Shall I try again?

Hello my sewing friends, it has been so long since I have posted. I have been ill from an assortment of things for awhile. The most recent started in February with both of my ears being infected, the right one being the worse. I am still not fully recovered, still have some fluid issues, but I am rejoining the world again. I am anxious to see what you all have been doing while I have been gone! I have a few photos to show you a little of what has been happening here.


First of all, we have a new addition to the family. Her name is Amber Marie and in November she was approx. a year old. She is a rescue cat. She had been starved and mistreated but now she is happy and gaining lots of weight. She was named Amber by my granddaughter and I gave her Marie for her middle name. Most of the time, tho, I call her Fido, as she reminds me of a little puppy that follows me around all the time. She has become very affectionate and is never far from me. I hope I bring her the same amount of happiness that she brings me.

The 150th anniversary of the Civil War was April 13th. This is one of my civil war quilts that I had in my guild show called Civil War Maze. I accumulated these reproduction fabrics from internet swaps over the years.

This next quilt is titled Remembering Gettysburg. I used my Dear Jane blocks with Jo Morton reproduction fabrics. My hubby and I went to Gettysburg battlefield where I took the photographs for this quilt. I am doing some embroidery of cannons and stars, which are the quilting designs in the borders. I also plan on embroidering the name of the quilt on the upper border. The center medallion was hand quilted and the rest was machine quilted.

This last photo is a tablerunner using the braided quilt as you go method. I made this for the shop. It was fun and easy! And my favorite colors!

Well, that is all for me right now. I am going to visit your blogs for awhile and see what you have been sewing! See ya soon!

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!