The Winner!

 

I'm a little late announcing the winner of my blog giveaway in honor of my interview on the Sew In The Snow Blog (You can read about it in Friday's Post in case you missed it).  I was busy this weekend with visiting family, and I attended the Lancaster Quilt Show on Saturday with friends...where I ordered my Handiquilter Sweet Sixteen Sit Down machine ~ and let me tell you, spending all that money took a lot out of me, LOL, but I'm so excited for it's arrival :)

Anyway, back to the subject at hand ~ You guys really should have entered this giveaway, there were only 7 comments that were left on my give away post...that's pretty good odds for winning!  The picture above shows the goodies that I'm sending out to the lucky winner, A book, a needle book starter kit, and a Prairie Paisley charm pack.  And the winner is...

 

Comment number 3 ~ Teachpany is the winner!  I'm emailing you for your shipping info to get your package out to you :) 

Enjoy the day!

~ Dawn

Quilty World News & A Giveaway! (Read to the End)

1. Big News in the Quilty World: It's that time of year again ~ The AccuQuilt Barn Quilt Design Contest starts today!  Design a Barn Quilt Block (or several) and submit between now and April 9th.  One lucky winner will receive a $1,000 AccuQuilt Shopping Spree along with a trip for two to Omaha, NE, to visit AccuQuilt’s new headquarters for the public unveiling of the winning barn quilt design.  In addition, the runner up contestant will receive a $250 AccuQuilt Shopping Spree...And the winning design will be proudly displayed on AccuQuilt’s new home office!  Click on the button above (or on my sidebar) to go to the Barn Quilt Contest page for all of the entry info.  The past two years I've waited until too late to submit and entry, so this year I wanted to jump in early.  It's easy and fun, check it out and design a block with me!

2. And in other Quilty World news ~ Have you heard about this in honor of National Quilting Day?  The Quilt Show with Alex and Ricky Free all weekend!

AccuQuilt and TheQuiltShow.com have teamed up to give you the ultimate experience for International Quilt Day! Join us March 16-18, 2012 as we celebrate all things quilting!

*Visit TheQuiltShow.com community for FREE and watch more than 100 shows hosted by Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims featuring the Top Quilting Teachers in the world

*Explore classrooms, unique tutorials, inspiring slideshows, and much more

*Enter the contest to win amazing prizes from companies you know and love—here a sampling of the prizes you can win:

• A BERNINA 550 sewing machine (yes! a new machine!)
• Gammill's Deluxe Chair—perfect for sewing at any machine
• Fantastic assortment of books from AQS Publishing, plus a 1-year membership to American Quilter's Society
• A selection of inspiring quilting books from C&T Publishing
• AccuQuilt's GO! Baby die cutting machine, GO! Value Die, GO! Birds die, and a 6x12 Cutting Mat 
• Bundle of 41 fat quarters from Ricky's Blended Solids collection, compliments of Red Rooster
• Box of silk threads from Superior Threads
• One of five DVDs from Why Quilts Matter
• One of five Stitched: The Movie DVDs

Plus, you'll have exclusive access to an episode of Why Quilts Matter, Stitched: The Movie, and many other sources of excitement and creativity in The Quilt Show community. Simply click here to get started. Enjoy, and we look forward to celebrating with you!

3. And finally, something fun in my little corner of the Quilty World ~ I was interviewed (yea, little ole me!), and I'm being featured today on the Sew In The Snow Blog!  So hop on over to Colleen's blog ~ bundle up ~ she's in Fairbanks Alaska :)  and read the interview.  (Colleen has a neat Etsy Shop too with some really cool items ~ I have my eye on some of the Knitting Needle cases among other things!) 

**Then I thought a little give away would be fun, so come back over here to Spring Water Designs and leave a comment and answer one of the Fun Fact interview questions (with how you would answer it)...just for fun...Then on Sunday I'll randomly choose one winner for a fun little Quilty surprise :)

Enjoy the Day!
~ Dawn

A WIP Challenge

This is what I've been working on this week.  My quilt guild issued a challenge ~ they handed out Flamingo fabric donated from a long time member who was downsizing and she was quite a flamingo fan.  I received two yards of this blue fabric with flamingos on it, and a little of the dark pink fabric.  We were challenged to make a quilt to be donated to a charity.  So this is my "Flamingo Paradise",  I knew I wanted it to be bright and happy, so that's why I went with the neonish yellow ~ I hope some young girl gets a kick out of it!  Now I'm working on using up the last remaining scraps of flamingo to piece my quilt back, and then I'll try to quilt some happy shapes on it :)

If you want to see some more Works in Progress, head over to the Quiltsy Blog by clicking the button above and get a little WIP Inspiration :)

Enjoy the Day!

~ Dawn

Be Big!

Do you like free project sheets?  Well I'm excited to announce that my Clifford Be Big Quilt design is now available as a free project sheet on Quilting Treasures website! (Scroll about half way down the page and look for Clifford, and click on it to download the free pattern).  I was asked to make a quilt design using these fabrics from Quilting Treasures, and I came up with this happy color-block style 55" x 61" throw size quilt.  It's big enough to lay over a Twin size bed, but small enough to carry around and nap just about anywhere :)
 

The fabrics in this collection are really cute and bright (I love the messages), and best of all, they're available in quilt shops now!  Be Kind, Play Fair, Help Others, and...

Enjoy the Day!
~ Dawn

I went on a day long Thrifting adventure about two weeks ago with my friend Heather, and one of the little treasures that came home with me was this little linen table topper with hand embroidery.  It has some damage and a bit of staining, but the color was just too sweet to leave at the store ~ and the price was right :)

...Plus there are a lot of little embroidered motifs...with lots of possibilities...

...And it came with four little bonus napkins!

Most of the hand embroidery is in wonderful condition, so I knew I would want to re-use the ones that I can in some way.  After all, someone went to a lot of trouble to stitch all of these cute little flowers, they need to be enjoyed, even if the linen they're on is in not such great condition any more.

The Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild was having a pincushion swap at this month's meeting, so I added a few fabric scraps, and a piece of twill tape from a Moda fat quarter bundle, and I made a nice long pincushion to sit by the sewing machine.  It was quick and easy, and I have plenty more little blooms left to make some more :)

This is the stunning little pincushion made by someone else in the guild that I came home with from the meeting!  I love miniatures and the colors are so vibrant in this little beauty.

Doesn't it just brighten up this shelf in my sewing room :)

And it was the exchange day for our Bee Blocks.  Here are the ones that came home with me in my colors of yellow, green and purple.  You can see the blocks that I made in This Post from last month (because yea, I made mine early by accident).  I now have 13 blocks, and hope to participate in another round with the same color combination to have a nice collection to put together in a really cool scrappy looking quilt some day :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

In Another Magazine!

Meet my Cherries Jubilee quilt design ~ And this is it's photo as it appears in the current issue of Fon's & Porter's Easy Quilts magazine (Summer 2012 issue)!  Doesn't she look cozy :)  I designed and pieced the quilt, and my friend Mary Nielsen of Keep Me In Quilts did the quilting on it. 

This quilt really is easy to make from just two simple to piece blocks...

And aren't these fabrics just yummy?  This version has a warm and cozy traditional feel made from the Cocheco Mills III fabric collection from Marcus Brothers Fabrics.  As a bonus, the magazine also shows a snippet of the quilt done in scrappy batik fabrics which look really cool, and I have plans to make it again using some fresh modern fabrics too :)

Kits are available for the quilt in this pretty pink & brown version Here on my Website, and you can get bolt fabric of the Cocheco Mills III fabrics Here while supplies last :)

Pick up a copy of Fons & Porter's Easy Quilts Magazine on sale now.  There are some really cute projects in this issue ~ I've already dog-earred four pages in my magazine :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

I'm Not Late, February's Just too Short

I've come to the conclusion that I really do need 30 to 31 days in a month to get to everything I need to get done, and it turns out that February is no exception!  With that in mind, here is my UFO Challenge project for February...a little late, but finished... 

The February challenge was to complete #1 on my list, and that was to finally put the binding on this Christmas quilt that I've had finished and quilted for quite some time now.

My good buddy Mary Nielsen of Keep Me In Quilts did the wonderful quilting job on it, a long time ago, and now it's finally finished :)

The quilt pattern is called I Believe and it's a Pat Sloan design.  Our Sloanie's Club had completed this pattern together one section at a time when I worked at the quilt shop.  It was lots of fun to make and choose fabrics for, and I have great memories associated with this quilt :)

Now on to the next UFO challenge for March which is #8 ~ To quilt my cute little Snowman quilt.  I'm going to have lots of fun holiday quilts to pull out for this coming Christmas!

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn