A Hometown Gem

On Saturday, March 23rd Dawn and I had the privilege of attending the opening day for Mimi Dietrich's Hometown Girl exhibit at the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore MD. This is a year long exhibit featuring the designs and works of the fabulous Mimi herself, and it is certainly not to be missed!

Mimi welcoming the full auditorium to the opening

The program was kicked off with words from Mimi, starting with the first quilt she ever touched and followed her quilting history to her discovery of Baltimore Album quilts and her love of teaching quilters. It was amazing to see the auditorium filled with quilters, family, and friends. The talk was followed by a reception with wine and cheese and then we were onto the quilts!

Even the wine bottles were celebrating our "Hometown Girl"!

The exhibit features three galleries of quilts, an interactive "Build a Quilt" Lego station, and a video of Mimi. As a quilter, this exhibit is a must see. Mimi and the Historical Society have put together an incredible exhibit.

 

It was a truly enjoyable day; full of laughter, friends, and of course the quilts. The exhibit will be open for an entire year, and we highly recommend going to see it!

Just a handful of exhibit visitors!

Dawn and I caught up with the Hometown Girl herself!

...We'll definitely be going back again!

Enjoy the Day!
~ Heather

Amazing New Auriful Thread Collection from Mimi Dietrich!

I'm so excited to share that brand new in the shop, and hot off the presses is Mimi Dietrich's Limited Edition Aurifil Thread boxed collection!  Aurifil makes some Amazing thread, and to celebrate Mimi's Summer as she's being inducted into the Quilter's Hall of Fame, they've put together a great limited edition collection of threads perfect for Baltimore Applique of course...

The collection includes eight spools of size 50 wt. thread that are perfect colors for Baltimore Applique projects, and four spools of size 12 wt. (shown on the right side of the box), which is thicker and is great for hand quilting (cream), gathering dimensional and ruched flowers (red & pink variegated), and making French knot embellishments (golden yellow).

I'm so happy and excited for Mimi, and pleased to have her teaching at our shop!  You can purchase her new thread collection Here while supplies last ~ Hurry, they're going fast :)

...And we also have her book, Baltimore Basics available while they last.  You can get the book Here too :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Baltimore Block Show & Tell

The Baltimore Blocks for Beginners class with Mimi Dietrich got together one more time yesterday for a little Show & Tell and share their progress.  Here are a few of them, Enjoy ~

 ...It's amazing how different each one looks done in the different prints & styles :)

We are so fortunate to have Mimi come and teach at our shop ~ She is an amazing teacher...and now there are twelve new quilters with a love for Applique :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Bits of Baltimore Online Auction Starts Today!

Today is the start of the first of two Bits of Baltimore Online Auctions sponsored by the Baltimore Applique Society.  BAS is auctioning small single block album quilts from original and antique quilt block patterns.   One half of the proceeds from these auctions will be donated to the Maryland Historical Society for the preservation of their quilt collection.  The auctions will run October 1 - 15, and October 20 - November 3.

This is my little applique quilt that I made for the auction.  It's my version of a block from the Baltimore City Springs Commemorative Album quilt. (...If you like it ~ it's up for auction right now in the first auction that runs through Oct. 15th)

Here is the real quilt ~ my little quilt was derived from the third block down in the first column.  I made a few changes using batik fabrics on black :)

Last month we had the pleasure to have some of these little beauties displayed in my shop for a week after members of BAS photographed them there in preparation of the online auction.

You can see the original post about that Here

 

...Now you can go to the Baltimore Applique Society Webpage and bid on them to make one (or more) of them your own!  Visiting their website is great because you can click on each photo and get an up close and personal view of the beautiful applique and quilting.  If you win one of them, let me know :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Little Bits of Baltimore...

Have you heard about the upcoming Bits of Baltimore Online Auctions?  I've made and donated a small applique quilt to go toward the cause.  This is my one block quilt based on a block from the Baltimore City Springs Quilt.

This past Saturday, members of the Baltimore Applique Society got together in our Shop Classroom and layed out, sorted, organized, set reserve prices, and photographed each little quilt to ready it for the upcoming auctions.  This isn't even all of them, (some are still in the works) but it is a nice grouping. 

 Then they set up the quilts to display...

 I'm so excited that we get to keep them up on display for a while! 

 ... it's like a Free Quilt Show right in our shop!

...And if you're in the area, you can stop by the shop and see them in person ~ photos just don't do them justice.  The will remain up on display at the shop until September 8th!

And starting in October, the Baltimore Applique Society will be holding two online auctions so you can purchase one of these little beauties for yourself ~ here is the info on them:

Baltimore Applique Society members are making 52 small album style applique quilts based on antique quilts and original patterns.  Proceeds from the auctions will be split between supporting the Maryland Historical Society's storage of their antique quilt collection, and the Baltimore Applique Society's continuing efforts in preserving quilt textiles and their accompanying documentation in various museums and historical societies such as the DAR Museum, Quilter's Hall of Fame, and Baltimore Museum of Art. 

First Auction - October 1 - 15
Second Auction - October 20 - November 3

The following antique quilts were used as inspiration for many of the single block auction quilts.  The auctions also includes original block designs in the Baltimore Album quilt style.
     - The Lady of Victory Quilt c.1846-47
     - The Margaret Potts Quilt c. 1851-58
     - The Elizabeth MacCullough Hervey Quilt c. 1848-50
     - The Captain Aust Quilt top c. 1852
     - The City Springs Commemorative Quilt

Visit the Baltimore Applique Society's webpage for all the auction information.

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

PS ~ And when you stop by the shop to see these beauties this week, we also are having a Back to School Sale for you now through Saturday, August 30th ~ Lots of "Skinny Bolts" for $6.00 per yard!  Plus, if you bring in a school supply to donate, you'll receive 10% off the purchase of any one regularly priced item or cut of fabric :)
All school supplies will be donated to a local Howard County Public School. 

A Little Handwork

All of my travels this Spring has lent itself nicely to handwork.  This is a little block that I got finished for the Baltimore Applique Societies' President's Appreciation block for our outgoing President, Cathy Marciano.

The block was designs for BAS by Lori Smith, isn't it adorable!  Cathy's been a wonderful BAS President these past two years and I've been privileged to work with her this year on the Board (...and I had fun working on her little bird block too!)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

A Little Inspiration and a Blog Hop!

So this weekend I've been enjoying my new book, Baltimore Garden Quilt, reading it from cover to cover!  It's written by my Baltimore Applique Society friend, Barbara Burnham, and has full color pictures of her beautiful reproduction Baltimore Garden quilt, and the antique quilt from 1848 that inspired it.
I love that she includes full color tutorial pictures of many techniques she used in making the quilt!

...And the book comes with a CD of full size patterns!  I've already picked out the first blocks that I'm going to make from this book, I just need to figure out a color scheme and pull some fabrics :)

...And this weekend I cut up this old shrunken wool sweater that I had, and played with it and some other wool scraps.  Come back later this week, and I'll show you what I'm doing with it :)

It'll be part of my blog post for the Girls in the Garden Blog Hop that I'm doing with Pat Sloan and some other blog friends!  Each designer will be using some of Pat's new patterns from her Girls in the Garden series and making it their own.  I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with from the same patterns!

Here's the line up for the Blog Hop:
Tues Feb 21 Michele of Quilting Gallery http://quiltinggallery.com/
Wed Feb 22 Heather of Olive and Ollie http://www.oliveandollie.com/
***Thurs Feb 23 Me!! Dawn of Spring Water Designs http://springwaterdesigns.blogspot.com/
Fri Feb 24 Amy of Amy's Creative Side http://amyscreativeside.com/
Sat Feb 25 Heather of a La Mode Fabric http://alamodefabric.blogspot.com/

Check out Pat's blog each day for her take on how she designed the Girls in the Garden patterns http://blog.patsloan.com

And of course there will be prizes!  Check out the Fat Quarter Shops kick off post for today and join in on the fun!  http://fatquartershop.blogspot.com/

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

A Little Finish & A Day at the Museum

I finally got this little applique block finished.  It was made for Cathy Marciano in appreciation for her first year of service as the President of the Baltimore Applique Society.  It was due last June, but I got side tracked with family stuff this summer, so I'm just now getting it done ~ better late than never, right?  BTW, the pattern is one of the bird blocks from the Margaret Potts Quilt.

On Sunday I volunteered with some ladies from the Baltimore Applique Society at the Maryland Historical Society Museum in Baltimore.  The museum was having a Women in the Civil War weekend (as a part of their wonderful Civil War exhibit that's going on right now), and we set up an applique display and shared some hands on demos and tips.

And of course there were quilts!  We were allowed some photos as long as we didn't use flash.

 Some of the quilting was simply amazing...

 This orangey one was my personal favorite :)

...Plus the museum has areas that I could not photograph like a wonderful portrait collection, an extensive Civil War exhibit that includes clothing, and of course the original Star Spangled Banner manuscript that lives there.  Definitely worth a visit if you're in the Baltimore area!

And I scored this out of print book!  The museum store found a long lost box of 50 of them, so I spent a good part of my October fun-money allowance on the second day of October because it just had to be added to my collection :)

If your interested in Baltimore Applique and you're on Facebook, the Baltimore Applique Society now has a Facebook Page ~ you can click Here to "Like" them :)

Remember to come back tomorrow for Block Two of our Quick Mystery BOM Runner!!

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

It's Finished!

It's finished!  My block for the Baltimore Applique Society's reproduction of the Lady of Victory Quilt.  I've said it before, but I love this Red/Green style (not too fancy, kind of folk arty) of Baltimore Album block. 

And it's done, and turned in well before the deadline ~ it is a good day!  I'll share a photo of the whole quilt later this year when the blocks from all of the participants get put together into a quilt top :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn