Squeezing a little Garden in

I love this time of year!  Even when it's crazy busy with work and family events, I can take breaks and squeeze out some time to play in the garden.
 

This week in between things I've been getting some lavender harvested.  This is what's currently drying in my laundry room right now.  Some day it will be in some pretty sachets :)

Elsie and I also potted up all of these little plants this week to use as the favors/centerpiece for Heather's wedding shower that was at my house last weekend.
 

 Surprise, surprise...yes we went with a gardening theme for the shower :)

It was a special day, and I think everyone had a wonderful time sharing best wishes with the bride-to-be :)  Now, Operation Bridal Shower is over...back to some quilting...  

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Playing with Color

Who doesn't love some rich, mottled, hand dyed fabrics?  Well I spent some time last week enjoying the day under the canopy of trees with friends learning how to dye my own :) 

Our friend Ray graciously shared her home and lovely backyard deck area, and six of us took a class with Karen Amelia Brown who was a wealth of knowledge, and very patient with those of us who didn't have a clue what we were doing (eh hem...me).  

There was a lot of measuring, stirring, a bit of shaking, dipping...dripping and pouring going on  (This was my workstation before I really made a big mess out of it).  Then later we had to follow up with rinsing, rinsing, rinsing...and rinsing...then washing and pressing.  But it was all worth it because...

I learned how to make a rainbow!

 ...And gradations... (I chose blue for my gradation experiment, because one can never have enough "sky" fabric).

...And we did some manipulations ~ folding, twisting, rolling, tying and rubber banding.  Every one came out different, and seeing how each piece turned out was the most fun.  My friend Mary at Keep Me in Quilts blogged about it Here, if you want to see how her fabrics turned out, (and she caught a photo of me in my messy clothes). 

From our day playing with color, we each came home with about 6 1/2 yards of new dyed fabrics ~ Yea, I'm feeling another quilt project coming on :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

My Cool Blue Quilt is in Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting!

I finally have something to Show & Tell :)  This is my "Cool Blue" quilt, and it's in the current issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting magazine!

It's a nice wall hanging/table cover size made with the Indigo Blues fabric collection from Fabri-Quilt .

Just to show how far ahead we have to work on projects for publication, I actually finished piecing and quilting this quilt back in the end of January, as you can see from the snow on the ground in the photos I took here before I shipped it off for magazine photography :)

So look for your copy of Love of Quilting magazine on the news stands, or you can click Here for the current issue info on the Fons & Porter's website and see all the beautiful projects in this issue :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Another Row is Up!

The next Row is up for the Round Robin Winter Wonderland Sew-Along!  Hop on over and check it out ~ it's a cute Row with Gift Boxes designed by Clover and Violet.  And on the Flickr Group, some of the Tree Rows that I designed are starting to appear :)

It's fun to see what everyone is making as they sew up their rows, but it's hard for me to think about a Winter Wonderland when we've had such a nice Spring here.  It's been cool, so my Spring blooms have stuck around and really made a pretty show.

 Even my pansies are still going strong, usually they're about finished by now.
 

 And the roses are all popping now too, so while you're working on your Winter Wonderland Rows...

...Don't forget to take the time to smell a rose :) 

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

My First HQ Club!

Yesterday I enjoyed the company of some Quilty friends while we held the first HandiQuilter Machine Quilting Club session in my studio :)  The topic for this first session was Basic Backgrounds, and each student received instructions to make one of these sampler quilts to practice their machine quilting backgrounds and fills.  These samples were made by my friend Mary Nielsen who generously shared her work with us.
 

Each attendee at HQ Club received these practice sheets to start their collection of machine quilting designs.  Putting meander doodle designs in sheet protectors is a great way to practice muscle memory with dry erase markers before you quilt, and to use them as reference for keeping your size consistent when quilting them out.  

Dry erase boards and machine quilting books were available and everyone got to stitch on my HQ machines and play with the designs.  Some favorite designs were shared, along with many tips and lots of information from everyone.  That's what I love about when quilters get together! 

Now it's time to practice, practice, practice :)

If you're local in my area, I have some more HQ Club topics and dates scheduled in the coming weeks.  You can check them out Here on my website or contact me.  All skill levels are welcome, and you don't have to own a longarm machine to attend.  We'd love to have you join us, but space is limited, so if a class you'd like to attend is full, contact me, so I know what topics you like, and I'll schedule more dates for it :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

My Row for the Winter Wonderland Sew-Along

Well I'm hopping around Blogland again, this time with the Round Robin Winter Wonderland Sew-Along being hosted by Becky at Patchwork Posse!

 This is my block...

 ...put a bunch of them together...

...And you get my Row ~ Walking in a Winter Wonderland Forest!  ...Yes, it's another tree row, that's what I get for planning too far ahead ~ but it's ok, our trees are a little different from each other, yet coordinate, and remember you can place your rows in any order on your quilt :) 

Check out Patchwork Posse's Blog Post today to download the pdf with instructions and paper piecing templates for my row.  And I'll be uploading it to the Free Pattern Page at my Spring Water Designs Website soon :)

Click the Sew-A-Long Link for a list of all the designers and see the rows that have be made so far, and what's still to come!

And there's a Flickr Group to see some of the different variations of the rows that are being sewn.  Some folks are starting to sew rows together and they're looking great!

Enjoy the day!

~ Dawn

I took the day off today and just enjoyed the beauty of the day, having lunch with some family at the Fisherman's Inn at Kent Narrows.

 The weather was gorgeous, 

 And their gardens were simply lovely! 

I think we had the best seat in the house :)

I'll get back to some Quilty stuff soon I promise.  Stop back tomorrow to see my Row revealed for the Winter Wonderland Row Robin Blog Hop Sew-Along!

Enjoy the day!

~ Dawn