What happened to Dawn?

Hello there! I guess you have been wondering what in the world happened to me? I have had so many things going on....deadlines to meet....places to go....pain to deal with (knee, of course). Whew! I get tired just thinking about it:) Anyway, the worst, I hope, has past and now just the usual everyday stuff, sort of. I have missed all of you and can't wait to get caught up and see what you have been doing while I had my machine and hands whirling. Here is a sampling of my projects:
My TAS group had a basket block swap. We could make up to six baskets to be swapped. I had originally want to make all of mine Baltimore Album style with the album that opens so everyone could write who made their blocks, but I'm afraid that was too ambitious. I only finished two, did a third in Baltimore style, and two I borrowed ideas from a book. The ladies seemed pleased and that was the most important thing.


Here I am with my swapped blocks. It was hard to choose from each of the ladies blocks but I am happy with my five:)

My guild held their fall retreat at West River a couple weekends ago and I was able to attend. This is a few of us Friday night. We had a total of 26 ladies. It is a great place with a nice view of the river.

Some of the ladies are helping a member with the layout of her blocks.

If you ever wanted to see Plymouth Rock, MA here it is. Or at least here is half of it. It is maybe 2 feet tall and 3 or 4 feet wide. My poor hubby expected to see some huge boulder jutting out from the beach. Sorry Jerry. It was exciting, tho, to be in the place where the pilgrims first landed. So much history in Massachusetts.

So, that is the short version of my 8 week absence. Since we are in the holiday season for the next 5 or 6 weeks, I will probably only post twice a week. Also, my quilt guild's show is coming up on March 12 and 13, 2011 and I will be getting very busy with that. There are several of us who have made quilts using Civil War reproductions and since the 150 Anniversary of the war is next year, our guild will be hanging our quilts together as a Civil War display. I am very excited about this. For those of you who live fairly close I hope you will be able to attend this show. We have very talented ladies in our group, which includes traditional and art quilt makers. Some are nationally known with Cathy Kleeman being one of our famous quilters.

Now I am off to see what you have been doing!

One flower Wednesday and my miniature dresden plates

I had some unexpected hand sewing time so I thought I'd work on my miniature dredens plates for awhile. I am only using Jo Morton scraps as I plan on using these in one of her quilts someday. lol I have a few different size blocks but I think I am going to settle on the 4 1/2 inch since most of her projects are small.

Today was One Flower Wednesday and I managed to complete four since last week. I was looking for a book in my personal library when I came across this one! Woo Hoo! I remember I had purchased it to make the project on the cover so I think that will be my plan for my hexies. The problem, tho, is I keep changing my mind as to what to make with them. One of the ladies in the group made a really cool looking bag with hers. No matter what I decide I still need to make lots so off I go:)

Birthday Party

Please meet Isabelle, my third youngest granddaughter. We helped her celebrate her birthday Saturday evening. She is such a sweetie! I love spending time with the grandchildren. We kidnapped the 3 girls at the end of the party to go for a little drive and what do you think they wanted? Yes, more food with sugar in it. So we had snowballs, ice cream cones and donuts! Then we took them back to their parents! Like I said, I love being a granny:)

I am now working on a satchel type bag for the shop. I forgot to take a picture of it but I will post that tomorrow. Ooops, probably on Wednesday since tomorrow is hubby's birthday and we may go out to dinner. Unfortunately he has the tummy germs now so I am not sure if he will want food tomorrow. We will see. Happy sewing!

Friday Night Sew In Results

Wednesday my friend and I went to Lancaster, PA in search of fabrics for two quilts she wants to make. One was all black and whites and one was a lot of different pastels and dark pastels as well. Apparently while she was picking up fabrics I was picking up germs because I woke up Thursday morning with a very sick stomach. The only thing that made me feel better was the big stack of quilt books that I needed to review that were donated by guild members for our guild library. I did tell you that I am the librarian, right? And I absolutely love it:) Anyway, so there I was, laying on the sofa, moaning and paging through books for a couple days. My tummy was feeling calmer by Saturday so I went up to the ole sewing room and made these next two blocks of my The Queen and Her Court quilt. I love these fabrics and I really love this BOM. It is a real pleasure making these. The instructions are clear and everything just goes so smoothly. I believe these are blocks 3 and 4. I have many more to go:)

Tuesday Guild Meeting

The second Tuesday of the month is when the Baltimore Heritage Quilter's Guild meet. My quilt guild. I love them. We have the best ladies, so talented! Here is a sampling of our Show N Tell from last week.

This quilt was made by my friend Rita C. She is a hand appliquer and hand quilter. I have learned so much from her:)

Isn't this Baltimore Album quilt a beauty? Debbie R. made this quilt. She entered it in the state fair and I can't even tell you how many awards and ribbons it won. I have watched her work on this quilt at retreats so it is nice to see it finished and I am so happy for her with all her ribbons!

Unfortunately I can't remember this lady's name and the circumstances in which she made this quilt but it is a hoot!! Be sure to zoom in so you can see the faces!!

We always have a summer challenge and this summer we did something new. You purchased two FQ"S for $5.00 and you had a choice of oriental fabrics, batiks, or reproductions. If you had a top finished by the Sept mtg you would get your $5.00 returned and you would be eligible for a prize. Well, if you know me you know I love reproduction fabrics so that was my choice. Here are the projects displayed. Mine is the pineapple square underneath Rita's Dear Jane blocks. She won third place in our category. I didn't win anything. The log cabin piece and the raw edge flower piece won first and second. It was fun and I loved working with those fabrics.

Original Sewing and Quilt Expo

It's that time of year again for the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo in Chantilly, VA, from September 30th till October 2, 2010. The Maryland Chapter of The American Sewing Guild, of which I am a member, has put together a bus trip for this event. The trip will be on Saturday, October 1. We will arrive at 9 AM and depart at 5:30 PM. So we will be there for the entire day. The cost is $40.00, which includes admission, one class session, a tote bag and a pin. Why drive alone, in your car, dealing with traffic, when you can ride, carefree, with your sewing buddies on the bus with your new tote bag and attend a class? You know we are going to have a good time:) So, give me a buzz or shoot me an email and let me know it you would like to attend. The deadline is this Wednesday, the 15th. So hurry, hurry, hurry! Don't get left behind!

Happy 50th Anniversary

On Saturday, the 11th, my friend Rita and her hubby celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. I wanted to make something that they would both like so I thought of this banner. I printed a picture of them on printable fabric. I then embroidered their wedding date on the left side of the pic and the 50 year date on right side. I embroidered Happy 5oth Anniversary on the top of the signature part of the banner. Their favorite colors are blue, purple and cream so I incorporated those. Then I had to get some gold in there so I used that for the lettering. Both of them are interested in the Civil War so the backing fabric has scenes on it from the 1800's which are printed in purple. I had two pigma pens attached with ribbons for the guests to use to sign the banner. They both seemed to like it so I am happy:)

I forgot to take a picture of it before we left so I had my hubby take a picture of me holding it with Rita. Rita has a great sense of humor and just as my hubby is about to take the photo she decides to tell a joke which breaks me up. We had great fun that day. Congratulations Rita and John!

Making a pocketbook Part 2

Welcome back to Making a pocketbook Part 2. What I wanted to share with you this time is how I made the inside bottom of the bag. I didn't have this special plastic Nancy mentions in the DVD so I hunted down some of my plastic canvas sheets from my crafting days. I didn't think one layer was firm enough so I wanted to use two. However, I knew they would slip and slide all over the place while I was trying to attach them to the bottom. So.......

I cut a piece of my outer fabric and stitched it on top of the two layers of plastic canvas. I selected a 3.0 basting stitch and stitched very slowly. Sometimes the needle hit the plastic, but I just raised the needle, scooted the plastic canvas forward, and continued on.

Here is my nice pocketbook bottom insert, waiting to be attached. And I did attach it, but it was a bit hard trying to stitch through all those layers. I looked at the instructions for the next step and that is when I noticed ......I had cut the plastic canvas an inch too long!!!!! No wonder it was so hard to stitch. It was not supposed to extend into the seam allowance, which Nancy did mention on the DVD!!! Oh well:) As of this writing I only have to add my straps and it will be finished. So, you guessed it. Stayed tuned for Part 3, The Finale!

Making a pocketbook Part 1

So, here we go. This was supposed to be an easy bag that you can sew in an evening....according to Nancy Zieman. And I suppose you could make one in a long evening, after you have made one that took 3 long evenings! I love the bag, but the instructions were a bit confusing. This is a Nancy Zieman project, as I mentioned earlier. The package came with a DVD, a booklet, an instruction sheet and a template. The DVD only tells you how to make 12 variations of two different style pocketbooks. The instruction sheet only tells you how to make the basic shape of the first six variations.The template is only for the first 6 pocketbooks. The DVD says you will use outer fabric, cotton duck cloth for support, polyester fleece for support, and a lining. The instruction sheet only mentions the outer fabric, lining and support fabric. Three, not four. For the purse I wanted to make you must remember to look through the entire instruction sheet to see where the strap instructions are, as the DVD tells you to add them before you sew the sides of bag together and the written instruction sheet has you add them after you sew the sides together which means you have to take the sides apart. Now, that was a bit confusing for me. But as you will see, I had to make things even tougher for myself. First, tho, let's look at the nice purse!

My purse is falling apart and that is why I wanted to make a new one. And I wanted to use parts of my old purse for the new purse. See those metal rings? They were 6 of those on my old purse, but this new purse needed 10. Why didn't I count them before I went to JoAnn's to pick out the outer fabric? The pattern called for a magnetic closure. I missed that on the list of supplies as well. So on the first trip to JoAnn's I bought the fabric and duck cloth. I thought I could find a nice cotton fabric to use as lining in my stash. But when I got home and looked....nope. Nothing matched the nice upholstery fabric I had purchased. However, I came across this cool looking denim and then found the perfect lining to match:) I then proceeded to cut out the fabrics, and fused as directed.

After a few more steps it is time to make a pocket. Well, I wanted a zippered pocket and hers called for a flat inside pocket that was stitched against the lining. So I get this bright idea that I will just cut a slit in the lining, and attach the zipper and have my pocket! Good idea, right?

Wrong:( If you look closely at the picture, you will see that I cut the pocket the pattern size, folded over all the edges and attached zipper to top. Good so far. Then I cut a slit on the pocket line to insert and attach the top half of the zipper. And this would have almost worked but I forgot to allow for the folded over edges so I cut the slit too long. Plus, (and get ready for the big laugh) since I cut the slit I only had a loose inside piece of lining instead of an enclosed pocket!!!! What should I do now???

I cut a piece of the outer fabric and sew it to the back on the lining so that I now have a pocket.

Now in this picture you can see that white fabric flapping around.

I turned the pocket inside out and cut off the flap!!! Whew! I never do things the easy way.

Now I have what looks like a normal pocket except I do have two nasty looking ends on that zipper. I apoligize for the blurry photo. I also wanted to mention, why in the world did I do all my stitching on the right side of the lining so that all my markings would show??? This is what happens when you are in a hurry:)
Stay tune for Part Two:)

Maryland State Fair

These are some projects that you haven't seen yet. This picture frame, with one of my DGD's picture in it, won Third Place at the Howard County Fair. It is machine embroidered. It did not win a ribbon at the state fair.

This is the first garment I have ever knitted. It won Third Place.It was supposed to be for youngest DGD but I had to keep ripping it out and starting over. And now she is five!!!!! I will probably offer it for sale at my guild show in March.

This apron won a Blue Ribbon at the Howard County Fair, but nothing at the state fair. There were a lot of entries. The critique was that they (judges) loved everything, but the gathers weren't perfectly spaced.

And here was my surprise!!! My wool saltbox table mat won a Blue Ribbon and Viewer's Choice!!! This is the first time I have ever won a Viewer's Choice Award! I would like to thank everyone who voted for me:)

My other items you have already seen pictures of in previous posts. So here are my stats for this year: Howard County Fair: 6 items, 5 ribbons, $18.50.

Maryland State Fair: 8 items, 5 ribbons, $32.00.

I have already selected my wool project for next year, plus I have some quilts to finish for next year as well! Please share your fair experiences with me as I love to hear them. Have a great day!

Trip to the mountains

We went to Paw Paw, West Virginia on Monday. We took the long way, all through the mountains in western Maryland. We tried to take the smaller roads to get there and got caught in a loop called Mountain Road. According to the map, it went south and straight to Paw Paw. However, when WE came to the end of it, we were back where we had started! lol It was okay, tho, as it goes right through a Wildlife Management Area and I have never been to or through one of those. Now, don't laugh, but I was expecting to see wildlife everywhere...herds of deer, maybe a bear or two....you know, wildlife. What I did finally see was a huge hawk perched in a tree. I tried to get a picture but the sound of the truck backing up scared it away. One thing you need to know about Mountain Road if you ever plan on going there, it is truly a mountain road. Just ruts in the dirt. Sometimes deep ruts. A couple of times we were shaken so bad our heads hit the roof of the truck. It was quite an adventure! Now, finally, we found the C& O Canal in Paw Paw. There was this huge dead tree. I asked my hubby to stand next to it so I could take a pic. Well, typical of hubby, he has to climb ON the dead tree. All I could picture was it breaking and him falling in the dirty water:)

On the way to the canal we stopped at a fast food place. It was around lunch time. I looked up and saw all these pigeons. Ya think they were waiting for lunch?

I asked humorous hubby to take a picture of the birds while I was in the shop. See who he took a picture of first?

We stopped at this overlook called Town Hill. Isn't it beautiful!!

This is a view of Sidling Hill from the lookout!

It was a beautiful day and I am so glad we went. Hardly any walking, just driving. I am still not able to walk for very long. Sigh......some day. Hope you had a great Labor Day weekend!

One Flower Wednesday

Yes, today in One Flower Wednesday and look what is with my flowers? My Viewer's Choice Award from the Maryland State Fair! It just keeps popping up everywhere!

State Fair Info

I was finally able to attend the MD State Fair on Thursday! How exciting! I knew I had won some ribbons as some of my friends sort of let it slip. LOL But I didn't know which items won what. So...here we go. First of all, see the picture of my wool project? They don't have it open all the way but it still looks good:) My DGD's nightgown won Second Place, pink knitted baby sweater won Third and my table runner won Third. So that wasn't too bad, entered 8 items, won 4 ribbons. My friend Missy who usually enters the wool category and she is the friend I was referring to in my earlier post, didn't enter under wool this year so we didn't get to compete against each other. She did, however, enter two quilts which won Blue Ribbons. I have posted the pictures of her quilts as I thought she did a fantastic job! Yea Missy!

Missy's quilts:)

This last picture is a bust of Elvis made from cardboard. Can you believe it? Of course it looks much better in person! Megan Clark entered this and as you can see, it won several awards! Congratulations Megan!!

That is it for me for now. Today is Civil War Sunday at And Sew It Goes in Savage, MD and I am looking forward to attending. Have a great Sunday:)

One Flower Wednesday, DGD project and sunflowers

Today was another One Flower Wednesday! I actually have three flowers to show as I have had a couple meetings these past few nights and took my little hexies with me. I hope you like them. I have found it is easier making them with the paper templates than with the plastic ones. Also, the more I make the faster I am getting. I have been thinking about how to connect them. Do you usually make bunch of single hexagons and then lay everything out when you have made all the flowers and background? Or do you connect as you go along? I am sort of anxious to start connecting since I am getting a little collection now. But then I wonder if I will be sorry later as I have no specific plan as of right now. (Sigh) I guess for now I will just have fun laying them out:)

My DGD started Kindergarten Monday and needed some bath towels with her name of them for nap time. So I decided to applique the letters. They are four inches tall and three inches wide. I used Steam A Seam II for the fusing. Of course, they didn't fuse very well because of the terry cloth but it was enough to hold them in place while I appliqued by machine.

I just had to share this photo I took of one of the sunflower fields near my daughter's home. They are between four and five feet high. I love how they are all facing one direction! I planted some in my backyard and they are now between seven and nine feet tall. I had to choose the tallest ones! LOL Unfortunately, the flower bud broke or was chewed off my best one. All of them have buds now so I guess in a few weeks I will have my huge flowers! Woo Hoo!

What are you doing this Labor Day weekend? We are planning a day trip to the mountains on Monday. I can't wait! Have a great holiday weekend!

One Flower Wednesday

This is my latest addition to my One Flower Wednesday flower garden! I made this one with papers, instead of using the Patis. It looks just as nice! I must admit I am getting a little faster at making these now. For my fair update, I did get the tablerunner finished. My Designer 1 machine started having some issues, so I had to come up with plan B for the remainder of the quilting. I am pleased with my idea and how it turned out. I entered a total of 8 items for the MD State Fair. They are in the processed of being judged now. Good luck to all who entered in their local fairs!

Another AccuQuilt Go Give Away

Yes, another blogger is giving away an AccuQilt Go! Just go to visit Jackie here and read all about it! Good Luck!

Friday Night Sew In Early Results

This is the table runner I am working on. I decided to post a picture now before quilting it because my DGD will be coming to spend the night so I don't think I will have an opportunity to get online. This is the same pattern that I used for the quilt shop sample. (see Wed. May 5 post)Much easier to make the second time around! Have a great weekend!

AccuQuilt Go Give Away

Yes, folks there is another chance at winning an AccuQuilt Go!!! Just visit Sew Many Ways blogspot and get the details. I am trying every time I see a give away cuz I would love to own this AccuQuilt Go!!!! Good luck to all!

Friday Night Sew In

I am a little late posting this but the Friday Night Sew In is happening now! Woo Hoo! I am trying to machine quilt a table runner for the fair but I am having some problems. So I have sat for the past hour un-sewing:( It is rather late so I may stop for now and pick it up later on Saturday. I was hoping to finish the quilting part tonight as I wanted to work on something else for the fair. Oh well. This table runner is really cute and I will take a picture later and get it posted. What are you all working on? I am going to take a few minutes to peek at your projects!!!

One Flower Wednesday and new sewing toy

I am giving you a sneak peek at one of my projects for the state fair! I have a friend who loves wool projects and last year we unknowingly competed against each other. We had such a good laugh! She claims that she is not entering that category this year.....but...just in case she is I am only giving a sneak peek of my wool project! lol Do you all enter you local fairs? Aren't they fun? I would love to hear about your entries, or maybe your favorite fair story!

This is my new sewing toy. It is a pin magnet by Fons and Porter. My other one broke so I decided to try this one. At first I was not happy with it as some of the pins sort of stand up instead of laying flat. Then I realized they did this on purpose to make it easier for you when you reach for a pin! So now I love it!!!

This is my little collection of hexagon flowers that I have been making for

One Flower Wednesdays! I am getting a little better each week. I just realized yesterday that you need to leave the template in until you are ready to sew the little flowers together! Ooops! So I may have to remake the first three!

This is what I have been working on while recuperating from my surgery. I am going to come and visit you now on your blog to see what you have been doing lately so get ready to show and tell!

Fair Photos

I thought I would share my Sunday with you at the Howard County Fair. Hubby and I took our youngest granddaughter and we had a great time, even tho it was hot! The fair provides wheel chairs free of charge. I am so grateful for this service as I would not have been able to attend since I still cannot walk for very long. The big game winner of the day was my DGD! I even had to ask her to win a prize for me as I wasn't doing very well in the game department! Here she is with the first two prizes that she won.

My hubby usually takes my picture while I am pointing to my entry so...here I am pointing to knitted pink sweater which won Third Place.

This picture is a bit out of order but I wanted to share with you the Ravens Marching Band, which open the fair every year! Woo Hoo! They sound great!

Okay, back to entries. This is my machine pieced and machine quilted Basket Quilt. How do you like those basket buttons? It won Third Place.

Here I am pointing to that picture frame in the case. It is machine embroidered. I won Third Place. I was told by several volunteers at the fair that the judges loved it and had there been less competion I would have won a Blue. That's okay, I am quite happy with third:)

There is the blue night gown I made for my granddaughter. It won Second Place. She was thrilled to see the ribbon on it!

Unfortunately this one is hard to see. This is a bib apron I whipped up in just a couple days. It won a Blue Ribbon. I will take a better picture when my camera has recharged!

The other small quilt I entered was this wall hanging. It is made primarily from reproduction fabrics. It didn't win a ribbon. The judges wrote on the tag that even tho they liked my colors, corners and pattern, my stitch in the ditch quilting strayed a time or two, therefore, no ribbon:(

It is hard staying in that little ditch:)

Well, that is it for my fair entries for now. Next week the Maryland State Fair begins. I will be entering these six items plus a few more that I have been working on. I will have more details on my next post!