The Last Stripper Quilt

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Melissa Dunworth

Well we are coming down to the end of my year as a stripper. Very bitter sweet really. I’m excited because this means I will finally get my quilt top back and I just can’t wait to see how it has all come together, I am sad because I have truly enjoyed this group. I’ve met some wonderful ladies and their quilts have really pushed me out of my comfort zone – on multiple levels!

All that being said, here is the last quilt I will be working on:

Jovanna blogged about her first row here and I was just blown away by how beautiful it was. As I have spent the whole year mailing to her, I am the last one to work on her beautiful quilt.

I have a plan for her blocks – I’m thinking slice and insert X-Blocks – I will do a tutorial for these when I make them up. I wanted to show off the fabrics I have pulled for her row.

My black and white fabrics:

Here are my color pulls:

So now I just need to sew them! I have until the end of October to get the last row done. In the mean time I also have to start my foundation block for the new group I start with Shanna – Crazy & Twisted Quilters – we will be doing a QAYG group. I think it will be pretty exciting – I have to have that finished by the end of September and ready to mail. Wish me luck!

Posted in Crazy & Twisted, Stripper Quilt | 11 Comments

Anne’s Sewing Corner

Posted on August 22, 2013 by Melissa Dunworth

Every once in awhile I hear the question, “how do you entertain your child while you sew?” Truth be told, I don’t. I sew during nap time so she is happily entertained by her dreams. That being said, she does spend some quality time in the sewing room with me when I’m doing things that don’t involve my sewing machine. Cutting, pressing, designing, etc.

In fact, here she in my sewing room on Tuesday. (She asked me to take this picture and I just snapped – guess I should have cleaned up a bit first – my room looks like a hot mess!)   When she is in my sewing room, naturally she wants to play with everything and that just isn’t possible as some sewing tools are just not safe for little hands, so what I have done is create a space in my sewing room that belongs solely to Anne and I have let her fill it with some of her favorite sewing related things.

The contents of the basket change rather frequently but these are her staples. She also occasionally brings in other things from around the house.

As you can see there is fabric, a quilt, a measuring tape, a pin cushion, and even a pressing ham!  She loves to draw so she has her very own set of colored pencils. I use color pencils when I am drawing out new designs and she wanted her own set so she could get in on the action.

These are Anne’s jars, they are probably her favorite things in the sewing room. She fills them with buttons, pencils, and little odds and ends. They have entertained her ceaselessly for hours and hours on end.

The best part about having her in my sewing room and letting her use certain tools now, is that I hope she will be comfortable in there with me in a few years when she is old enough to get behind the machine with me.

Happy Sewing and Entertaining!

Posted in Sewing with Anne | 13 Comments

Crazy Cat Challenge

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Melissa Dunworth

The new Modern Quilt Guild that I am a member of, South Sound Modern Quilt Guild, is hosting its first fabric challenge! One of our members got a TON of cat fabric to make charity quilts with, so much so that she was kind of over cats…and then she got a second donation of cats. Our board came up with a fun challenge to get some of the crazy cat fabric off her hands. We came up with a challenge. You can read about it here.

My original plan was to pair the fabric with a black background, then over the weekend, block started popping up in our Facebook Group and our group on the Modern Quilt Guild site and most had a white background. As we are planning to put our blocks together into a couple of charity quilts, I thought I should change my background. Here are my original fabric pulls:

I wanted to pull in some bright modern colors in the hopes of adding more pop to the fabric as it reads to me a bit on the dull side. I knew I wanted to do a stained glass window type of block but I also didn’t want to recreate the wheel. I decided to head over to Oh Fransson and I used the Mod Mosaic tutorial to create my block. In all honesty to took me longer to pull the fabrics than it did to assemble the block!

I couldn’t bring myself to chop up the little kitties so I actually included one face, I think it is the sweetest one and I’ve always loved blue eyed cats.

I hope I hit the mark on using some outdated fabric and creating a modern block. What do you think?

Posted in quilt blocks, SSMQG | 11 Comments

A BIG Weekend

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Melissa Dunworth

This weekend was a big one for us. My hubs came home which just made Anne and I so happy. We went to a wedding, which is always fun, but the most fun had to be…Anne finally mastering riding her big girl bike! She rode her bike around our block 3 times once with me chasing after her and 2 times with her daddy chasing after her (I was in too much pain to keep going).

It was one of those super proud parent moments!

When you look at her little legs you can see just how much effort she has to put in to pedaling!

A look of concentration and a bit of trepidation!

Our initial goal was to get to the corner, can you see the pride in her face that she made it. We went back to her daddy and then she wanted to go to the corner again, only instead of stopping she rounded the corner the second time and kept on going!

As I said, it was a BIG weekend for us. Some hand sewing happened too. I’m halfway done with the binding on the purple quilt and I made a few hexies too. You can see my pictures on Instagram, which I finally joined! Here’s the link to me: http://instagram.com/sewbittersweetdesigns#. If you follow me, I will follow you right back!

Posted in Personal Post | 9 Comments

August A Lovely Year of Finishes – Mid Month Check In

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Melissa Dunworth

We have made it to the middle of the month, for some this means being that much closer to school starting, for others the school year has already begun. I am struggling with the concept of school right now as my little one will be starting preschool in just under a month. That all being said, you either have lots of sewing time right now because everyone is back in school or you are squeezing in a last few fun trips before the summer ends. I’m somewhere in between.

I’ve been slowly plugging along on my goal for the month. I finished the quilting on the Purple quilt and I’m now working on the binding. I am hand binding, which for me and my terrible hands is truly a labor of love. Next I will bury all the threads.

I decided to use the beautiful pearl bracelets for my backing and a nice solid black for the binding. Hopefully I will be able to finish soon!

Your turn! Show us your progress! You can link up here or with Shanna but you don’t have to link up twice!

Don’t forget to visit our wonderful sponsors this month! They make our link ups sew much more fun!

August Prizes Include:

 1. Choice of $15 or 2 charm packs from Stitch n’ Giggles

2. $25.00 Gift Certificate to Superior Threads

3. Riley Blake Designs – fat quarter bundle {one of their latest lines}

4.  $15.00 Gift Certificate to Fat Quarter Shop

5. Paper Pieces prize donated from Paper Pieces

6. Quilting Patterns designed by Quilting Lodge

This party will be open for 7 days, so you have lots of time to link up! Try and visit at least 2 other people who are linked up and encourage them along with some lovely comments!



Posted in A Lovely Year of Finishes | 4 Comments