It's Time for the AccuQuilt Block Contest!

(We pause here on the blog tonight for a little Proud Mama moment...) 

Every year AccuQuilt holds a contest where their fans design quilt blocks, and have a chance to win lots of goodies, but the coolest prize is that the winning block gets put on large sign outside of the AccuQuilt offices and headquarters. The entries are voted on by the public, and the Top 10 Blocks are reviewed by AccuQuilt and their Guest Judge (This year it's Eleanor Burns!).

This year, my daughter Heather has entered a block design!  You can vote for her block Here

Heather's block, named "Flying Together", is pretty cool!  I really like the vibrant colors and the flying geese coming together to meet in the middle.  (What a nice theme for a block this year, right!)

We love playing with blocks, and how you can get such different looks by just rotating a single block in a quilt layout :)  Here are just two versions using Heather's block:

This block lends itself to so many secondary designs by using different sashings, cornerstones, or an alternate block in the setting.

If you are voting in the AccuQuilt Block Contest for the first time, you may get an email with a confirmation link before your vote will count.  Once you complete that step, you should be all set ~ you can vote once a day within a 24 hour period from now through September 5th.

...We're hoping everyone will keep voting every day to keep Heather's block in the Top 10 ~ so if you like Heather's block, please take a second to go vote for "Flying Together"!

Here's the Link to the block one more time, or you can click on the photo of her block above.

Enjoy the Day!
~ Dawn

A Happy Surprise at the Fair :)

My blog has been idle for quite some time, after getting busy with the day to day running of a quilt shop ~ and I have some repairs to make to the blog as well (You might notice that the header isn't working so well, but we'll get that fixed again).  But I've missed the blogging, and have been wanting to get it going again, so this seemed like a good post to start sharing with...

This year, for the first time, I decided to enter a quilt in the Howard County Fair...and much to my surprise, these goodies were hanging on it when the girls and I went to the fair mid-week to check it out ~ I was hoping it might get a ribbon, but did not even imagine that it'd get a collection of ribbons!

You might recognize this quilt from it hanging in our shop.  It was my version of the Quilts Around the Bay Shop Hop quilt this year for the Bay Life theme that I made for Spring Water Designs.  I thought this one would be the perfect quilt for a Summer Fair Adventure (and a good kick of for the travels this quilt may take)

I designed the Terrapin and Loon blocks (the top two on the right column), and I designed the setting for the quilt.  The other blocks were designed by shops participating in the shop hop.  I did all the machine applique and machine quilted this quilt with a combination of Free Motion Quilting on the blocks, ruler work on the sashings, and computerized quilting on the borders on a Handi Quilter Avante. 

Here is a closer look at some of the blocks.  The Horseshoe Crab was from Delaware Sewing Center in Dover DE.

 The Star Fish was designed by Prints Charming Quilt Shop in Fulton, MD.

The Flying Geese block was from Blue Hen Quilt Shop in Newark DE, the school of fish from Serendipity in Dagsboro DE, and the Blue Crab from Quilt Vine in Trappe MD on the Eastern Shore.

...The Loon block with the Bay Bridge was the Bonus block designed by me for Spring Water Designs. 

 The Heron was from Tomorrow's Treasures in Crofton MD

 The Monarch Butterfly from Hoppin Bobbin in Aberdeen MD

...and our Diamondback Terrapin block I designed as our official Shop Hop Block from SWD. 

The first Quilts Around the Bay Shop Hop was last March, and it was truly a blast.  We are in the planning stages for the next Quilts Around the Bay Hop that is scheduled for March 2 - 11, 2018, and the theme for next year is Stars Above the Bay! Keep an eye out for more details, and a special joint shop collaborative event September 22 - October 1, 2017 :)  You can follow the Quilts Around the Bay Facebook Page to keep up on all the information, and we'll be keeping you posted in our newsletters and a link on our website homepage as well.  We're so happy to take part in this Shop Hop with such a wonderful group of shops and amazing business owners.  I'm learning so much from them and enjoying getting to know them on a personal level...and that makes this quilt all the more special to me :)

I'm also proud to say that another quilt that I had a small part in won a ribbon in the Howard County Fair this year too ~ Margaret Frederick's amazing Wool Folk Art quilt won a Blue Ribbon!  You can see photos of Margaret's amazing quilt and handwork details in This Post on my blog.

I'll be posting more regularly here on the blog...I promise, so keep checking back or follow through your blog reader. 

Enjoy the Day!

~ Dawn

A Bit of Inspiration for your Day :)

Recently I got to spend some time quilting on this lovely wool folk art quilt made by a customer.  I just love it, and marveled at each and every block as I worked on it ~ so much so, I just had to share some photos :)

The quilt maker, Margaret shared with me that it was a labor or love done in collaboration with her mother, Pat who did some of the embroidery and cotton fabric applique on it.  What a special work of art :)

You can see this lovely piece in person soon ~ Margaret says it will be shown at the Milltown Quilters Show April 27th thru 29th here in Columbia Maryland at the First Presbyterian Church of Howard County.  Information on the Quilt Show can be found Here on the Milltown website.
~ We'll be vending at the show too, so stop by and say Hi when you come!

Perpetually Hexie Fun

Here at Spring Water Designs, we love a good take along project. That’s one of the reasons that we are so excited about Katja Marek’s new quilt along. Perpetually Hexie uses monthly paper packs and Katja’s New Hexagon Perpetual Calendar.

Guidelines and monthly information will be sent out by Katja, so make sure you stop by her website as well to stay up to date with the project.

Our own Heather is taking part in this quilt along. She was inspired by our collection of 30’s fabrics and is using those for her hexagon wreaths each month. Here you see one hexie unit.

Starting to assemble the wreath!

She is also using various whites for her background. 

The block is finished by appliqueing the wreath to the background.

We’ll show her progress as she works on hers throughout the year.

We are getting the paper packs from Paper Pieces and have them in the shop as they are released, and we also have the calendar that you will need in stock. Call the shop or stop in to join in! (410)381-0695

Enjoy the day!

~ Dawn