DawnStitches | With each stitch a new beginning…

New Work

Posted on April 1, 2012 by DawnStitches

I know it’s been a while since I posted but I suppose that’s because I’ve been busy working on new products! Mostly I have been making a lot of new banners.

One of my sister’s loves to preserve all sorts of things (think yummy relish, blueberry butter, pickles and more). She definitely inspired me to make this cute little banner!

This is one of my favorites. The cute squirrels and acorns make me so happy!
Some other new products I’ve been working on are baby booties! So many lovely friends of mine are having babies and these make perfect baby shower gifts. I have made small ones for 6-12 month olds and larger ones for 12-18 month olds. Check it out here! (more pictures coming soon)

I have quite an inventory of quilts too! Here are some new ones I hope to have quilted soon.

These are wonky courthouse step blocks done in vibrant turquoise and orange. Perfect gender neutral baby quilt or play mat!

This is a scrappy rainbow zig zag quilt. I can’t wait to quilt this with all my different colored threads! The back will be a quilted zigzag with all the different colors! I might have to go baste that right now!

So where do you get to see all these new creations in person? At Richmond Craft Mafia’s Spring Bada Bing on April 15th!!!! Check out their website for more information and to see all the other awesome vendors. Hope to see you there!

Posted in business, sewing | Tagged baby, banner, canning, jar, quilts, rainbow, squirrel, tangerine, turquoise, zig zag | 2 Comments

Craft show this weekend!

Posted on December 8, 2011 by DawnStitches

I am SO excited to be a vendor at this year’s Richmond Craft Mafia Handmade Holiday show! Be sure to check out their website for information. It is this Sunday (Dec 11) from 11-5.

So here’s a sneak peek at what I’ll be bringing with me to the show. I’ve been so busy sewing that I have to apologize – these are mostly iPhone photos. Come see the goods in person!!

I have been working away on lots of fun banners. I will have several colors of ‘happy holidays’ and ‘merry christmas’ ones. They are small and would look great on a mantle or over a dining room table. I also have others that can be used year round for cheerful decoration.

I have lots of quilts available. Most of these are large crib/play mat size – perfect gifts for that baby or toddler in your life! All of my quilts use 100% organic batting and organic fabric when possible.

I’ve also been embroidering happy, motivational phrases. They will be framed in vintage embroidery hoops.

And since this is the holiday show I have lots of fun decorations! These modern ornaments come in two different sizes.

I also have garland made of various small circles. Great to drape around the house or tree for instant festivity!

ALSO, I have made lots of cute pouches. They come in a small size that makes a great wallet or gift card holder. I also made larger sizes that make perfect pencil pouches or makeup bags!

I hope to see y’all there!!! Happy happy holidays!

Posted in business, sewing | 1 Comment

European Adventure – Italy

Posted on November 10, 2011 by DawnStitches

My husband and I recently took a trip to England and Italy. We were traveling for about 2 1/2 weeks. It is hard to sum up this trip but ultimately Italy was everything I hoped it would be. John was great and went through hundreds of pictures and posted them on his flickr. Go check them out! Here are a few of my highlights…

We stayed mostly in Cinque Terre. This is an area on the west coast with small villages that you can hike or boat between. I’ll tell you – it was hard to pick where to go in Italy but we wanted to soak in one place and we wanted it to be kind of quiet (i.e. not a big city). We were not disappointed here!

Monterroso is kind of divided into a new section and an old section joined by a tunnel. We stayed at a great Bed and Breakfast called Villa Cristina. This was the biggest town so there were plenty of restaurant options and the beach was great!

From there we hiked to the next two towns. The trails are quite steep and skinny but the views are amazing.

Most towns are accessible by boat, train, and trail so sometimes they’d get pretty busy! One town, Corniglia, did not have a ferry marina so it was nice and quiet. It was also one of the smallest towns and ended up being one of our favorites.

Words are escaping me as I go through all of our pictures. Ultimately our trip to Italy was a dream come true. We celebrated five years of being together in a beautiful country. What more could I ask for?

Coming up soon is our England part of the trip and lots of stuff I’m sewing!!!

Posted in family | Tagged cinque terre, corniglia, italy, monterosso, travel | 4 Comments

Organic ZigZag Camping Baby Quilt

Posted on September 26, 2011 by DawnStitches

I am proud to show my first completely organic baby quilt! I made this based on the excellent tutorial by Crazy Mom Quilts. You use a series of rectangles that are strip-pieced. Then you piece everything together at an angle. I had never done that kind of quilt construction but it was a lot easier than I thought it would be!

You just trim off the extra bits after quilting. And then it becomes this:

I used a lot of my favorite fabrics to make this quilt including some Circa 60 Beach Mod by Birch Fabrics and the cute animal print from Anika by Monaluna. I also included a print from Nature Walk by Cloud9 fabrics.

This quilt was inspired by my love of camping in the mountains in the fall with my husband. The brown zigzags remind me of the ridgetops and then all of the animals, tents, and trees are some of the wonderful things that can be spotted during a weekend in the woods.

For the back I used what extra cutoffs I had from the strip-piecing. I had to add some wonky-ness in there somewhere!

I hope all of you have a wonderful fall! It snuck up on me but I’m excited to watch the tree leaves change and hopefully we can squeeze in more camping trip this year. : )

FYI, this quilt is for sale and will (hopefully) make it into my Etsy shop sometime soon. If you are interested please send me an e-mail!

Posted in business, sewing | 2 Comments

Another Upcoming Class – Quilt As You Go!

Posted on September 16, 2011 by DawnStitches

In November I am going to teach this fun technique using the “Quick Step Quilt” pattern by Carol Britt. You quilt as you piece it together! This makes it truly a quick way of making a cool quilt.

The picture above is of the back. The strips in the back coordinate in placement with the ‘brick path’ strips on the front. There are so many options of how to design this quilt! The back could be completely different.

If you’re interested in taking this class it is three Tuesday evenings in November. Go to this link at Quilting Adventures to sign up!! I’d love to see you there!

Posted in business, sewing, teaching | Comments Off

Daybook Entry

Posted on September 15, 2011 by DawnStitches

Outside my window… getting darker and looking like fall

I am thinking… I wish I could get my thoughts more organized

I am thankful… for a supportive husband

In the kitchen… leftover butternut squash mac n’ cheese (YUM!)

I am wearing… sparkly ‘love your earth’ t-shirt, comfy jeans, and Birkenstocks. Yes, I’m a hippy.

I am creating… ‘mountain camping’ baby zig zag quilt

I am going… to Europe in 24 days!!!

I am wondering… how to make more time for sewing business!

I am reading… between books. any suggestions!?

I am hoping… that I get a full night of sleep.. recent bouts of insomnia suck!

I am looking forward to… going to Italy for the first time ever!

I am hearing… Indigo Girls – going to see them they day before I fly to Europe

Around the house… wishing the pets didn’t shed so much

I am pondering… when to plant the seeds my sister gave me for fall veggies.. soon i think.

One of my favorite things… sushi.. i crave it all the time!

A few plans for the rest of the week: fabric dyeing with friends from work!, neighborhood art show, sewing!

Here is picture for thought I am sharing…

Guidance from the Simple Woman’s Daybook

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

I’m gonna be a teacher…

Posted on August 10, 2011 by DawnStitches

… at Quilting Adventures.

Ya know, I’ve thought for many years about teaching. Like in school. I think it is such an important job. I just don’t think I’d be good enough to honor how important it is to play a role in forming a child’s education. And I would be terrible at discipline.

So, I teach lovely folks how to quilt. No discipline really involved usually. ;) Good times. And the subject is something I’m really passionate about. So, my dream to teach comes true – just in a different way than I thought almost a decade ago when I started out at college.

I have been invited to teach three different techniques this fall. I have been working on the samples and lesson plans. These pictures are all ‘in progress’ iPhone photos. I promise I’ll take better photos when things are actually all done.

First is a class I’ve taught before. This is called Circular Patchwork and it is SO fun. It’s like cheater’s Cathederal Window. There is a great metal template for making perfect circles. Then it comes together really quickly and the options are just endless for fabric combos. Plus it’s all done after piecing - no actual seperate top, batting, and back thus no basting (my least favorite part of quilting).

A ‘artsy’ photo of what it looks like when done.. Better photos to follow in another post.

Another class I’m excited about is the Quick Step Quilt. I made a slightly simpler version of this for John (our first anniversary of dating) that was queen-sized and it took just a little over 2 weeks! This is fun because like above once you’re done piecing you’re also done quilting and backing! It’s a quilt-as-you-go technique. This one’s super exciting because I love the brick path pattern.

Laying out the ‘brick path’.

Quilting as I piece! The batting and backing is already in place under there!

I am also teaching paper piecing! I really enjoy paper piecing techniques because it basically guarantees perfect points and you can make some pretty complicated designs. In a recent post I showed the lighthouse wall hanging – that was all paper pieced!
I will be teaching how to make several little blocks and then using them to make nice book covers. Technique + a useful project = gotta love it! These are Little Bits patterns by Cindi Edgerton.

That’s a dime in the corner for size comparison. Pretty small!

I love this block! I want to make bigger versions of these into a quilt some day.

More info will be posted later about when these classes are once they are put on Quilting Adventures website.. Which means once I write the supply lists! Back to work!!

Posted in business, sewing | Tagged circular patchwork, Class, paper piecing, quilt as you go, quilting adventures, teach | 1 Comment

Wordless wednesday

Posted on August 3, 2011 by DawnStitches

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged journal, paint, Self portrait | Comments Off

Busy sewing weekend

Posted on August 1, 2011 by DawnStitches

I spent a LOT of time sewing this weekend. It felt great! I love feeling like I’m getting things done… Lots of pictures to follow…

“Cyclone Block” Paper Pieced

Basted our wedding signature quilt. Which I am going to hand quilt! Husband keeps asking me about it so it’s time to get it down. My goal is to complete by Christmas. Hahha.

This is the BACK of the ‘baby girl quilt’ commission. I wanted to use the fabric I bought to the max and I had extra blocks that didn’t make it to the front… I kind of enjoy it when my quilts are basically double-sided. I usually do more traditional ‘fronts’ and modern-ish backs.

I finally chopped into my organic stash! Eekk! This is a prototype of a baby boy quilt. It’s lots of camping and animal and tree fabrics. With the zigzags involved it reminds me of camping in the mountains!

Quilted and bound the lighthouse paper-piece sample. I do think it looks even better this way! I’m quite pleased with the finished product! And, yes, this is what I look like first thing in the morning… Self portraits – it’s good to let you know the ‘real me’. Right?

I also squeezed in a nice bike ride to the local farmer’s market. Steamed crabs and sweet corn for lunch! Yum!!! That’s a perfect summer meal!

So, what do y’all think of the instagram style of photography? I love that I can just click and go. I never did get the rhythm of using the digital camera, plugging them into the computer, etc etc. I feel like these photos are more true to the moment. But, really, if it’s annoying let me know!

Posted in business, family, friend, sewing | Tagged baby quilt, Batik, classes, hand quilt, lighthouse, Paperpiece, quilt back, wedding quilt | 2 Comments

The best two years…

Posted on July 25, 2011 by DawnStitches

My John and I have been married for two years as of today! Honestly they have been two of the best years of my life. And I’m so excited for many more wonderful years to come.

He wrote me a poem for the vows… I cried because it was so beautiful.

The photographer had to tell me to stop kissing him so much! hahah.

Always have our sunglasses around

Thank you for being such an amazing husband John. I’m one very lucky lady!

From Melissa and Joel’s wedding. Photo by Stephen Salpukas.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

New Work

Craft show this weekend!

European Adventure – Italy

Organic ZigZag Camping Baby Quilt

Another Upcoming Class – Quilt As You Go!

Daybook Entry

I’m gonna be a teacher…

Wordless wednesday

Busy sewing weekend

The best two years…

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