July Mid Month Check In – A Lovely Year of Finishes

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Melissa Dunworth

Welcome to the middle of July! This month has flown by for my family, we are saying good-bye to Mr. SBD for a month this coming Sunday, so we have been squeezing in as much together time as possible when he is off duty. Happily I have managed to sneak in some work on my project this month. Here are a few pictures I thought you might enjoy.

I feel so blessed to have gotten to work on this quilt. The ladies in the Trust Circle of Do Good Stitches are truly talented. This quilt is actually completed but I won’t be revealing it until the end of the month link up party. I am washing it up today and mailing it tomorrow.

Now it is your turn! Show us your progress! Remember, this is not a mandatory link up, just for fun. You can link up here or with Shanna.

Take a few minutes to check each other out, leave some comment love and also swing by our sponsors and show them some love too, after all, this wouldn’t be near as much fun without them!

1. A Fat Quarter Bundle from Moda United Notions

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

3. Paper piecing prize donated from Paper Pieces

4, 5, 6, 7 Will get one thread pack of Auriful Thread donated from Aurifil

8. $20.00 Gift Certificate from the Quilting Lodge



Posted in A Lovely Year of Finishes, Do.Good Stitches | 8 Comments

Pick Me Up!

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Melissa Dunworth

Sometimes you just need a pick me up. Anne’s kidney tests had me in a funk yesterday, and really Tuesday and Wednesday too (hence no blog post yesterday). Sometimes I just wish getting answers was easier, but alas, it is not. We are now anxiously awaiting her test results.

Anyways, I decided yesterday that I needed a pick me up.  Meet my pick me up!

Using some lovely Cuzco by Kate Spain that my amazing friend Lyanna from Purple Panda Quilts sent me for Christmas, I made the Noodlehead Gathered Clutch.  Now I would love to say that it went together perfectly but it didn’t, mostly my fault, she says that one of the pictures is wrong and explains how to do it right, but I followed the picture (visual learner here). Once I ripped out my minor mistake, it was easily fixed. Like Anna, I spent more time picking out my fabrics than actually sewing the clutch! It went together sew quickly!

Here’s a pic of the inside:

Ignore my untrimmed threads! LOL!

Do you sew when you need a pick me up? Does it help you get out of your funk? It totally helped me!

Have a great weekend! I will be back on Monday with the mid-month check in for A Lovely Year of Finishes.

Posted in Purse/Pouch | 17 Comments

Anne’s Not A Box

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Melissa Dunworth

Yesterday Anne had more testing on her kidneys. When we do these tests we stay home all day, and she has to be relatively inactive (basically no running around wild like most days for a 3 year old).  We needed some nice calm activities. We started with a drive to our favorite berry stand and picked up some raspberries and blackberries and gorged ourselves on them. Then we busted out the paints!

Then Anne found a box! And we both remembered an awesome book we read at the library a couple of weeks ago “Not A Box” by Antoinette Portis. So what did we do? We painted Anne’s Not A Box!

And here she is, with it all loaded up and ready to go! By the way, she informed me “It’s not a box! It’s a Rocket Ship!” LOL

Anne was relatively calm and had a fantastic day! Seriously, if you have a young one with an active imagination, I highly recommend this book and making your own “Not A Box”!

Posted in Fun For Kids, Personal Post | 16 Comments

Sewing Stars

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Melissa Dunworth

Well, really I’ve been quilting them! For about 4 hours yesterday. Mr. SBD entertained Anne in the yard and garage and I got to quilt. For 4 GLORIOUS hours straight! I can’t remember the last time that happened!

(sorry for the crappy cell phone pic, it is late now and this is all I have to show)

I was going to follow a tutorial at first, but the star ones I found were a bit too complicated for the simple, fun design I had in my mind’s eye, so these are my take on FMQ Twinkle Stars. What do you think?

I will hopefully finish the quilting on this before Wednesday because I want to show this baby off at the next meeting of the South Sound Modern Quilt Guild on Wednesday night. Details for the meeting can be found in our Facebook Group.

Did you get any quilting done this weekend?

Posted in A Lovely Year of Finishes, Do.Good Stitches, free motion quilting | 11 Comments

June winners – A Lovely Year of Finishes

Posted on July 6, 2013 by Melissa Dunworth

June has come and gone and it is time to announce the winners from those who finished their awesome goals!

Lovely Year of Finishes

If you weren’t able to finish or didn’t link up, don’t fret, you have until July 7th to link up your goal here, and as an extra incentive for those linking up in July Shanna and I have an extra little fun giveaway going on here, it too ends on July 7th.

June winners are as follows:

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

The winner is Mara from Greco Mara

2. Loving Pieces donated from Paper Pieces

The winner is Katy from The Littlest Thistle

3. $20.00 Gift Certificate from the Quilting Lodge

The winner is Susan from DesertSky Quilting

4. A Fat Quarter Bundle from Moda United Notions

The winner is Mary from Lilian Stitches

5. $15.00 Gift Certificate to Fat Quarter Shop

The winner is Alli from from B.Yazoo

6. $25.00 Gift Certificate to Superior Threads

The winner is Ellie Q from Color my World

Congratulations to the winners.

And don’t forget the prizes are just gravy! The real win is the finish!

Posted in A Lovely Year of Finishes, Fiber of All Sorts | 11 Comments