We Have a Winner!

 

Wow, I've been away from blog land almost all week!  It was a crazy week here, but settling down now.  My dad is doing much better and has been discharged from the hospital, and we got him settled back in to his room at the nursing home.  Thank you to everyone who wished him well, I got some really sweet comments and emails!   

Then I had a visit from my daughter and her family, and I got to cuddle grand babies all weekend :)  Alas, I didn't even take out my camera all weekend, so no new cute grand daughter pictures (I don't know what is wrong with me, really slacking in my grandma duties ~ I'm sure if one of them held up a quilt I would have snapped their picture!) 

So in getting back into my normal swing of things, I attended Civil War Sunday at And Sew It Goes today.  (And to prove my point above I did think to pull out my camera when I was heading out to the quilt shop).  These two pictures are shots of a quilt that Rita showed today from a Jo Morton pattern that I think appeared in American Patchwork and Quilting earlier this year.  

And I'm excited to say that I had 101 entries for the wool pumpkins and fat quarter from my Autumn Penny Runner blog entry from Monday!  So fun :)  Thank you to everyone who participated, tonight I drew the winner...

WvHummnbrd!  I'm sending you an email for your address to ship your wool out to you :)

Talking about Give Aways, my friend Mary has a really cool blog anniversary give away for some Ginger scissors going on right now, but hurry it ends tomorrow morning! 

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Civil War Sewing Time on the 4th

I hope everyone had a fun Independence Day holiday weekend! We had our Civil War Sunday sewing time on the 4th of July, and here are a few show and tell items that came. Peggy Poole was working on this beautiful nine patch quilt, and in very appropriate colors for the day!

This is Sheri Thompson's version of the same quilt done in different color tones. Sheri got her top finished on Sunday ~ nice progress for a sewing afternoon.

Peggy also brought in her huge, finished Thimbleberries Club project from a couple of years back. (This quilt is so big, the girls had to hold it up sideways, and I've turned the picture). It was quilted by Sheri Thompson of Pieceful Completion with a beautiful all over feather design, and now Peggy just has to bind it to have a lovely new bed quilt. I have this one in progress...somewhere, and this makes me want to pull it back out!

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Another Little Dear Jane Block Completed

I worked all weekend, but I don't have much in the way of finished projects to show for it. Yesterday was Civil War Sunday though, and I prepared a little Dear Jane block to work on. So we started with some goodies to sustain us.

Then my friend Tiffany brought the second course. Don't they just look like a yummy little four patch block?

And with the help of some hot tea, I finished L-13 last night to add to my small, but growing Dear Jane block collection. I used the tutorial from That Quilt Blog and it worked great!

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Civil War Sunday and a Kitchen Surprise

Since it was the first weekend of the month, I worked at the shop all weekend. And Sunday was our Civil War Sunday gathering. (These little dittys belong to my husband from his Civil War Reenactment days.)
I made an attempt at a Civil War themed display this month. Here are my Underground Railroad blocks up on the design wall along with two little Civil War Uniform jackets that were made by a customer of ours as Halloween costumes for her twin sons. She let us borrow them, and I thought they made cute props :)

Some of the ladies showed projects that they are stitching on. Missy completed this section of her Cathedral Window quilt in these beautiful muted colors.

Joan let me take a picture of her completed first block from Blackbird Designs', A Cold Wind Blows. She's doing this hand applique with some wonderful reproduction fabrics. Then...

Update Alert:

I came home from work to half a kitchen! Bob has been working like crazy on it, and things are really coming together. We'll be cooking before you know it!

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Reproduction Eye Candy

I spent the afternoon yesterday meeting two great ladies who came with Dawn Burchett to our first Sunday of the month, Civil War Sunday sewing time. Joan brought her pieced quilt top to purchase some fabrics to go with it. She is mainly an appliquer and said that an all pieced quilt is unusual for her. I loved the green/brown combination in this.

For you Dear Jane lovers, Rita brought this beautiful Dear Jane top sashed and bordered in red. The colors just pop in this quilt. These gals have a Dear Jane group that meets and apparently both have Dear Jane quilts. Joan says she is working on quilting hers now, so I hope to see more of them in the future!

Dawn B. continued to work on her Civil War applique quilt top and I worked on making a couple more Jo Morton blocks for my Warm Wishes quilt. If you are in the vacinity of our shop on the first Sunday of the month, stop in between 1:00 - 3:00 to do a little stitching and see some nice reproduction show and tell!
Everyone is welcome and it's free :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Civil War Finishes

This weekend was Civil War Sunday at the shop and my friend Dawn Burchett brought in her basket project from the last Jo Morton Club all finished and quilted ~ she's just finishing stitching the binding down.

