Snowflakes are Showing Up Everywhere!

The winter winds have set in, and snowflakes have been flying around intermittently here ~ not as much as the heartland of America, but Jack Frost has definitely moved in for the season!  With snow mingling with the holidays, I'm excited to share that my Snowflake Punchneedle Pillow design is in the February issue of Create & Decorate Magazine on the news stands now!  I designed it, and did the patchwork for the sample, and Heather did the punchneedle work on the center snowflake, so it was quite a team effort!

This was my first time working with the ladies at Create & Decorate, and they have been such a pleasure to work with.  If you haven't seen this magazine, check it out (I've spotted it in Joann's, Walmart, and some grocery stores).  It's a delightful magazine chocked full of primitive style craft projects of all kinds!  You can "like" the Create & Decorate girls here on their Facebook page to keep up with their upcoming happenings...and tell them I sent you ;)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

I Was Interviewed :)

 

I was interviewed by Kim's Crafty Apple as a participant in Season One of Project Quilting!  You can check out the interview here on Kim's Blog.  The above montage are the projects I made in the first season.  Thanks Kim for such a cool feature!

Stay tuned ~ Season 2 of Project Quilting begins January 9th...and anyone can participate, consider joining in on the fun!

Enjoy the day!

~ Dawn

The Littlest Things

I've been knitting a lot lately.  It's an easy carry-along that I can do as a passenger in a car, and in less than perfect light.  I always have a little knit project in progress tucked into my handbag for when I have time to kill.  I like to work on little things for that reason, and because I can also feel like I'm accomplishing finishes.  They are such little projects, but it's funny, when I visit my dad at the nursing home, he can't always have a coherent conversation, but he always recognizes my handwork projects that I'm working on and is interested in my progress :) 

So, as of lately I've been completing a bunch of little projects to give as gifts, and this one in particular sparked my dad's attention, I'm not really sure why.  This is a little scarf that I made for Elsie out of a fun polyester fleece yarn ~ and since I had more yarn, and it kept my dad's attention so much, I've made an extra one for sale here in my Etsy store for some other special little girl.  

Even though he doesn't go out side in the cold, I think I'll have to find some more "manly" colors and make one for my dad next.  Sometimes it's just the little things that make a difference :)

Enjoy the day!

Decking the Halls 2010

This weekend was about decking the halls at the Stewart house, so I thought I'd share a little dose of Christmas Spirit with you.  First I had to make my new ornament for 2010.  Each family member in our household has one with their name on it, so we had to add one for little Abby! 
These are Easy-Peasy: One cheap After-Christmas-Sale ornament, and a Silver Permanent Pen...Write the name + doodle = finished in 5 minutes :)

Now the Stewart Family tree is complete...on to decorating the rest of the house!

And just because I can't help myself, I have to show you some pictures of the girls first Annual Christmas Photo Shoot together.  These are a couple of the many cute pictures that my daughter took of them.

And my personal favorite:

A Christmas Classic :)  I hope you too are enjoying this magical time of year!

Enjoy the day!

~ Dawn

A Delightful Little Surprise

I popped on for a quick little computer break tonight, and I'm excited to share that my Abby's Owl Quilt Pattern is featured in the Quilt Market Trend Report at the Quiltwoman Blog!  How cool is that! 

The Abby's Owl pattern also includes a bonus pattern for the coordinating bed quilt pictured above, you can find the pattern at Quiltwoman, or here on my website. 

...And my Minneapolis Tote is also on the Quiltwoman blog post a little further down the page! 

Ok, now go back to what you were previously doing, and please forgive my little indulgance ~ I'm taking way too much delight in seeing my little patterns out there on big the worldwide web :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Getting into the Yuletide Spirit

This weekend I took another trip with the Baltimore Applique Society to visit Winterthur in Delaware.  It was a great day!  While there we got a behind the scenes peak with curator Linda Eaton who got out several Baltimore Album quilts in the Winterthur collection that are not currently on display.  We were not allowed to take pictures of these rare quilts, but photos were allowed on the Yuletide house tour, and I endulged completely. 

There were little festive Christmas touches all over the house that just took my breath away.

And of course there were trees...all over the house.   They were just stunning in person. 

This one was covered with live peonys with little glass vases of water to keep them fresh.  Winterthur is known for it's peony gardens in the Spring.

You can visit Winterthur for the Yuletide tour through January 9, 2011.  If you can't visit, there are more Yuletide pictures in a slideshow here at the Winterthur website. 

Now that I'm in the mood, I think today is a good day to start putting away the Fall Harvest decorations and digging into the Christmas boxes here at my house.  Lisa is still visiting with her daughters, so I may just have some little elves to help me :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

What I'm Thankful For Today...

...I'm thankful that this pile of 72 album blocks, is finally a quilt top!

This is another huge quilt top at approx 90" x 101" ~ I've been making a lot of big ones lately!  There was an excessive amount of piecing in it too...and with not a bit of applique which was really strange for me.  Each of the 72 blocks has 27 pieces, plus 161 sashing rectangles, plus 90 sashing squares = 2195 pieces!

The pattern is called Friendship Album designed by Jo Morton and was published in American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine the October 2009 issue.  I pieced it for a customer, but my husband and I have really taken a shine to it (doesn't it look great on my bed?), so I think there are some more album blocks at some point in my future :)

Now I can take a little break from the sewing machine and start baking and getting the house ready for the family coming for the holiday weekend, and I'm thankful for that too! 

Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving weekend and Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn