Melissa Dunworth – Page 171 – Sew Bittersweet Designs

Sponsor Love – Fat Quarter Shop

Do you love Fat Quarter Shop? I do! They have sew much to offer and the best part is that you can get in one stop, in one shipment and you get that shipment FAST!

Have you seen their new collection of downloadable patterns and quilt kits “It’s Sew Emma“? I love quilting kits – all the work is done for you except the sewing! These are perfect for me, when I’m running low on time and want to be able to make a quilt for someone special and I am ALWAYS running low on time!

This quilt would be PERFECT for my friend Lisa’s son – he is having a Dr. Seuss birthday party in November. Don’t you think it would be great for a 3 year old?

This quilt would be perfect for either of my two nieces. They love pink and I think it is just grown up enough that in 2 or 3 years they will still really love it! What I really love about these patterns is that you can purchase just the pattern, which provides you with the fabric requirements so you can completely personalize it OR you can can purchase the entire quilt kit. I love that I can purchase the entire kit because it makes my life easier when I am in a pinch.

You may have noticed that I am also hugely into Christmas lately – what with my Christmas quilt blocks and the Christmas Block Swap that I co-host with Sunni from Love Affair With My Brother on Flickr. Fat Quarter Shop’s “Christmas Cloth Shop” is a one stop shopping experience for all thing Christmas fabric related! They have the newest lines and offer both modern and traditionally inspired choices.

They have EVERY Christmas collection you can think of, here are a few of my personal favorites:

(I know – two Seuss items in one post – I can’t help myself, I love Max and Cindy Lou Who)

What is your favorite line that the Fat Quarter Shop offers? It’s ok, if you can’t pick just one – I clearly can’t either 🙂

Vintage Christmas Sampler – Wonky Barnfence Tutorial

6 Comments / Christmas sampler, quilt blocks, traditional quilt block, wonky quilt block / By Melissa Dunworth

This time I am going a little bit more modern with my block – I have made a Wonky Barn Fence. It is still entirely out of vintage fabrics – but the only measuring I did was cutting my squares.

This was such an easy block to put together!

Supplies:

Multiple strips in different sizes
Rotary cutter
Quilting ruler – I used a 6.5″ x 6.5″
Cutting Mat

Here are my strips – as you can see, there is no real rhyme or reason to mine – I just wanted to make sure there were no two combinations that matched. You will use a 1/4″ seam throughout!!!

Easy as 1, 2, 3!

Step 1: Sew your blocks – you will need 9 blocks measuring 4.5″ x 4.5″ each

Step 2: Lay out your squares and sew your rows together

Step 3: Sew your block together

Blocks don’t get much easier than that! Unless you are just doing a simple 9 patch.

Looking for more vintage blocks? Check out my list here.

Good luck!

Cobblestone Roads – A quilting tutorial

30 Comments / bittersweet quilt designs, cobbleston road, Fat Quarter Shop, hometown by sweetwater, quilt, tutorial, tutorial tuesday / By Melissa Dunworth

Two weeks ago I received the most awesome squishy package from my UPS man – this jelly roll of the new Hometown by Sweetwater fabric. Kimberly from Fat Quarter Shop sent it over to me so that I could work on a tutorial to go with the Jelly Roll we are giving away this week – make sure you head on over to the post to enter to win! Look at what I made with it!

You may be wondering who BitterSweet Quilt Designs is…it’s me

Fabric Requirements:
1 Hometown by Sweetwater Jelly Roll
2 Extra Strips of the cream (Sunni got a Jelly Roll two and swapped me for a couple of strips!)
1 yard of Kona Slate for the borders – cut into twelve 3″ strips
3/4 yard of Solid Cream Fabirc (I used Northcott – but didn’t look at the name of the fabric) – cut into six 3″ strips
4 yards backing fabric (42″ wide) or 2 yards backing fabric (108″ wide)

The technique I am using I learned when I made this gorgeous batik Trip to Trinidad quilt (designed by Kathleen Starr) 7 years ago – it now lives in our guest room.

Lay out your strips:

Not pictured are the 2 extra cream strips I got from Sunni!

Layout your groups – lay them out from light to dark so you get a nice gradation of color.

[insert groups]

Sew each group of strips together – you should have 4 groups of 9 strips – there will be extra strips from your Jelly Roll – these will be used later!


The Front

Here’s how you need to iron your seams:

After you have sewn your 4 strips sets together – fold the sets in half – make sure they lay flat and sew them into tubes

Time to start cutting! Cut your sets into 2.5″ strips

Next – cut your strips apart – choosing a different seam each time

Now the fun really begins – you get to lay out your strips and chose your design! (I tried lots of different patterns – below are a few of them)

Now start sewing your strips together (this goes really fast) I did it in vertical rows – I ended up with 3 sections

Sew the three sections together – I pressed my seams open to reduce bulk

Add your borders (these are your Kona Slate and Northcott Cream 3 inch strips from earlier):

This is where my quilt stands today – I have a backing, my threads and my batting all ready to go, but I have not had a chance to quilt it yet. Once things calm down with my baby’s sleep schedule and I can squeeze in some sewing time it will get done!

The finished size of the quilt top is 51″x71″ – it makes a very nice lap size quilt!

I plan on using my left over 2.5″ square strips as my binding and I promise to post pics as soon as this puppy is complete! Will you be making a Cobblestone Road quit? If so, please let me know, this is the 2nd original quilting pattern of mine that I am sharing online and would love the feedback!

Web Favs of the Week

4 Comments / web favs of the week / By Melissa Dunworth

I haven’t done web favs in a few weeks – sorry everyone – I had a family emergency a couple weeks ago and we are still recovering from it. So here we go!

I have finally, officially, joined the QAL craze. I joined the “Across The Sea Modern Quiltalong” – here’s a link to the Flickr Group. Ellison Lane Quilts and FairyFace Designs have designed this QAL and are offering some cool prizes to be won by those who finish their quilt!


Image courtesy of: Ellison Lane Quilts

I am really excited – this quilt can be made using a solid background fabric and a Layer Cake – so I plan on using the “Ready Set Snow” Layer Cake that I won last month from It’s Sew Kiki. Hopefully this will be a really cute Christmas Quilt that I can give to my God Parents – I have been wanting to make them a quilt for years and I think this is perfect (they are REALLY into Christmas – I think you can actually see their house from space at night!).

Are there any Brother Lovers local to the Tacoma, WA area? Have you heard about the Pacific West Quilt Show that is happening the weekend of August 26-28, 2011. I am planning on attending Sunday the 28th, they have a military family special – $10.00 for the whole family and I want to take advantage. There are exhibits, classes you can take and they have a VENDOR MALL – which I am really looking forward to! I am going to bring my camera and will post pictures the week after the show for all those Brother Lovers that are not local to the area, so you won’t miss out entirely.

Feature: Linda from Stray Stitches

Image Courtesy of: Stray Stitches

I love Linda’s blog. She always has the most interesting and well written posts. She includes fun photo facts – and she must participate in at least 10 different swaps and she runs at least 2 that I know about. She runs Block Swap Adventures – which both Sunni and I participate in – it is an international swap and has been lots of fun so far. She is also an incredibly gifted quilter. You really need to take a few minutes and go check out her blog – and if you have the time to make one extra block a month – consider joining Block Swap Adventures with us – it really has been fun!

What have you seen on the web this week?