I love the colors she used, and the quilting was really cute. She used her embroidery machine to quilt in these little feathered wreaths. I believe she said that this is a Bernina motif. It's a perfect little design for this project.

She did a beautiful job centering these in the spaces. I find that to be the most difficult when machine embroidering.

For Civil War Sunday I worked on this quilt top that I'm making for my hubby. I'm making it out of all civil war era fabrics. He knows that I had started it for him ions ago, and every now and again he'll tease me about when he might see his quilt. I always tell him that his quilt is on the bottom of my pile and I have something more pressing to be doing. So this weekend I finished the quilt top, and I'll get it quilted up when he's not around (it's a throw size, so I'll tackle this one myself) and surprise him for his birthday. I don't think he reads my blog ~ hopefully it's still a surprise :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Lucinda's Facinating Window

Yesterday I finished piecing a quilt top for the shop called Lucinda's Window. The fabric is designed by Jo Morton for the International Quilt Study Center & Museum at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. This particular quilt was designed by Gail Kessler for Andover Fabrics and the pattern can be found as a free download at Andover's website. This fabric collection and the quilt are representations designed from the original quilt housed at the museum known as The Reconciliation Quilt. Made by Lucinda Ward Honstain and dated to 1867, the original quilt has 40 appliqued blocks depicting scenes from life during the Civil War and the Reconcilation era. My wallhanging above is not applique, but fussy cut squares from the "convenience cloth" piece in Jo Morton's Lucinda's Window collection ~ much faster to whip up! Mine is done in the blue/brown colorway that we carry at our shop.

The original quilt got it's name from a particular block that illustrated the release from prison of Jefferson Davis, the Confederate President during the Civil War. Releasing Davis was seen politically in the North as a huge step in reconciliation towards the South . For anyone who appreciates history, some great close up pictures of the original Reconciliation Quilt as well as a very comprehensive article with history of the quilt and the quilt maker (which I found very interesting), can be found here. Someday I want to make a trip to the International Quilt Study Center, it looks like my kind of place :)

Enjoy the day!

~ Dawn

A Mini Treat to See

My friend and co-worker, Starlyn Baker just got back from a vacation during the month of July where she travels home to see family in Alabama and Texas. She worked on this fantastic quilt top while on her trip, and I'm in awe and just had to share it with you. Each patch in the nine patch square is 1/2 inch finished, with the whole nine patch finishing at 1 1/2 inches.

You can click on the picture to get a more close up view of all the great Civil War Reproduction fabrics. Starlyn and a friend of hers have been swapping the nine patches for a while ~ and she wants keep this baby growing to become a full size bed quilt! It's just breathtaking!

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

...And the Winner Is

1. Wow is all I can say! I've been blown away by all the wonderful comments from so many visitors to my blog, and welcome to the new followers! I had to work this weekend, but came home each night and visited all of the blogs of the people who left comments, thanks for the added fun to my anniversary (we did have a great anniversary weekend, and he even brought me flowers!)

So I won't keep the suspense going any longer...the lucky number chosen by the Random Number Generator is #34 ~ Gin! (Email me Gin with your address so I can send your bundle on out to you)

2. And if you haven't seen it yet, here is another great blog giveaway at Mama Sparks blog She is giving away a $50 gift certificate from Bunny Hill Designs! Also, visit Anne Sutton's Bunny Tales blog and thank her for her generosity!

3. Now on to some other quilty stuff: Yesterday was Civil War Sunday at the shop, and the quilt block above is what I worked on. It's the next block in my Underground Railroad quilt. It's one of my "side projects", so I'm plugging away at it, getting it done about one block a month.

Dawn Burchett brought in a couple of projects to show. This is her current project using Civil War fabrics. I love the combination of pieced blocks and hand applique!

Then Dawn showed this little Pat Sloan flower basket wall hanging. It's not Civil War related, but we've been talking about how we quilt the little wall hangings. She is doing a great job of machine applique and machine quilting on this one.

I loved the little sunshine that she added in the upper corner. I thought it was a great touch!

Thanks again for all of the weekend anniversary magic from my blog friends! I feel so blessed :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

A Journey of Hope

When working at the shop on Sunday afternoon, I had the neatest visit from a couple from Indiana who are on a journey. Susie Hague is an elementary school teacher who received a grant to travel and learn more about the Underground Railroad in America. She and Kent happened upon our shop when on their way to Philly from DC.

Susie was pleased to find that we carried Civil War Reproduction fabrics, and proceeded to buy a good collection of them for an Underground Railroad quilt that she plans to make upon returning home from her journey. I then proceeded to ask her if she had read Barbara Brackman's book called Facts & Fabrications Unraveling the History of Quilts and Slavery. That started us talking.

I had a very enjoyable conversation with Susie about quilts in the Civil War and how they may or may not have played a role in the Underground Railroad (I happen to believe that lacking any tangible historic proof, the quilt code is a wonderful myth of hope). We also talked about Indiana (I have two bothers who live there), and I found out that she has started a blog for her trip. Check out Susie's blog here to follow her journey and read a little about the places they are visiting and the things she's discovering along the way.

We had done the Underground Railroad Quilt by Elanor Burns of Quilt in a Day as a block of the month at our shop a few years back, and even though I don't think the quilt code story is historically accurate (and I will document that on my quilt's label), I think the sampler quilt is attractive, so I had started making the blocks along with the group. These are some of my finished blocks (I have 11 of them done, I don't know why I didn't finish them ~ I'm almost there!). Talking with Susie inspired me to get my blocks back out and put them on my "Finish It Up Pile".

I think I'll follow Susie's journey and try to finish my quilt as she makes hers. No matter what you think about the legend of how quilts were used in respect to the Underground Railroad, we know that quilts were made to raise funds and awareness for the Abolitionist Movement by many brave women, and to commemorate things before, during, and after the Civil War. It's a fact that throughout history quilts were used as symbols of hope, safety and friendship...some things in history never change.

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

A Little Bit at a Time

I've made a little progress on my Civil War Sampler that I'm hand piecing ~ a little being the operative phrase. Karen Witt of Reproduction Quilts came and taught at our shop last summer and we started making her Civil War Sampler quilt. I decided that, knowing I couldn't finish another project at the time, I would make this my hand piecing project and do a little bit at a time here and there. This is an extra "process" project. I plan to hand piece the entire quilt and then hand quilt it, taking my time and just enjoying the journey.

We have Civil War Sunday at our quilt shop on the first Sunday each month where people can come in an just share and work on anything from the Civil War era. I generally only work on this quilt on that Sunday (and depending on how busy we are in the shop that day, I might not get much done on it). This week I did finish the album blocks.

Next I'm making the 23 blue and gold pin wheel blocks that you see at the top of the quilt and some day my quilt will look like this.

Karen Witt was a wonderful teacher, not only teaching the quilting techniques but also including the history and telling the stories behind each block in her quilts. She is coming to teach at our shop again the first weekend in June (Thurs, Friday and Saturday), and if you can get to one or all of these classes it is well worth it! Check out our shop website for the information of each of the three class that she will be teaching here in June and sign up early to ensure your spot!

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Dear Janes & Civil War Sundays

On the first Sunday of each month we have a group that meets at the shop for "Civil War Sunday" where we work on anything Civil War or Reproduction themed. I've been working some on my Civil War Sampler that I started at the class that Karen Witt of Reproduction Quilts taught last summer ~ I'm piecing it all by hand, so it'll be a while before it's actually a quilt! Some of us are also doing Dear Jane blocks. Here are the blocks I have done so far:

These are patterned after an 1863 quilt by a lady named Jane A. Stickle and can be found in the book Dear Jane by Brenda Papadakis. They finish 4 1/2". The original quilt has 169 of these little guys in the body of it, 52 triangle blocks that make up the pieced borders, and 4 pieced corner blocks (that's 225 pieced blocks) ~ It's quite stunning! We'll see how many I make, it's a modest start, but right now I'm just enjoying the process. They are fun to do, and you can finish one in a short period of time (at least most of them).

To help with the process in making these blocks, I found this great blog called That Quilt, all about Baby Janes and has great step by step directions of block construction. I'll keep the button here on my blog for future linkage. Check it out!

RoseMary Swartwood who attends our Jo Morton group shared with us her Dear Jane quilt so far. It is beautiful! As you can see, she is doing it in all blue and white fabrics, and each block is a different blue/white print, not one repeats. She is quilting each little block as she makes them, so she is able to put rows together and they are complete! I've been watching it grow and it's just amazing!

Come to And Sew It Goes if you can for Civil War Sunday group, it's informal, drop in and free! Just a time to stitch and share with like minded quilters. Definately bring show & tell! First Sunday of each month from 1:00 - 3:00. If you can't come, send me pictures of your Dear Jane blocks or other Civil War projects!

Enjoy the day!

~ Dawn