Challenge Pillow Finish

We had a challenge in the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild, in honor of our guild's second birthday.

We were challenged to make a 16" pillow using the fabric that you see in the center of my pillow (we had a fat quarter of it), plus any other fabric that I wanted to add in.  I used a hunk of it in the center, and in some strips going across my pillow.

I used it on the back too :)

I was in the middle of my photo session, taking pictures of my pillow from different angles so I could list it in my Etsy Shop...

...and Maddie decided to check out what I was doing...

 ...then she made herself comfortable...

...and I knew that my photo shoot was over :)

Enjoy the day!

~ Dawn

A Fresh & Fun Break

When I need a break from the tons of designing that I've been doing lately, I like to make up little crib quilts :)  This is my Fresh & Fun Modern Crib Quilt. 

It's made with one little charm pack of Moda's Salt Air fabric collection designed by Cosmo Cricket, some coordinating yardage from the collection for the backing and binding, and a little Kona Bone.

 I quilted it with an all over meander with a light pink variegated thread.
 

This is the cute fabric I used for the backing and binding.  The quilt's so easy to stitch up, I've made a couple for gifties, and one to ship out as a donation for Mountain Baby Blankets :) 

Kits for the quilt are available both on the SWD Website, and Our Etsy Shop ~ and they include all fabric including the backing and binding!  ...Or if a really quick gift is needed, you can just buy the quilt already made Here in the Etsy Shop, so spread the word :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Christmasy Thoughts

Are you thinking Christmasy thoughts yet?  Well we are ~ Lisa and I have decided to do a local craft show the first weekend in November.  I haven't worked a craft show in years, and never with my daughter, so we should have a blast!  

We'll be taking Quilts and quilted items of course, Infinity Scarves by Lisa...and Christmas items!  So that means among my customer orders I'm working on, and multiple deadlines before heading off to Quilt Market next week, Lisa came up for the weekend and we made Christmas ornaments and gifts.  Here's a little sampling of what we did all weekend...

(These wool trees were cut out with my AccuQuilt GO! cutter Holiday Medley Die and layers were fused to make them sturdy)

Dad cut up some wood for us ~ We're capitalizing on some of that hurricane damage that we sustained back in August :)

We put together some little dittys that I've been planning to make for a long time.

And Lisa brought me this neat idea.  These little post-it holders will make great affordable teacher and co-worker gifts!

We got out the scrapbook papers, ribbons and embellishments (I have a bunch of all of that stuff, because my scrapbooks are yet to be made). 

We made a bunch in different sizes, colors and styles ~ they were actually quite addictive, and we got a little carried away :)

And we didn't forget the Dad's either, they need cool stuff on the desk at work too!

To really make some progress we had to do most of our creating after the little ones went to bed at night.  Then we got out the snacks, turned on the TV and played ~ one night we got carried away and "played"  until after mid-night.  Even if we don't sell a thing at the actual event, I've already enjoyed this craft show...play on :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Winners!

First I want to announce that my DD Lisa who is super creative, and has been since she was a little bitty, has officially joined Heather and I on the Spring Water Designs team!  I'm so excited that she'll be sewing with us, and bringing her ideas and sense of style to our little endeavor here on Spring Water Path ~ it just makes it so much more fun to be working with my girls :) 

Lisa's first offerings are her Infinity Scarves that she's been busy trying to keep in stock in our Etsy Shop.  They are made of cozy flannel and are perfect for the cooler weather that seems to have arrived here in the Mid-Atlantic all of a sudden.  Check out our Etsy Shop for colors and descriptions ~ they are very reasonably priced so they make great gifts for family, friends, co-workers & teachers!

...And we have winners from the Sullivan's Cutting Edge Ruler Blog Hop!  There are actually Twenty winners combined from all the blogs on the hop!!  My two winners from here are:
Darlene
Karen in Tucson
Congratulations!!  Pat Sloan will be emailing you for your information, or you can contact her at pat@patsloan.com.

I wish I could have answered each and every one of the comments that I received, but I wasn't home all weekend ~ but I want to thank everyone for all your fun remarks, and even the helpful tips that some gave me when my blog was acting kind of hinkey (I think I broke my blog with that incredibly long post on Friday!).  It was a super fun week :)

Make sure you check all the participating blogs to see if you're a winner!  In case you didn't win a ruler, you can get one in my Web Store, Joann's online or check your local quilt shop. 

...Oh, and as a final bonus, Pat has compiled all of the recipes that everyone shared on our hop (plus two bonus recipes) in one handy dandy booklet!  You can go to Pat's Blog to download that PDF file :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Happy Flag Day!

In honor of Flag Day in America (...and my daughter's birthday today ~ Happy Birthday Lisa!), here are a few cool items on Etsy by some talented artists.  Click here to see the entire Treasury and be able to click on the individual listings :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Retreat Progress

Well I've been doing some unpacking ~ and a lot of laundry today, so here it is...my production from the weekend's Quilting Retreat.  Along with blanket stitching some things off of my huge "Blanket Stitching Pile" (I'll show you those later once they are quilted),  I string pieced some Christmas Stockings.  These two are for Elsie and Abby, and I have more of the same style available in my etsy shop.   

And I made this little tree stocking just for fun.  I love prairie points, so I wanted to see if I could use them along the top.  On this one, I just string pieced the tree and appliqued it on with a blanket stitch. 

I had this Thimbleberries table runner pieced already (I actually made the top several years ago), but I got it quilted and bound this weekend.  It's going to be another Christmas gift :)  Let me tell you, it feels so good to see some old time UFOs coming to completion!

