A Slight Pause Accompanied by Some Sewing

Posted on July 23, 2013 by Melissa Dunworth

Huh? What does that mean?

It means I am taking a break and sewing with some Comma.

According to Dictionary.com “a comma is a punctuation mark used to set something apart and is usually accompanied by a pause” – yes I’m paraphrasing, the definition is way longer than that and even includes talk of numbers. I avoid numbers whenever possible, they make my head hurt!

I’ve been taking a pause from the purple quilt, it is kind of making my head hurt because I have Quilt Block (haha) – I can’t figure out how to quilt it or if I even want to attempt to do it on my home machine. The last largish quilt (60×60) that I did on my machine I was out of commission for almost 3 weeks. Well the purple quilt is 75×75 – and actually 85×85 with the extra room on all sides for shifting!  That is quite large and quite daunting to me! So I am taking a pause, or a comma if you will.

I’m working on something completely different for my sewing machine. I’m hoping to use it on sew days with my new guild! I am taking a ton of pictures and will hopefully be writing a tutorial. Later this week look for the turning the backing to a binding tutorial.

Have a happy Tuesday everyone! Anne and I will be off to mommy & me ballet this morning which should be lots of fun!

Posted in sewing | 9 Comments

The Start of Something New

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Melissa Dunworth

Are you a bit Crazy & Twisted?

Some of my friends would say that I am 🙂  I’m ok with that because you know what…I am!

If you are too you should head on over to Fiber of All Sorts! I have teamed up with Shanna again to start a new online quilting bee of sorts. This one is a little different, it goes about it outside the norm. Instead of your typical blocks or rows or rounds we are doing things a bit crazy and a little twisted.

Here is a sneak peak at what we are thinking of creating!


1. Emily’s Round Robin Quilt, 2. The Traveling Quilts Bee – Round 4, 3. Improvi-Robin #1 front, 4. birds eye 1, 5. The Traveling Quilts Bee – Round 7, 6. QUILTCON ~ Improv Round Robin 02, 7. QUILTCON ~ Improv Round Robin 00, 8. QUILTCON ~ Improv Round Robin 11, 9. QUILTCON ~ Improv Round Robin 13

So if you are a little bit crazy and maybe a bit twisted too – go check out Shanna’s blog and see if you are interested in joining us on a new quilting adventure! To join this bee, you must have prior swapping or bee experience.


Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Friday Funny

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Melissa Dunworth

Yesterday I took Anne to one of the local quilt shops here to pick up some Superior Threads pre-wound bobbins for the Purple Quilt (I got these ones). While we were there we took a tour of the shop, focusing most attention on the long arm machine they have to rent there. Guess what I will be doing later this year!  As we were about to pay Anne asks the nice lady who was helping us where the big spider they used to have was hanging up (it is a pretty cool quilted spider for Halloween). The lady was kind enough to show us to the new Holiday section of the store where the spider was moved to.  While her and I were chatting about a cool Christmas quilt lit up with twinkle lights, Anne found a little box full of fat quarters. I had no intention of buying any fabric at the store until she said “But I can’t live without it mommy!” It was at that moment that I knew that I was raising a quilter! LOL  I told my mom about it later in the day and she was so proud, my mom said “She’s just like me!”  I guess it’s true, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

I leave you with a picture of Anne in all her glory (when she walked up to me dressed like this she said “I’m a lion tamer!”)

Posted in superior threads | 17 Comments

Basted

Posted on July 18, 2013 by Melissa Dunworth

This week I have been working on my mom’s birthday present. On Monday I put together the backing, Tuesday I had every intention of basting it but I got distracted by my crazy block, and yesterday I finally basted it! Woohoo! I have exactly 2 months from now to get this thing quilted, bound and mailed. I don’t want to miss my deadline!

Basting this took me 2 hours and I really do think I am officially crazy now because I started a new leg workout this week and WOW did this about kill my thighs! There are about 250 pins in the quilt because I am terrified of it shifting while I quilt it. Now, keeping in mind that I will be quilting this on my home machine, what do you think? How should I quilt this gorgeous quilt?

Posted in Bee Blocks | 16 Comments

Going Crazy!

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Melissa Dunworth

Ok, so I’m not actually going crazy in the mental sense…well maybe just a little, but what mom isn’t!   In my last post of 2012 I wrote out my goals for 2013, so far I am batting 500. I have been keeping up with A Lovely Year of Finishes. I have done something with my hexies.  AND I finally started my first crazy quilt project!

The idea of busting into my precious saved up fabrics for my actual crazy quilt was a bit intimidating, so instead I started with some of my cotton quilting scraps. Here is what I came up with:

Don’t you just love the center Yuwa Japanese print? I got it from Contemporary Cloth!

Now because I want this block to be true practice for my actual crazy quilt, I am doing some embroidery embellishment. Can you see my first little embellishment?

Can’t see it? Here is a close up:

It’s small but it is a start!

I can’t wait to play more with the embroidery and to learn more stitches. I’m hoping this will give me the nudge I need to break into my fancy fabrics (think silks) and get going on my heirloom crazy quilt!

Happy Tuesday!

Posted in Crazy Quilt | 12 Comments