Author name: Melissa Dunworth

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Under the Weather

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Have you missed me? I’ve seriously missed you all! On the 18th Anne came down with a fever that lasted for 5 straight days and she lost 3 lbs in those 5 days. Now 3 lbs may not seem like a lot to most people but when you consider that most toddlers average weight gain over a year is between 3 and 4 lbs then that number is a little more frightening. As soon as her temperature broke, mine kicked it in to high gear. It turns out Anne had Strep B (I didn’t even know there was more than one kind of strep until last week!).

I have now been sick for a week and yesterday I finally dragged my butt to the doctor to get a lovely diagnosis of bronchitis mixed in with a severe asthma attack for which I am now on antibiotics and steroids. I am hoping to be on the mend by the end of this week, and I’m so sorry that I have up and disappeared.

You have until tomorrow evening to enter your finish for January’s A Lovely Year of Finishes Party and the February goal setting party will start on Friday so start thinking about what you want to work on next month. I have one big deadline I will be working on in February and I will share that with you on Friday.

Have a great day! I will be spending my day convalescing.

A Lovely Year of Finishes – January Finishes Party!

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January is finally starting to wind down, which means we have come to the end of our first linky party! I think it can be categorically agreed upon that this first month was a rousing success. There are more than 350 people finishing with us over on Flickr. We had 218 entries into our goal setting party and I cannot wait to see all the finishes for this month.  Remember you can link up here or over at Shanna’s blog, Fiber of All Sorts, no need to sign up twice.

Here is my finish for January 2013 – I am so excited because I finished it with plenty of time to spare but it also went to a loving home who needed a little sunshine on the day it arrived. (I blogged about it here.)

Front - Wonky Log Cabin Quilt

Now, it’s your turn, what did you finish?!?  Remember in order to be eligible for prizes you need to have linked up to our first party as well as this finishes party. If you didn’t link up to the first party we would still love to see what you finished, you just will not be eligible for prizes this month.  The next goal setting party will go up on February 1st and we have added some fantastic sponsors for next month! So Grab a button and show us your work!

My Button

<a href=”https://test.sewbittersweetdesigns.com/?page_id=3033″ title=”A Lovely Year of Finishes”> <img src=”https://test.sewbittersweetdesigns.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/2013btn128.gif” width=”128″ height=”128″ alt=”My Button” style=”border:none;” /></a>

And as a reminder, here are the awesome prizes for this month:

Prizes for January are as follows:

1. $20.00 Gift Certificate from the Quilting Lodge

2. $10.00 Gift Certificate from Contemporary Cloth

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

4. Charm pack donated by Shanna and Melissa

4 winners will be chosen by Mr. Random for those that posted here and at the goal setting party.



Bee Awesome January Blocks

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Hi Everyone! I had hoped to put this post up last week, but I spent Friday with a bloggy friend. I was so excited to finally meet in person. We have been facebook friends for a year and a half now so it was pretty cool to see her and talk and go shopping! The when Anne woke up from her nap on Friday afternoon she had a fever.  The fever is still hanging on strong. We went to the doctor yesterday and they tested her for strep throat (which was awful, took 3 of us to hold her down to get the swab).  The rapid test came back negative, but they are of course doing a culture. We will see what happens, I’m pretty sure it is just a virus but you have to be careful.

Last weekend, I was able to finish my Bee Awesome blocks. This month the queen bee, Kathy, sent out 8 inch squares of telephone pages with a strip of white glued to the middle and an envelope full of scraps. She asked us to make string blocks but to add some fabrics from our own stashes and she also requested that we NOT trim them. Here are my blocks that I sent.

String Blocks

What have you all been up to?

January Finish – do.Good Stitches Quilt

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Sometimes it is very easy to feel as though what you do during the day has very little meaning to anyone but yourself and your family. It is easy to get discouraged and to wonder if you are making any difference at all. These feelings are part of the reason I applied to join do.Good Stitches. I wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself and hopefully make a difference in someone’s life, even if it was only 2 quilt blocks at a time.

In September I was approached about moving from being a Stitcher (someone who sews quilt blocks) to a Quilter (someone who designs, plans, and quilts the donated quilts). I immediately said yes because I have reached a point where I love design and I am comfortable with putting my ideas out there – it has taken me a long time to get to this point

November was my first month as a Quilter in my circle – the Trust Circle. As you all know, I have a beautiful daughter, meaning I don’t do much work on boy projects, so I immediately asked for Wonky Log Cabin blocks in Blues and Greens with pops of Orange. By coincidence everyone in the group ended up doing awesome I-Spy centers, which just added so much to this special quilt.

Front - Wonky Log Cabin Quilt

Our circle supports Foster Children, each of our quilts is donated to a Foster Child, it can be to a child we know or to a specific charity.  In November I had no idea who I was going to donate this too. As the blocks started to roll in I continued to hem and haw until the week before Christmas when my amazing friend Kristy from Hopeful Threads announced that her family had been blessed with a precious gift, a newborn foster son. In that moment, reading her post, I knew the quilt was meant for him. Here is the post Kristy wrote about the quilt and what it has meant to her (she received it yesterday).

Here’s a look at the back:

Back - Wonky Log Cabin Quilt

I decided to do this as a Quilt As You Go quilt and I am tickled with the way it turned out. Using the technique in this tutorial I was able to spare myself a lot of the pain I usually have when quilting and I was able to create something beautiful. A big thank you goes out to the amazing ladies of Trust Circle, without whom, this quilt would not be possible. I feel so blessed to work with all of you. You pump me up and make me want to do more.

Quilt Stats:
Design: Wonky I-Spy Log Cabin
Measures: 50″ x 50″
Quilting: QAYG – wonky lines mimicking the wonky blocks
Thread: Masterpiece by Superior Threads

As Kristy says “Every Stitch Matters”

January Do.Good Stitches Blocks

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I have really cut down on my bees this year. I am in one that ends next month, Bee Awesome, check back tomorrow to see those blocks. I am in one that ends in October – Strip Quilters (yup, I’m a stripper), and I am also in Do.Good Stitches Trust Circle. Do.Good Stitches really makes my heart sing because I know every month a quilt is being created that is truly going to lift someone up, someone who needs it so much.

Here are the blocks I made for January.

Hugs & Kisses Block 1

Hugs & Kisses Block 2

Our quilter for the month, three_little_pumpkins, selected the Road to Tennessee block but is calling it Hugs and Kisses. Here is a link to the tutorial, which aside from the cutting measurements, I didn’t really follow.

In other fun news, I am a judge this week over at Quilting Gallery for the weekly quilt contest. This week’s theme is “Challenge Quilts”. Head over and check it out and submit a quilt while you are there!

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