baltimore Album quilt). 

Pool Penne can also be cut to size, wrapped in muslin, and used in place of a tissue paper roll inside the folds of an antique quilt in storage.  Folds and creases are the worst enemy of a stored 100 year old quilt (Remember this quilt) ~ always make sure to support those folds to make them softer.

(Btw ~ I may have shared this Tip before, it's one of my favorites...I share it at classes that I teach, and I'm starting to do that old lady thing of telling a story over and over again like I've never told it before...(I'm sure my kids will hear about my fight in the garage with the Pool Noodles for years to come).  So please forgive me if I've shared this Tip here already.  To avoid this problem in the future, I've created a blog label for Tipsy Tuesday, that way I can check back at tips I've already shared, and readers can easily reference future tips :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn 

So True...

photo credit: My daughter, Lisa Butterfield :)

 "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."  ~ Marianne Williamson

Catching up on reading my email this morning, I came across this quote.  It just took hold of me when I read it (ever have that happen to you), and I wanted to share it :) 

I'm a member of IAPQ, and I was reading an article about tooting your own horn (which I find very awkward, but necessary for the business).   Here is the article in it's entirety in case you want to read it: 

Do You Toot Your Own Horn?  

   

Do you toot your own horn? Or are you like many women - yes, it's mostly women - who are reluctant to talk about their successes and talents? You probably don't have any problem talking about the success of your loved ones. Why is it that we have that problem with ourselves?

 

This came up in a discussion with one of my clients about creating a personal brand. She felt uncomfortable about promoting herself on her blog, Facebook and Twitter. It was OK to talk about others and share their successes, but she downplayed her own. Why? She wasn't ready to step into her own power.

How do you get beyond this? Here are a few ideas:
1. Pay attention to when you shy away from sharing your gifts or minimizing your talents in public, ie., with those who don't know you. Awareness is the first step to changing.

2. Change your internal message about what you are doing. You have gifts that others don't have. And, I know that you want to share those gifts. That's why you started your quilt or fiber arts business. You need to share your successes so others can learn about you so that you are able to serve them. It's really about providing a service to your customers, and you can't do that if you hide your talents.

3. Start to put yourself - and your brand - out there in small ways. Take 30 minutes a day and look for ways to contribute. This could be by commenting on someone's blog, writing your own blog post, sharing something on Twitter or your Facebook Fan page.

It gets easier as you go along, and the more people that know about you, the more people you can serve with your unique talents.

I'm sure you've read the following quote from Marianne Williamson. I love this quote and it's pertinent to this discussion:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Please share your thoughts on the blog.

 Morna McEver Golletz is the founder and CEO of the International Association of Professional Quilters, an association to help quilters, fiber artists and other creative arts entrepreneurs build business success. Her weekly e-zine offers tips, techniques and inspiration to help you craft business success from your creative arts passion. You can sign up for a F.R.E.E. subscription at http://www.professionalquilter.com.

See the IAPQ blog at http://www.professionalquilter.com/weblog/
(Btw, I highly recommend their online e-zines for quick weekly motivation!)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

My Newest Designs Available ~ For Free!

Yes ~ Free :)  Free Project Sheets to be exact that I designed for Quilting Treasures.   The first one is made with Run Run Robot fabrics designed by Studio 8.  The pattern I designed makes a 70" x 90" finished quilt.  I love to make quilts suitable for little boys since boy quilts seem to be few and far between. 

The second Project Sheet that I designed is using Summer Garden fabrics designed by Kate Knight.  This one measures 66" x 66" and is a great picnic quilt size :) 

These fabrics are available in quilt shops right now (and of course stash fabrics can be used to make these quilts too).   To download the Free Project Sheets, go to Quilting Treasures' page and scroll down until you see these and click on them to download...and you may find some other nice free patterns while you're there :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

A Bit of Summer & Swapping Fun :)

I'm back ~ Did you miss me?  I haven't blogged for a little over a week because we were away getting our toes a little wet :)
 

Well, even with coaxing some of us were not too sure about those wave things...

...and opted for the safety of dry land for the week.  

 ...But that worked out to be fun too! 

Along with all the beach fun, (and pool, and hot tub, and hammock, and shopping, and eating...) I did manage to sneak in a little sewing on vacation :)  First I made a batch of hexagons...

 

Then I turned them into a journal cover :)  This is the first one that I've ever made and it was real easy.  I used this tutorial from my friend Heather's Blog Quilt.Cook.Keep.  

And upon our return home this weekend, I attended our Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild meeting on Sunday where this month we had a Journal Cover Swap.  This is the one Laura made, and thanks to the Swap I got to bring it home with me!

 

She quilted hers up so nicely!  I'm loving the Gray/Yellow combination lately, so this one is just too cool :)

 

And doesn't is look so perfect sitting on the counter with my Birthday flowers :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Spools!

Time for a little show and tell/sneak peek of my Row for the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild Row Robin that's starting up at this month's meeting on July 8th.  I decided to start my quilt off with a sewing theme.

I had spied some cute spool blocks online, so I drafted some similar ones...

...and set mine in a row. 

 

Our starter row measures 9" x 36".  Now it will get passed on to other guild members to add a different row each month, and I'll get a finished quilt back in December :)

Here is a picture of the Rack of Spools quilt that was my inspiration for my little spool row.  I thought this was just stinkin' cute!  Kerry of the VeryKerryBerry Blog designed it and it's going to be a new pattern being released later this week. You can find it Here at her pattern blog Sew-Ichigo (Along with tons of other cute things!).  Here pattern will cover eight spools variations, foundation piecing, freezer paper piecing and Y seam spools.  You'll notice that in my row of spool I pieced differently and did not have any Y seams, but that causes me to have more visible seams running across the background fabric, so her pattern with Y seam technique will be well worth the investment :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn