Spooky Eve!

I love October!  October brings some of my favorite things ~ candy corn, mounds of mums, fun size candy bars, and a few fun Halloween quilty projects :)  These are two projects that I designed for Quilting Treasures using their Spooky Eve fabric line designed by Pamela Bishop.  The center is the cute Trick or Treat panel with some pieced borders added to make this first one a throw sized quilt. 
 

...And how about a quick little wall hanging/door banner to welcome the little ghouls and goblins on the Spooky Eve :)  You can get the Free Project sheet that includes instructions for both of these projects Here on Quilting Treasure's Site ~ just scroll down the page a little and click on Spooky Eve.  You can look for Spooky Eve fabrics available in quilt shops now, or do a search online if your local shop doesn't have it.  Happy October!

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

O Say Can You See!

The big Defenders Day weekend in Baltimore was last weekend, and yes our Star Spangled Banner flew!  I can't report back with lots of beautiful photos though, because alas in lieu of previous commitments I couldn't be there ~ Boo! (This photo is actually one I took at the Fort on July 4th of the Fort's flag, not the one we stitched)

However, you can check out Mimi Dietrich's blog for a great accounting of the day, complete with the march through Baltimore as the flag was delivered to Fort McHenry by horse drawn caisson, The Old Guard, and some of the stitchers!

And this past Sunday morning, the CBS Sunday Morning show with Charles Osgood did a wonderful piece on the Stitching History project and the flag flying at the Fort.  The video includes many of my stitching friends on the project, and Kristin giving a great history packed interview, and is of course interspersed with Charles Osgood's excellent narrative.  You can watch the video clip Here at their site.

I'm still awed and honored to be a part of this project.  Now I'm looking forward to tracking our recreated Star Spangled Banner as it makes it's travels around the country :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Happy Labor Day!

Spotted this banner at the Maryland Renaissance Festival yesterday, and thought it was timely for Labor Day :)

We spent a lovely day eating, drinking, wandering, enjoying music...and eating some more.  Hope you are enjoying your Labor Day weekend too :)

The MD Renn Fest runs every weekend through October 20th in Crownsville MD, and definitely worth an afternoon.

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Sew Anyway...

...I've been away from blogging for a bit ~ and we've been so busy I'm not even going to try and catch up, I'm just going to plow forward and jump back into the swing of things.  One of the projects I had going in August, and I finished several weeks ago was the gift I was making for Heather's wedding.  If you're a Facebook friend, you saw my race to the finish in getting this one made up in time :)

This was a quilt that Heather had started cutting out for herself, but never finished. We're getting several of those types of collaborations on projects :) It's a version of my Chutes & Ladders quilt only made larger to fit her queen size bed.  Happy to have another UFO finished :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Flag Update ~ Last Week of Stitching!

On my trek up to Baltimore this weekend, here is how I found the flag.  We're sewing the three large sections together!

These ladies were sewing the completed Blue Canton with the stars on it to the short section of stripes.

 Each seam was getting several rows of stitches to make sure the seams are reinforced.

Cathy and I spent our time turning up and stitching on the hem that runs along the Fly end of the long stripes.  Since the Fly end of the flag is the one that really gets flapped in the wind, after turning the raw edge up about an inch, and turning it over again, we stitched close to the fold, then went back and ran a row of stitching close to the outside folded edge.  Other stitchers will go back and stitch three more rows on the hem to really reinforce it.

It's never dull when we go up to the project, along with several park rangers we were visited by our resident Mary Pickersgill and Dr. Beanes :)  Mary is our own Katie Bopp who has been a very active stitcher on the project and always willing to stop and help visitors learn a little about the history, and help them put a few stitches in the flag.  And I really don't know who the guy was who portrayed Dr. Beanes...

...But he was a very important part of the history of our Star Spangled Banner.  Dr. Beanes was a prominent resident of Upper Marlboro during the War of 1812, who was captured by the British after they had taken and burned Washington DC and they took him onboard they're ship out on the Chesapeake Bay as a prisoner of war.  If Francis Scott Key, a well known lawyer in the area wasn't tasked to go out and negotiate Dr. Beanes' release, then our national anthem wouldn't have been written when the two watched the bombardment of Fort McHenry from the ship.  ~ I think it's so interesting how seemingly small events affect the course of history :)

Anyway, the flag is coming along, and after I had left on Saturday, Mimi Dietrich sent me this photo of the Blue Canton completely attached to the short stripes by the end of the day, and the long stripes had been clipped on and the 42 foot seam was ready to be stitched!

**As of today the long seam is stitched!  You can go over to Mimi's Blog and see the progress and photos through today!  All is coming together and we're looking toward the big finish by the 22nd :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Elsie & Granny's Excellent Stitching Adventure

This past weekend was Heather's wedding, so our week was filled with visiting, rehearsing, dining, primping and just enjoying family.  But after all the festivities were over and while my mom was still visiting from Kentucky, the little ones and I took her up to Baltimore to visit the Maryland Historical Society and add a few stitches to the Flag Project.  While Elsie was watching this stitcher work on a star, she was asked if she wanted to pull the thread through to complete the lady's stitch (sorry I didn't catch this nice stitching volunteer's name).

Well that's all it took, and Elsie was hooked.  She watched intently as Miss Beverly sat down to show her how to stitch on one of the stripes. 

 She gave lessons to both Elsie and my Mom...

 ...teaching them how many threads to count over and the size the stitches should be.

 ...Then it was Elsie's turn to take her first stitch :)

 Next Granny got to take a few stitches. 

My mom's not new to stitching ~ she's pieced and quilted many a quilt by hand so she was a natural.  It was special for Elsie to get to stitch on the flag with her Great Granny :)

Then Elsie got some pointers from Miss Mary Ann on how to hold her left hand underneath to feel the tip of the needle coming through the material and make sure her stitches were going all the way through all the layers.

And there were even pointers on how to thread a needle when her needle slipped off the thread once.
 

Then she peaked underneath to see how good her stitching looked on the back side.

...And a new stitcher is born :)

We're on the last week of the Stitching History Flag Project.  I go up again this weekend and will post some more photos on the progress soon!  

Enjoy the day!

~ Dawn

Seeing Stars!

After being away for a week, I went up to Baltimore to work on the Flag Project again today, and this is what I found ~ Stars!

Here's where the short stripes are in the process (these are the ones that go next to the blue field of stars).

 And the long stripes are coming along too!

But the focus this week was on getting the stars started on the blue canton.  Mimi Dietrich is the lady in charge of the stars.  During the week she worked with a group of stitchers to lay out all the stars, position them in their "spangled" configuration and get them basted in place.  Here she is showing some volunteers (Kathy & Polly) how we are to stitch them for consistancy.

I got to work on stitching a star today too :)  Each of the 15 cotton stars is 24" across from point to point and will be basically stitched down twice.  Here the stars are being appliqued on what will be the back side of the flag. 
 

We're using 1/4" long stitches to catch a good bit of the blue wool since it is a pretty loose weave.  Then the flag will be turned over, and the blue fabric will be cut away leaving a seam allowance that will then be reverse appliqued down.  That will become the front of the flag, and you will be able to see the stars from both sides. 

As I left today, much progress was getting made :)

Don't forget to tune in to American Patchworking and Quilting Radio tomorrow online to hear more about the Flag Project and Kristen Schenning and little ol' me talking with Pat Sloan!  You can listen live at 4:00 p.m. EST This Link, or download the podcast later.

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn