Mountain Baby Blanket Goodness

While preparing a recent collection of baby quilts, books, fleece hats & such for delivery I was reminded that the Quilt Shop has many groups, students, individuals, designers, teachers, friends, family and neighbors who are very talented and look forward to crafting things that can be put to good use for the needs of others.  And many of those have knowledge of not only sewing but crochet and knitting too.  Thanks to all this support, this month we sent out a full box that contained 14 quilts paired with books, some crocheted afghans, hats, gloves & scarves to the Christian Appalachian Project (CAP).

CAP is an interdenominational, non-profit Christian organization committed to serving people in need in Appalachia.  One of which is providing opportunities for children to reach their highest developmental potential by providing physical, spiritual and emotional support.

For all who would like to participate in that effort we are accepting donations of handcrafted & store bought (if preferred) of children’s hats, gloves, scarf's, socks, baby quilts & blankets to include books and school supplies.  Donations of sewing materials to be used for this purpose will be accepted too. 

These donations are being accepted on an ongoing basis, and I look forward to seeing the wonderful items you all come up with to meet the needs of these children. 

Also, remember Spring Water Designs is participating in Moda's Piece & Comfort Challenge to recognize and honor the sacrifices that are made by our country's military families.  The challenge begins January 1, 2015, and finished quilts are due in the shop by March 31st.  The featured fabric lines are in the shop now, and proceeds from the challenge will benefit USACares.org. Click Here for Fabrics, and Layer Cakes. For more information about the challenge click here

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

Pillowcase Donations for ConKerr Cancer

Congratulations to Emily Parent for organizing Girl Scout Cadette Troop 446 in Sykesville to help her with her Silver Award Project.  The girls chose and purchased fabric, designed, and crafted fifty pillow cases to drop off at our quilt shop at Spring Water Designs for donation to ConKerr Cancer.

Just looking at their handiwork, bright colors and designs put a smile on my face :) 

To that effort the pillowcases have been collected by the Baltimore Chapter Coordinator, and according to their website donations will be sent to Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, Gilchrist, Camp Sunrise and Sinai Hospital.

Giving Sick Kids a reason to smile one pillow case at a time”.  As some of you may know we are a drop off site for the Baltimore Chapter of ConKerrcancer.org.   ConKerr Cancer was started in 2002 when Cindy Kerr began making colorful pillow cases for her son Ryan who was in the hospital for long periods of time.  The pillowcases brightened up his hospital room and put a smile on his face.  The pillowcases became so loved that Cindy and friends began making them for other sick children.

ConKerr Cancer is making a difference for children.  Please join us in our quest for smiles! 

·       Make a cheerful pillowcase (stop by the shop for a free pillowcase pattern, and we also carry pillowcase kits that you can purchase)

·       Donate fabric or other sewing materials to the cause

We have generous customers that drop them off on an ongoing basis ~ All donations will be applied to the Baltimore Chapter of ConKerrcancer.

Enjoy the day!

Stringing Along...

Today we had a String-Along!  Several quilters gathered to learn how to make String Quilts ~ we provided the strips and strings, and they provided the foundation fabrics, and over 30 blocks were made today to go into our charity quilts :) 

We'll be Stringing Along again on Thursday this week, all day 10:00 - 8:00 p.m., so come on by if you can and String Along with us ~ Go Here for the details.  

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 Day of Charity Sewing for the Babies

This morning I packed up my car and headed into downtown Baltimore to the South East Early Head Start Center to spend the day doing some sewing with my friends from the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild.  We've donated items to the center in the past, so it was a treat to have our little Sew-In in their facility and see where our donations are put to good use :)  

I started my sewing day with making these easy fleece hats.  Heather of quilt.cook.keep showed me how to whip them up, and boy do they go together quickly. Click Here for a tutorial that Heather has on exactly how to sew them. 

Here are a few that I made. (Aren't they just adorable!)  One yard of fleece will yield six baby/toddler sized hats.

We had quite a little "sweat shop" going (See the pile of baby hats that Heather made!).  Amy started with making the baby sleep sacks that were so soft and cuddly.

Other members stopped by during the day to pitch in a bit, or drop things off.  Deb, Nancy, and Kimberly helped out with cutting and fringing, and Daniella came and dropped off a bag full of hats that she had made at home.  

We even had Gayne, the center's director, working away sewing up little sleep sacks too.

Here's the pile that Gayne and Amy whipped up today. 

Then after I worked on hats, I moved on to a few cloth books.  These were made from cloth book panels that my friend Sheri Thompson donated to us (Thanks again Sheri!)

 Once I made one, the second one went together even quicker, and they are so cute!

We had quite the assembly line going there for a while...

 Heather made up a Color/Counting book...

By the afternoon, along with the cozy fleece sleep sacks, we had a few of the cloth books made up...

And this big pile of hats ~ our goal is to make enough hats for each child to be gifted one, and for the center to have some extras for when the kiddies' hats are forgotten and left at home. 

...and did I tell you that cupcakes were involved ~ Thanks Daniella for bringing the cuppies! It was a great way to spend the day and celebrate the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild's Second birthday :)

Click: The Kennedy Krieger Institute SE Early Head Start Program for information on the center and to contact Gayne, the director on how to make donations. 

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

A Fun Friday Finish

Last Sunday I joined up with the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild (waving at my new friends!) and one of the projects that we worked on were cloth books to donate to the South East Early Head Start in Baltimore.  While I was sewing pages, I decided to make extra ones for a book for my little Abby who is having her first birthday next week.  I got a few pages finished at the guild meeting, and today I finished all the pages and completed one book to take to Abby's birthday party tomorrow :)

 The pages are made of 2 inch finished scrap squares.  There's a red page,

 Pink and Blue,

 Green and Yellow,

 ...You get the idea :)

I even un-buried the embroidery machine and personalized the front cover and last page just for Abby :)  This is the first cloth book that I've made ~ It was pretty easy, and kind of addictive.  Now I'm sifting through all of my scrap bins to make an Eye Spy one! 

The pattern that I used to make this book was designed by Angela Pingel of Cut to Pieces and can be found in this magazine (along with 100 other really cool projects ~ what a bargain!).

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Just One Star

Do you need a quick little project to play with this weekend?  This one is quick I promise, I made this block in less than half an hour at 5:30 this morning before heading to Virginia for the day.  It's a tiny little project that can make a huge impact on someone...

Moda Fabrics is sponsoring the Just One Star initiative, where volunteers at Moda are piecing 100 quilts in 100 days made from star blocks like the one above that I'm donating.  The finished quilts will ultimately go to comfort a wounded soldier.  Download the free block pattern and criteria at this link:
http://www.unitednotions.com/LA_just_one_star.pdf

Sign your name, add your state, and mail it out before the May 1st deadline.  The goal is to have the quilts finished by Flag Day on June 14th ~ I thought that was a cool touch :)  A bunch of ladies on my Quiltsy Team on Etsy are making blocks, do you have a group or guild that can participate?

In case you also want to make your own quilt using the star blocks, here is the quilt pattern designed by Minick & Simpson that the donation blocks are being used for:
http://www.unitednotions.com/fp_flag-of-valor.pdf
Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn