Sew Bittersweet Designs | Sewing and Designing in my BitterSweet World

Flowering Lone Star – ALYoF March Reveal

Posted on March 28, 2014 by Melissa Dunworth

Here is my March finish for A Lovely Year of Finishes!

I have to say that I am so proud of this quilt! I haven’t been able to find another lone star quilt like this on Pinterest so I have named it “Flowering Lone Star” and I will be making a pattern for it!

I did some free motion quilting in the center “flower” of the star. A different design in light blues from the dark blues. Straight line quilting around the outer star and more straight line quilting in the background.

On the back I made a small lone star block with my leftover diamonds from the outer star on the front.

I really do love the back of this quilt. I hope the recipient likes it too!

I am going to make a second one of these quilts in more modern fabrics and use that to write the pattern. I am so excited!

If you finished your March goal, go link up here and if not yet you have until March 31st so get busy!

This was one of my goals for the Finish-A-Long Q1 with Katy from The Littlest Thistle. You can see my goals here.

Posted in A Lovely Year of Finishes, Sew BitterSweet Designs Patterns | 21 Comments

Wordless Wednesday – Caption It!

Posted on March 26, 2014 by Melissa Dunworth

So I made a mess in my sewing room yesterday and I have absolutely zero inclination to clean it up. I dumped out my black and white bin, which at some point over the last 2 years morphed into a black, white, gray and bone bin. Now I’m contemplating whether or not I need to add a separate gray bin and if so where in all holy heck am I gonna store it!

Go ahead and caption it!
Might I add this is smack in the middle of my room and there is no walking around it, you have to walk through it to reach my sewing machine.

On a side note! I have a giveaway over on Instagram! I am a bit late to the Instagram party and I just hit 300 followers! I am giving away two charm packs – due to shipping costs this giveaway is open to US only. I’m @sewbittersweetdesigns on Instagram.

Have a happy Wednesday!

Posted in Giveaway, Wordless Wednesday | 8 Comments

March – A Lovely Year of Finishes – Finishes Party!

Posted on March 25, 2014 by Melissa Dunworth

Did you have a lot of March showers? Spring is definitely coming in like a lion in Washington. We have had all kinds of rain, though the last 4 days have been just lovely! I even managed to finish my goal – if you will remember it was to quilt and bind this lovely top and back below.

It is all done and I will be doing a reveal post later in the week! I will also be writing a pattern for this quilt, so if you are interested in testing please feel free to send me a note!

What about you? Did you finish you March goal?

Remember there are only two requirements to be entered into the prizes this month.

1. Link-up the first 7-days of the month

and

2. Link-up {on this post} in the last 7-days of the month.

Add your blog post or flickr photo (with appropriate descriptions) to the linky party below.

Please grab a button or link back to Shanna and I so other people can join in the fun!

**Please note, the linky party is the same here and over at Shanna, so there is no need to enter twice **

Here’s what we have for March prizes:

1. Quilting Patterns designed by Quilting Lodge

2. Thread Prize from Aurifil

3, 4. TWO winners each getting to choose one pdf pattern

from Sew BitterSweet Designs ($10 value)

5. PDF Pattern from Persimon Dreams

6. Sew Sweetness – 1 pdf Pattern

7. Thimblepie’s Quilt Supplies – Custom fabric package, 4 yards (worth $20) plus free shipping

8. Green Fairy Quilts – 3 pdf patterns

9. 1 Charm pack or $10.00 gift certificate to

Stitches n’ Giggles (winners choice)

~~~

As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask Shanna or myself!

Make sure to visit each other and comment! We all LOVE comments!!!

Posted in A Lovely Year of Finishes, Fiber of All Sorts | 10 Comments

Week 13 Goals

Posted on March 24, 2014 by Melissa Dunworth

This week I need to get some work done on my March Goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes – all that is left is thread burying, washing and photographing. That should be a fairly quick project. At least that is my hope.

My other goal this week is to finish up the month of March for the Once Upon A Time Sampler through Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. I haven’t posted about this little cross stitch project on the blog before but I have posted progress on Facebook and on Instagram (click on those links to follow me!).

The finishes party for A Lovely Year of Finishes will be live tomorrow, I hope you have been chugging away at your March Finish! I can’t wait to see what you have made!

Posted in A Lovely Year of Finishes, Cross Stitch, Goals | 6 Comments

A Simple Vest for Anne – Pattern Review

Posted on March 21, 2014 by Melissa Dunworth

On Black Friday last year I went a bit spend happy on Etsy and bought a couple pdf patterns. I decided to buy Anne the Simple Vest pattern by Lily Bird Studio. I had never sewn with her patterns before but I had heard good things from several friends.

I sewed it up at the beginning of March using a remnant of fleece that I bought at JoAnns and a really cute purple and white chevron flannel for the lining.

My original intention was to put the welt pockets on it but after one horrible failed attempt I decided I didn’t want to waste anymore fabric and went with no pockets.

I found that the sizing for the pattern ran a bit small. Based on her measurements Anne would be a 4 according to the pattern, I am thinking that I should have made it a 5, and will definitely do that next time (I have plenty left of both fabrics to make a second one).

You can see that it is just exactly right for Anne at the moment.

It goes right to the end of her shirt, and I personally like her clothes to have a bit of room to grow. The nice thing is that the pattern has sizing from 12 months all the way to 8 years so I will be able to use this pattern for a couple more years.

Whatever size issues there might be, it really didn’t matter because that smile made it a win!

The next time I make this pattern I am going to find a reversible separating zipper so that I can have 2 vests for the price of one, I think that will be super fun for Anne.

Pattern Details: Simple Vest by Lily Bird Studio

Pattern Sewing Level: Advanced Beginner

Would I recommend this pattern: Yes

Materials – Blizzard Fleece from JoAnns, Separating Zipper

Special Skills: Installing a Zipper, Welt Pockets (I omitted those)

Model – my precious Anne

Posted in Clothes, Pattern Review | 10 Comments

Flowering Lone Star – ALYoF March Reveal

Wordless Wednesday – Caption It!

March – A Lovely Year of Finishes – Finishes Party!

Week 13 Goals

A Simple Vest for Anne – Pattern Review

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