And I finally got the binding on my Jo Morton Somerset quilt.  I had pieced it a Jo Morton Club or two ago, and Sheri Thompson had quilted beautiful feathers all over it for me, and I finally used this weekend to make and apply the binding.  Now it's all finished and I've been curling up and enjoying it as a perfect little lap quilt.  This one is for me!

I even made myself make a quickie label and put that on while I was on the Retreat, because I knew I wouldn't do it once I got home. 

We had a blast, staying at the Blue Mountain Retreat Center in Knoxville MD right outside of Harper's Ferry WV.  The weather was beautiful, and made for the perfect scenery to quilt by :)  It was awesome the amount of stuff we were all able to get finished.  Tomorrow I'll show and tell a few of the beautiful things that the other ladies made while we were there. 

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Autumn Green

What can you do with a pretty Autumn knit sweater that is all stretched out from years of wear?  Well cut it up and make a throw pillow of course :)

I was in an Autumn mood, so I made this one today by bordering it with strips of cotton fabric in some lovely fall colors.  This one is for sale here in my Etsy Store. 

There are many ways to work with upcycled items, and giving them new life.  I'm busy recycling some other old sweaters, so check back soon ~ there just might be a little tutorial on how I make mine :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Halloween is in the Air

Just like last year, I've been busy making my little Trick or Treat Totes for the kiddies.  (I have just a few of them left in the Etsy Store).  And of course I made one last year for my little grand daughter. 

Well Elsie has picked out her costume this year and like a typical 3 year old, she is excited to be Tinkerbell.  Well the Orange/Black Halloween Tote that I made her last year just wouldn't coordinate right.  So this is what I did while watching football all day yesterday...

...A Tinkerbell Trick or Treat Tote!

I got the large Tink Applique from Joann's Fabrics, and the rest of the materials are just from scraps left over from other things.  A simple thing and small price for the smiles that it'll bring :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

PS ~ If you're looking to make any last minute Halloween projects I have Halloween Charm squares and Scrap Bag available in the Etsy Store...but hurry!

Handmade Halloween

We're finally feeling a little cooler, less humid weather which can only mean that Halloween is right around the corner.  That means my Trick or Treat Totes are back in my Etsy shop!  These reusable Trick or Treat bags were very popular last year not only because they are "green", but they're just the right size for the little ones to tote around and still roomy enough for lots of goodies :)

In keeping with the handmade theme for the holiday, here are a few of the many amazing indie items that can be found on Etsy:

Cute table runner from Tracy Designs

Great country crow wall hanging from 3 Stitch Creations

Happy pinwheel table topper from QuiltedHearts5

Elegant art quilt from Terry Aske Art Quilts

Cool witch silhouette wall hanging from Cinful Art

Quilted Postcard to mail to a friend from For Quilts Sake

There are so many wonderfully unique and beautiful handmade items ~ think about shopping on Etsy and supporting handmade this holiday season :)

Enjoy the day!

~ Dawn

A Yoyo Play Week

I'm continuing my week of Play here at Elsie's house (still no baby as yet).  For the Project Quilting Challenge this week, since I am away from home, I knew that if I participated it would be something I could do by hand...so I decided to make something with fabric yoyos.

The challenge parameters were to make something with black and white, and only one other color.  So after visiting the local Hancock Fabrics to pick up some fabrics and a Clover Large Yoyo Maker, I made a bunch of white with black, and black with white yoyos, and chose a cute lime green for my other color.

I sewed them into flower shapes...

Then I sewed the flowers together.

The only other parameter was that the finished project could not be a square or rectangle, so I made it into a diamond shaped candle mat (that's now available in my Etsy Shop!). 

Don't forget to go and vote for this week's Project Quilting Challenge here at Kim's blog.  The entries are getting more and more artistic every week, I'm in awe! 

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Little Needful Things and Planning

Not alot getting done here on Spring Water Path this weekend. I've been feeling a little under the weather ~ I didn't even make it to Civil War Sunday at the shop yesterday, or Heather's concert at church :( I seem to be feeling a little better today though, so hopefully I'll get something from my massive list done today (yes, my name is Dawn, and I'm a list maker). I did play around with some quilt blocks the other day though, so I have a little something to show you (new quilt project coming up soon using these blocks). In the meantime, I made a couple of pin cushions using them.

If you need a quick gift idea you can pick these cute little guys up in my etsy store. It's a Good Needful Thing :)

So I have tons of gardening and housework to do. Lisa's baby shower that Heather and I are hosting (at my house) is coming up in 2 weeks, and I have soooo much to do before then. I did get to lay around with my laptop and look up baby shower ideas this weekend, and really spent some quality time with my datebook (did I mention that I'm a list maker), so I think I have my life all mapped out, and executing it is all in the realm of possibility now.

I can't show you the rest of my gardens, because remember my weeding didn't happen this weekend, but I did venture out and take a picture of my Hydrangia, just in that perfect state as it's changing to blue :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Any Honey Bee Sightings Yet?

I haven't had any honey bee sightings in my garden yet, so I made this wool felt picture from a pattern that I got at Quilt Market. It's called Faith...Family...Friends by Ewe-nique Creations, and the pattern makes three 8" x 10" framed pictures of different flowers and primitive words stitched on, and each one has a little honey bee (If you like to work with wool I have one pattern left here in my ebay store).

I only made this one, it is "Faith" and the flower is Lavender Larkspur. I love how the flower, leaves and bee are 3 dimensional, you can almost smell the lavender!

I framed it in a black oval frame that has a vintage feel that I found at Joanne's Fabrics. (And for anyone who is not into working with wool, I have the finished product for sale here in my etsy store.)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn