Some Sights & Sounds from Market

Here are a few sights of things I saw around the Market Floor last week.  This is Handmade from Vanessa Christenson of V and Co.  (I ordered some of her new fabric line Color Me Happy, along with some other Moda collections including Chance of Flowers & Summer Vacation Batiks!) 

These labels from Sweetwater called Handmade with Love are just stinkin cute, and I see lots of uses for them ~ yep I ordered them too :)

...And I fell in love with these Cuddles from Shannon fabrics, and brought some home to play with, and maybe just pet.

 Their entire booth was soft ~ they even made cacti soft and cuddly :)

 I came home with samples and swatch cards...

...and those all important books full of upcoming fabric lines...and business cards!  I met with several editors, marketing directors, and brand managers and have some new relationships and contacts to work with ~ mission accomplished! 

There was time to just wander the Market floor and see new products.  Here I'm watching a demo at the Clover booth from Nancy Zieman from Sewing with Nancy and Nancy's Notions :) 

And in the evenings there were chances to meet up with people too.  This is Robin my friend and colleague from Houston.  Robin is the designer behind Whimbrella and the President of our Quiltsy Team on Etsy.  Our Hubbys hit it off too :)

And I ran into a friend from Baltimore too!  This is Heather Kojan, founder and President of the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild...and now published author :)

Heather is one of the authors of Classic Modern Quilts published by My Stars for Kansas City Stars Publishing. 

On Sunday, I got to go to Heather's book signing at the Kansas City booth.  Here she is signing the book with fellow author John Kubiniec of Big Rig Quilting.

Friends, Fabric, Goodies, and quilts...it was a good week :)

Don't forget to go to Yesterday's Post and leave a comment to get in on the running for my little Post Market Give Away!

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Post Market Unpacking & A Give Away!

We're back home from Quilt Market, and we had a blast!  Hubby went with me this year ~ and yes, even he had a good time...and I was really good and didn't post incessantly to the world that we were both away and that our little empty nest was actually sitting empty ~ which I think was pretty impressive restraint on my part :)

But now we're home, after making lots of new contacts, getting inspired to the point of overwhelmed, and spending/or committing to spending a pretty substantial amount of money over the next few months (so keep me and my little business in your prayers ~ or cross your fingers for me whatever your inclined to do, I'll take it). 

So now, because I made the decision to not carry my big camera around all week, I'm trying to get the photos off my phone and sent to my computer ~ and of course for some reason my phone has decided to have an aneurism...

So in the meantime, instead of posting fun photos from Market, I'm unpacking.  We came home with lots of great stuff (having another suitcase along that belongs to someone who packs light came in real handy, btw).  And like in past years I thought it'd be fun to share the wealth ~ so let's have a Post Market Giveaway!

Leave a comment on this post and on Sunday, I'll randomly draw one winner to receive the bunch of goodies pictured above :) 

...and hopefully by then I'll be able to access some of my photos...

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Quilting Friends are the Best!

I love quilting friends!  My friend and fellow member of the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild, Nancy put out a call for some Orioles cotton fabric scraps that anyone had.  Well I had some bits and pieces that I passed on her way, and in return she surprised me with this little mug rug that she made in the hoop on her embroidery machine :)

I love it! It sits here next to my easy chair along with my yarn bowl and Ott Light, and every night I sit down with my tea and chocolates to do a little knitting...and I think of Nancy :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

My Holiday Classics Designs are Available!

Are you ready for a little holiday sewing?  I'm excited to introduce a couple of projects I designed for Quilting Treasures Fabrics using their Holiday Classics fabric line from Kensington Studio.  This first one is a wall hanging or lap quilt measuring 55 inches square. 

This second design is a nice sized table runner measuring 50 inches long by 25 inches wide.  I love the traditional poinsettias and holly ~ both projects have easy to piece blocks for a quick holiday addition to your decor, or a nice gift :)

And good news ~ I have kits available for both projects!  Just click Here to hop over to my web store and get yours while supplies last. 

For those of you local to me, who would like to learn some fun techniques for quilting up your projects, there is still space in our HQ Club session on November 20th where Mary Nielsen of Keep Me In Quilts will be teaching how to quilt free motion Poinsettias & Holly!  Click Here for more information on this class.

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

A Productive Day of Fun Sewing

Today was a Sew In day with friends, and I like to take just fun, kind of mindless sewing when I go to these days.  I got everything accomplished that I wanted to get to today, and that's always a good feeling :) 

This first one I got the binding put on today to finish it up ~ it's a little quilt that I made as my donation quilt for the Log Cabin challenge that the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild was doing, and the quilts will go to the SE Early Childcare center in Baltimore.  The quilts were due at last month's meeting, but I missed that one so mine didn't get in on the quilt display that was put up at Kennedy Kraiger, but it's going to tomorrow's meeting and will still get donated to a little kiddo.   Btw, the whale's name is Steven...I asked Elsie to name the quilt, thinking she'd say something along the lines of Willie the Whale...but after a little thought, she said his name should be Steven ~ So Steven it is :)
 

I also got these two tops pieced today.  I'm making these quilts for my cousin's grandsons, they are 8" squares made up of fabrics that interest each boy.  One has footballs and basketballs, etc. and the other has guitars and music notes.  They each will get an inner and outer border and then be ready for quilting and off to them for Christmas gifts :)

And finally today I put some extra borders on this top that I had made up a while back after swapping these blocks with my sewing buddies.  I need another Queen size rather than Full size quilt, so this one just needed to be made a little bit larger.  Maddie liked it as soon as I brought it home and draped it out to snap a photo :)
 

And here are some of the things that got finished at the Sew In today by others.  Starlyn and Mary finished the last bit of hand quilting that needed to be done on this block of the month quilt that Starlyn had made a while back and just hadn't gotten it completed.  It's so cool to see some hand quilting getting finished :)

Chris finished piecing together this beautiful quilt that she made from a block of the month.  I love the different size blocks throughout this quilt. 

And Cappy added the borders on this awesome black/white quilt to complete the top.  It's going to be a raffle quilt being raffled off at Halloween to benefit her Border Collie rescue group, so contact me if you're interested in trying to win it, and I'll hook you up with the ticket sales.

I'm glad I was able to make it today, it was a fun and productive day visiting, eating and sewing with good friends :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

A Little Fun With Kool Aid

Yesterday was a pretty day ~ and because sometimes you just need a play day ~ we spent some time learning how to dye yarn using Kool Aid drink packets ~ and these are all our final results :)

Abby and I packed up and went over to my friend Starlyn's backyard, and Mary showed us the process.

 I started out with this yarn, they are all natural wool fibers.

We mixed Kool Aid packets in water ~ we used about 3 packets in half a jar of water.  And since it's not toxic, Abby was able to pitch in and take part too.  She did a lot of stirring...

 ...and a little smushing...and stayed busy sorting our Kool Aid packets into piles by color :)

Some hanks we layed out in plastic boxes and drizzled, and some we dipped in jars. Zip Lock Baggies work too.  Here are some of them in progress...

After each color we added, we heat set them in the microwave for two minutes.

Or some were left out in the sun's heat to set.  Then rinsed and left out to dry.  It was all pretty easy and fun :)

Mary made these socks from Kool Aid yarn a while back.  Now I can't wait to get started on some projects with my new yarn creations and see how it knits up :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Autumn Sunset

Autumn is in the air, and this lovely quilt sample is one that my good friend Mary Nielsen of Keep Me In Quilts made from my Autumn Sunset pattern that I designed last Fall for Andover Fabrics using their Candy Corn and Black Magic fabric lines designed by Renee Nannaman.  

Mary did her amazing free motion quilting all over it, including her fun Pumpkins & Spiders that she's teaching in an upcoming HandiQuilter Club on October 16th. 

It was a pretty day out today (even though our leaves aren't changing quite yet), so I had to take this baby outside to snap some photos.   I still think this makes a great Autumn picnic quilt :)

Take a deep breath, Autumn is in the air...ahhh ~ I just love Autumn :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn