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

Twice Completed

Here's a sneak peek at some of the cute fabrics that I've been working with. I love daisies ~ so much so that they were in my wedding bouquet! This fabric just sings 'Summer' with little bees, butterflys and ladybugs roaming all over.

And there are dragonflys and a great stripe! This fabric is called "Oopsy Daisy" from Blank Fabrics, and this quilt will hopefully appear in Quilt Magazine some time in the Spring. I worked all day, made great progress, added the borders, and got the quilt top done ~ but apparently worked a little too fast...

Has this ever happened to you? Last night I spent the evening taking out and turning a few blocks that inadvertently got put in a little side-ways. Sometimes I can live with side-ways, but this time there was no way. Thank goodness for seam rippers right! Now I've finished this quilt top twice :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Sometimes You Just Have to Take a Little Break

I've been quilting up a storm lately, but don't have anything to show you yet. Currently I'm working on two (yes, two!) quilts for magazine publication, so I've been spending a lot of time in the sewing room stitching and stitching, and on my computer writing and writing. But I find that to do my best ~ most accurate ~ work I need to take frequent breaks and just get out of the chair and walk around. Yesterday, I found myself playing with Scrabble letters on one of my breaks and made some cute little signs :)

I took my lunch break outside and just had to take some pictures of my Black Eyed Susan's blooming.

They're showing really nicely right now, but I'm noticing this black spot on the leaves and it's starting to spread. Does anyone know what to do about that?

These little purple guys are sitting happy in one of my pots and they made me smile :) Hopefully I will have some sneak peeks to show you tomorrow of what I'm working on, but for now it's the nose back to the grind stone for me!

~ 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

Celebrate With Me!

In honor of mine and Bob's anniversary today (27 years and counting), I thought it was time for a little give away to add to the fun!

Anyone who leaves a comment on this post by Sunday, August 2nd will be entered in a random drawing for this bundle of fat quarters from Jo Morton's Harmonies line. Tell everyone you know! ~ Or tell a quilting buddy who might actually care :)

...Now I'm off to celebrate the day!
~ Dawn

Bounty in the Bricks

The five little pumpkins seeds that we planted in Elsie's little garden digging bed of course have decided to creep all over the garden.

When Bob built the brick walkways for me this Spring, I don't think this is what he had in mind ~ but the pumpkin loves to meander through the garden and even step up onto the wall! I'm curious to see where it wants to go next :)

And being happy, this is what the pumpkin vines are giving me in return!

We'll see how these little guys like growing on the hard bricks.

In another box, my tomatoes are starting to really produce! We had a wonderful pasta sauce earlier this week, and I'm already collecting some more. Pure Summer!

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Finished Is Good!

A finished quilt! I made this quilt top a couple of years ago from an Elm Creek fabric line designed by Jennifer Chiaverini as a sample for the quilt shop (I can't remember the name of the pattern, but it was the free download at the time from Red Rooster Fabrics) . Like many of my samples, I get the top done, we hang it to sell the fabrics and then as I move on to other projects, when the shop is finished with it this one goes on The Pile. You know, the pile of things to be quilted...bound...labeled...

In my quest to reduce The Pile this year, I had gotten Jean McDonald to quilt this one for me. Jean works on a Gammill Longarm and she did beautiful free motion feathers in the triangle squares, that I could not have done nearly as nicely. I finally got it bound this week, and I even had the forethought to put a hanging sleeve on the back!

I love feathered stars of all kinds, and this one will hang in our living room during the Christmas season ~ It'll look great on my red walls in there. I think I'm going to put a little feathered star on the label that I put on the back.

If you click on the photos you can see Jean's quilting better. Jean's quilt business is called A Touch of Class and she has recently relocated to Topeka Kansas ~ look her up, she does take quilts through the mail. As she gets settled in Kansas, she plans to have a website, until then her email is mj4mcd@quixnet.net ~ tell her Dawn sent you :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn