Author name: Melissa Dunworth

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Week in Review Wednesday

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This week I am on vacation.  I needed a little break from the daily grind so I packed my toddler into the car (along with everything a toddler needs – good thing my car is big!) and I headed out on a 6 hour car ride to Idaho.  My GPS said I should have arrived around 3pm, but what with stopping for food, diaper changes, and toddler running breaks it was a lot more like 5pm.

I am visiting my oldest friend in the world – we have been friends for almost 20 years now. The crazy part is that we met in middle school in California, and somehow we both ended up in the Pacific Northwest only a 6 hour drive apart. It is so wonderful having her so close – we usually get together once a year for a baby play date and recharging of mommy batteries.

Chasing each other around the sign!
Swinging together

The baby was sleeping in the stroller while the older ones got some energy out at the park.

Don’t think I have been doing any sewing while I have been here, I just haven’t been doing any for myself!  I spent last night helping my bestie learn how to use the brand new walking foot that we bought for her machine yesterday.  Let me tell you, she has made a handful of quilt blocks, one quilt top and now one completed wall hanging.  For only quilting for 4 months now…she’s got some mad skills!

Getting the machine threaded and bobbin wound
Stitching in the ditch

Us mommies stayed up until after midnight visiting and quilting last night, and Mrs. L got the entire Pink Fairy wall hanging quilted!

This is going to look gorgeous in her Little Miss’s bedroom!
Close up of the quilting

She did such a great job!  I am so happy for her, she is a lot like me in that she has fallen in love with quilting because of the instant gratification factor. As soon as you sew a few seams you know if you are going to like it, you have instant results!!!

That’s my week in review – taking my first solo vaca with my baby, seeing my oldest friend in the world, lots of baby play and some quilting at night!  Don’t think that I just abandoned my hubby with no thought – he has been working crazy long hours this past month and he said that since he can’t spend time with us during the week he wanted us to go and have fun! My only worry is coming home to a completely empty fridge and an overload of unwashed laundry 🙂

What are you doing this week?

Jelly Roll Flying Geese

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How do you make Flying Geese? Do you use the no waste method that involves cutting squares and sewing them to each other as seen on this PDF?  I recently bought a new toy that has made flying geese so much easier for me, the Easy Star & Geese Ruler. It has made all the difference – believe it or not using this ruler I was able to make 240 geese in ONE day!

When Fat Quarter Shop sent me a Jelly Roll of Ruby by Bonnie & Camille – I just sat and stared at it for a day or so, I truly didn’t know what I was going to do with it.  Then I realized it would make the cutest quilt for my bestie’s baby girl who turns 1 next month.

Doesn't it just scream little girl?

Learn how to make Flying Geese from a Jelly Roll after the jump! …

Jelly Roll Flying GeeseRead More »

Welcome to Sew BitterSweet Designs Blog

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Hello fellow bloggers and blog stalkers! I am Melissa, I used to blog with Sunni from Love Affair With My Brother. If you are a follower of Love Affair, than you probably noticed this past summer that when I posted quilt tutorials that the pictures I posted said something along the lines of “BitterSweet Baby Quilt Designs”. Well….that is because I have been toying around with the idea of launching my own separate blog AND business. It took all summer to settle on a name and that name is Sew BitterSweet Designs – I guess you could say I have finally decided to take the plunge!

The BitterSweet is in honor of my daughter. Her name means Bitterly Gracious – and I choose to interpret that as BitterSweet. She is the light of my life and at the core of most everything that I do – so naturally she is at the heart of my blog and future business too.

You have seen some of the quilts I have been designing all summer, and I have more up my sleeve! I just purchased Electric Quilt 7 and I plan to put it to good use, designing new, innovative, and modern designs for quilters of all skill levels!

I hope you will take some time if you are new and check out some of my tutorials and see what I can do.

I have so much in store for this blog including: tutorials for new and experienced quilters alike, free patterns and tutorials, and my adventures in trying to break into the pattern designing world! I hope you will follow along with me via Google Friend Connect or Twitter (I’m still working on getting a Facebook Page)!

I also thought it might be fun to kick things off with a little giveaway!  I am giving away a fat quarter bundle of Robert Kaufman’s Pooches and Pickups by Laurie Wisbrun.  I am also giving away a charm pack of Retro Thirties Prints.

This Giveaway is now Closed

To enter you must be a follower! There will be 2 entries per person:

1. Tell me something sewing/quilting related that you really want to learn!
2. Tweet, Facebook, or Blog about this giveaway – giving me the link so I can check it out!

This giveaway will close on Sunday September 25th, 2011 at midnight – I will announce the winners on Monday – there will be TWO!

My Memory’s Review

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Disclaimer – My Memories provided me with a free copy of their software.
I am not a scrapbooker (I don’t even know if that is a word).  I am impressed with the My Memories software, having never used any software before to make a scrapbook page.  Heck, my idea of scrapbooking has always been buy a photo album and slip the pictures into it! Nothing special, just quick and simple!
Yesterday was the first time I ever made a scrapbook page and I used the My Memories software to create it.  I used one of the pre-loaded baby girl template albums and some of my favorite images from when Anne was born.

No joke – this page took me less than 10 minutes to create. I think I’m in love. If I knew scrapbooking was this easy I would have jumped in a year ago.  While my husband was deployed I printed out a picture from every day he was gone of our daughter, wrote captions on the back of each one and mailed them to him every month.  Man, if I had known this software existed I could have created a few pages every month, had them printed and by the time he came home…I would have had Anne’s first year scrapbook DONE! 

Now that I know how easy this is, guess what I will be working on during my down time while I watch Project Runway?!?

 

Do You Swap?

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There are so many swaps that seem to be going on in the blogosphere and on Flickr. Sometimes it is hard to keep up and not dive in without first considering what obligations you have to your non-sewing world.

I participate in both Bees and Swaps:  Block Swap Adventures and Christmas Block Swap that I launched with Sunni from Love Affair With My Brother. I have really loved doing these swaps, I started with Block Swap Adventures in July and I have now received a total of 2 stunning BSA blocks and the Christmas block I received last month blew me away!

I thought you might like to see them!

Here are the three blocks that I have made so far:

This month I have 4 bee blocks to make AND 3 swap blocks to make. I am feeling a little overwhelmed but I know I will get them done. I just want to make sure I give the people I swap with my best work!  Do you swap? Where? Do you enjoy it?

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