A Folded Star Demo for the Holidays

 

Today at the shop I shared a demo on how to make this cute little folded fabric star.  It's a great use of scraps and can be a little ornament or quick holiday gift.  My friend, Heather Kojan had taught me how to make it a couple of years ago, and I thought it'd be fun to share it. You can find a really comprehensive tutorial on how to do it at the Betz White Blog ~ check her post out, it has great photos and nice descriptions of what to do.  Instead of re-creating the wheel, I'm just going to give an over view of what I did, but refer you to her blog for a better tutorial :)

Start with a 3" strip of fabric from four different fabrics, each approx. 14" long.  Fold them in half lengthwise and press to get a center line.  Then fold the two raw edges in to that center and press again.  I used a little spritz of Best Press to help it hold it's shape to work with it.

 Then fold each of these strips in half.

Weave the four strips together by having each strip wrap around the outside of one strip and go on the inside of another. Then pull them tight together to look like the photo above.

Fold each of the strips back over the center.  I worked in a counter clockwise direction starting with the lighter gold strip, folding it from the right to the left side, and I finished with the green strip folding it up.

Then tuck the last strip (green in this case) under the loop formed by the first strip (light gold in this case).  I used a stilletto to tuck it under.  A bodkin, chopstick or tweezers would work here too.

Next you'll make the star points.  Miter the corners by first folding the green strip to the right hand direction, then again in the down direction.

 Then fold the whole thing in half from right to left. 

Use a clip here so you can let go of your point while you work on tucking the strip in.  Binding clips, wonder clips, a binder or paper clip, or a straight pin can work for this task.

Then gently tuck the green strip under the light gold loop.  You can gently pull the strips that are still sticking out to tighten everything up at each step.  Repeat this process for four star points on this side.  Then turn your star over and repeat the points step for the four points on the other side.

After all the star points are formed and tucked, use small sharp scissors to cut the extra end of the strip that sticks out flush with the fabric it's tucked under for each star point.
 

You can run a little thread or ribbon through it to create a hanger if you want to use your little stars as Christmas ornaments.

Check back later this week as I'll be participating in Fabri-Quilt's Inspired by Fabric Blog Christmas Project Blog Hop with a quick, easy Holiday decor project to have finished before Christmas ~ I'll be using the Peace on Earth collection by Ro Gregg shown Here :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Need to Suppliment your Stash for the Mystery?

Have you taken part in the annual Bonnie Hunter Winter Mystery Quilt before?  If you're looking for some pure sewing fun this winter, check out Bonnie's Blog Quiltville's Quips & Snips!  Every year Bonnie runs a Mystery Quilt project starting with the first clue the Friday after Thanksgiving, and releasing another clue each week for about six weeks until it's finished!  If you sew along each week making the clues, you end up with a wonderful quilt at the end :)

Bonnie has given the color clues out ahead of time, using paint chips as reference to what she is referring to, so you can go through your stash and start gathering up your fabrics.  It's meant to be totally scrappy ~ the more fabrics the better!  You can visit Bonnie's blog post to get full description of the colors and how this all works...and then check back on Friday for Clue #1!

 

 Just like year, we've gathered some fabrics in our shop that coordinate with Bonnie's paint chips.

I'm liking this year's colors, and can't wait to see what Bonnie does with them ~ and of course I'll be playing along ~ I can't miss out!  ...Even if I can't get it all finished soon, I'll print all the clues and have my project box all ready to pull out when I can ~ and of course they make great Leaders & Enders :) 

So if you need to supplement your stash (and I have spied some people in the shop with paint chips lately), come in and pick up a few cuts to go with your fabrics :)

We're closed tomorrow for Thanksgiving Day, but will be open regular hours on Friday & Saturday, and are having a Great Black Friday/Small Business Saturday Sale!

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Are You Up for a Mystery this Summer?

We've set aside three Saturdays this summer at Spring Water Designs for the Magical Mystery Tour...aka Mary & Heather's Excellent Adventure :)

Each of these three classes are stand alone classes, each with it's own mystery quilt project to make ~ you can come to one or all of them!  The first Mystery class was last Saturday, and each of the adventurous students started with different fabrics after being given clues about value/colors and such...

They were told what to cut, and given some cool tricks on how to sew and cut quickly...

To make Half Square Triangles eight at a time, and tips/tricks on squaring them up quickly.

 ...Everyone was guided in the construction of blocks...

...And then the Big Reveal!  Heather and Mary each showed their version of the quilt.

Mary even had a mini version to show :) 

And Marcia shared her finish with us from the class!

Everyone had a great time on their "Excellent Quilty Adventure", and after all, that's was a Summer Saturday is for...right!

We have two more classes on the Magical Mystery Tour this summer, one this month on Saturday, July 18th, and the last one on Saturday, August 15th.  We still have a couple spots left, so if you'd like to jump in you can check them out Here or call the shop to sign up.  The classes are from 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m., but then you can stay and sew on your project all afternoon until we close :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Are you Row Hopping This Summer?

The Row by Row Shop Hop started on Sunday, June 21st, and is well underway!  This year the theme for the Hop is "Water", and there are shops participating from all 50 states and Canada ~ so you can hit shops in all your summer travels! Here's a sneak peek of the Spring Water Designs Row ~ We call it Water Your Row and Watch it Grow :)  

You can stop by the shop and pick up your free Row pattern from us.  And if you use it in a quilt with a total of eight different 2015 row patterns...and if you're first to bring your finished quilt in to any of the participating shops you'll win a fabric bundle... and if our shop's winner uses our row in their quilt, there will be a bonus prize as well :) You can go to the Row by Row website for all the details, a listing of all participating shops, and row quilt ideas.

Along with the free pattern, we'll be offering kits for sale for our Row, plus we have kits for this coordinating Water Your Row wall quilt :)

We also have our personalized License Plate panels available for sale for those collecting plates, and we have kits for these sweet little zipper pouches that use our plates too :)  Stop in this summer and say Hi, we'd love to meet you on your Row Hopping journeys!

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Amazing New Auriful Thread Collection from Mimi Dietrich!

I'm so excited to share that brand new in the shop, and hot off the presses is Mimi Dietrich's Limited Edition Aurifil Thread boxed collection!  Aurifil makes some Amazing thread, and to celebrate Mimi's Summer as she's being inducted into the Quilter's Hall of Fame, they've put together a great limited edition collection of threads perfect for Baltimore Applique of course...

The collection includes eight spools of size 50 wt. thread that are perfect colors for Baltimore Applique projects, and four spools of size 12 wt. (shown on the right side of the box), which is thicker and is great for hand quilting (cream), gathering dimensional and ruched flowers (red & pink variegated), and making French knot embellishments (golden yellow).

I'm so happy and excited for Mimi, and pleased to have her teaching at our shop!  You can purchase her new thread collection Here while supplies last ~ Hurry, they're going fast :)

...And we also have her book, Baltimore Basics available while they last.  You can get the book Here too :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

It Warm's a Mother's Heart...

 

Not too long ago while working at the shop, I looked up and realized that all of my girls have become quilters ~ not just piecers, but I've got them all playing on the Handi Quilter machines too :) 

My oldest  daughter, Heather started making quilts back when she was in college.  But recently she has been working with me at the shop the last few months, and has really been quilting up a storm.

 This day she was quilting some placemats that she's made for shop samples.

My "newest" daughter Ashley (soon to marry my son later this month), has started putting in some hours in her free time working at the shop with us too!  Ashley's Grandmother Sharon taught her to sew, and she's made a couple of quilts in her younger days...

This cute little crib quilt is her first shop sample for us, and she even quilted it up with a nice and  even all over meander :)

My younger daughter, Lisa worked at the shop last Summer, and is putting in some weekends working with us when she can.  She's sewn for a few years now too.  This was her playing on the HQ machines a few months ago. 

...And one of the "wholecloth" quilts that she's made for her daughters when she was practicing. 

 

This one was for Abby :) 

...And slow but sure, I'm even getting Bob on the machines too (He's a good sport and let me take his picture when we were at Handi Quilter training in Salt Lake City).  Bob had been in Tech training for several days, but attended the Pro Stitcher training afterwards with me...and he's quite good at it :)

I'll have to see if I can get my son on the machines next...and then it's on to the Grand Children! 

 ...we're starting to work on Emily already :)

Enjoy the day!

~ Dawn

A Fresh and Sunny OP Quilt

 

It was a good day today ~ Along with spending the day with my little Abby,  I got a lot done ~ not the least of which was this customer quilt...or OP Quilt as my friend Mary calls them (Other People's Quilts).  I love being able to contribute to someone's quilt through the quilting  :) 

 

A Grandmother's Flower Garden block is so sweet, and the blue/yellow combination that Jodie used in this one is just fresh looking.

 The top has just the right amount of "scrappiness" in my opinion :)

...And I even like the back of this one :)

Enjoy the day!

~ Dawn