Crafty Readers at the Howard County Library

This past Wednesday, I spent the evening at the Howard County Library meeting some nice crafters and doing a little stitching.  I was invited to attend the Crafty Readers meeting at the Central Branch Library.  They asked me to bring a few things and tell the group about my new shop here in Columbia.

The group is open to everyone and the monthly meetings are Free!  Some months there are speakers lined up, and there is always stitching/knitting/crocheting/scrapbooking... going on.

The wonderful librarians who sponsor the group had a wide assortment of books layed out of interest to crafters that we could check out...Even Fiction books.

There was also a door prize drawing and I won one of the books they were giving away ~ Sweet!

For more information on the Crafty Readers meetings you can contact Cristina Lozare at the Howard County Central Branch Library, or just drop in on the next meeting on Wednesday, April 16th at 7:00 p.m. :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

It Was A Quilty Kind of Weekend...

Our classroom looked like this on Friday as Starlyn and I worked all week to pack up and go vend at the Southern Comforter's Guild Quilt Show, "The Best Little Quilt Show in Maryland".

This was our little satellite home away from home all weekend.  Heather and I worked the show booth, while Starlyn worked the shop on Saturday.  This is the first time I've had a shop to keep open while vending at a show ~ it went pretty well, but I'll be a little more organized next show!

The show had a great mix of vendors, and of course show quilts!  My wonderful friends had award winning quilts in the show :) Here is Starlyn and her stunning Dresden Plate quilt that she made and Mary quilted.

This is Mary with one of her quilts that won awards! Mary was also the guild's quilt show chair this year, and on top of being busy running the show she did a Demo with me too!

 This is my cute little mini quilt that I had entered, "Dew on the Sweet Peas".

And this is my other entry, "Empty Purses, Full Stash".  I pieced this at our last quilt retreat from a Pat Sloan sponsored block swap that I had participated in several years ago...

...and finally got it quilted and bound this week. (I know, nothing like waiting until the last minute, right!)

And this is our Spring Water Designs team at the booth.  I love these guys!  It was lots of work, but fun people, fun times, and fabric made it a great weekend :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

This past week we had our first Jo Morton Club project reveal, and it was really fun to see the different ways everyone chose to make their little "Watson" quilts.  Here are some of the photos I snapped (Unfortunately some photos were just too blurry to even include ~ I'll have to remember to bring the nice camera on Club days).

 Then there were the other projects that people shared ~ simply amazing projects, large and small...

That's what I love most about the Jo Morton Club meetings ~ it's like going to a quilt show :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Our Customer Appreciation Drawing Winner!

We had beautiful weather for a change on Saturday and had a wonderful turn out for our Grand Opening celebration :)  I received so many well wishes and wonderful support from friends old and new, and family who stopped by.  The day was a success thanks to my good buddies Starlyn, Mary, and my oldest daughter, Heather who worked all day, and teachers Patti Rusk & Marcia Bilbrey who came and sat in our new classroom to show some of their upcoming classes, and of course my hubby Bob who worked behind the scenes all day taking care of lots of details so I wouldn't let them drop through the cracks, and daughter Lisa who picked up food for me.  Some ladies also came and graced our classroom with the beautiful Raffle quilt from the upcoming Southern Comforter's Quilt Show (coming soon on March 22 - 23), and we had a Free Customer Appreciation drawing for the quilt shown above and matching throw pillows.

So...at the end of the day my family and some friends gathered and my grand daughter Elsie drew the name of the lucky winner of our quilt ~ Susanne Hilton wins the Pinwheel Quilt!

We had only planned on one free drawing, but since I have two grand daughters...well we decided to have another winner...so Abby drew the name of Margy Hill to win a crib size batting from Quilter's Dream Batting!

Congrats to our two winners, and thank you to everyone who has come in and helped to support this new chapter for Spring Water Designs!  I appreciate you all, and feel so blessed :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

My Star Block is Today!

I'm excited to be participating in the Star Sampler Blog Hop being hosted over on Fabri-Quilt's Inspired by Fabric blog.  We were asked to make a 12-1/2" star block using the Marblehead Venitian Glass fabrics designed by Ro Gregg.  

This is my star block version.  You can hop on over to the Fabri-Quilt blog and get the instructions to make this block, along with the other designer's blocks.  The hop started on Monday, and will run into next week for a total of nine blocks.  Then the Fabri-Quilt Blog team will be putting all the blocks we sent in together in a project for you ~ I can't wait to see what they come up with :)

Oh, and there is a give away going on too ~ Hop on over to the Fabri-Quilt blog post and follow the directions on the post for a chance to win one of three fat quarter bundles of the Marblehead Venitian Glass fabrics :) 

And make sure you check out the blocks from all of the designers so you can make your own Star Block Sampler quilt:

The line-up - all posts will be on the Inspired By Fabric blog:
March 4: Connie from Free Motion by the River
March 5: Joanne
March 6: Fabri-Quilt blog team
March 7: Dawn Stewart from Spring Water Designs
March 10: Heidi from The Whimsical Workshop
March 11: Monica from Diary of a Quilt Maven
March 12: Shanna from Fiber of All Sorts
March 13: Tammy from Tamarinis
March 14: Fabri-Quilt blog team  

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn