Author name: Melissa Dunworth

So I was going to do a mini tutorial on Paper Piecing for all you quilters. I made my first paper pieced square last week and today I made my second – this time following my own pattern.

Here is a pic from the one where I followed my own pattern:

It isn’t bad, but definitely not perfect. That is why this is a NOT Tutorial Tuesday. I didn’t feel as though I could put up a tutorial for something I am still trying to master.
It is my goal to only give my readers tutorials on things that I can answer questions on, and right now the only question I could answer would be: “Is a seam ripper a handy tool to have around when paper piecing?” The answer, at least when you are new to it, is YES!!!

So instead of a tutorial, I am going to give a sneaky peak to my gift exchange partner of what is coming her way in the next week.

No, not this block! It is terrible and I wouldn’t feel good about sending it. What I made though uses both of these fabrics and several more and there is a star quite similar to this one in the project (that would be attempt number 1 following someone else’s pattern, and yes, that pattern was better than mine, WAY better!).

Are you participating in the Handmade Gift Exchange going on over at Craftaholics Anonymous?

I hope you are getting excited Staci from Just Sew Sassy blog, because I sure am!

Here’s where I’m partying this week:

I thought I would try something new on today. I ran across this post on Quaint and Quirky and liked the idea of a quick post that would let you know a little about myself. I think the main reason I liked it though was that it looks back across 30 years of life and I am turning 30 in less than a month, egads!

1 year ago: I was missing my husband badly but loving watching my 6 month old experience new things in her growing world.

2 years ago: I was 4 months pregnant and pretty sick. My husband and I were picking out names for our baby and we had decided to not find out the gender.

4 years ago: I was freshly engaged and starting to plan my wedding, I had 4 months to plan it and my fiance was stationed in Germany. If it wasn’t for my parents help we probably would have gotten married at City Hall (which wouldn’t have been bad, just not what we had in mind).

5 years ago: I was starting to climb the ladder at my corporate marketing job. I loved traveling for business and spending my free time visiting my friends in Southern California.  I was getting ready to turn 25 in style in Hawaii.

10 years ago: I was finishing up my junior year of college at Santa Clara University and getting ready to spend the summer working and taking classes towards my Master’s Degree (which as of today is only half finished).

20 years ago: I was finishing fourth grade and getting ready to start fifth grade. I was NOT looking forward to a summer in Day Care, but I knew I couldn’t complain about it.

30 years ago:  I was getting ready to be born! My mom was 7.5 month pregnant with me, and I think by now they would have picked the date for her c-section.

What do you think? Do you like Five Minute Friday?  How about you? Where were you 1, 2, 4, 5 10, 20, 30 years ago?

The original idea for Five Minute Friday is from this blog:

Want to play along?

Sunni and I just had our weekly play date…although lately it has been every other week. We have been some busy mama’s what with my family moving and Sunni ramping up for her THIRD craft show next weekend (if you are in the Puyallup, WA area from June 17-19, stop by Meeker Days and show her some love!).

Today we were actually able to get together, which was good, because I know I needed to see her, and I know Anne was super excited to see Mae, her favorite playmate.  We did a quick run to JoAnn’s for some supplies (I managed to lose my seam ripper in the move!) and we did an even quicker lunch.  Then we headed over to do some thrift store shopping.  Check out what I found!

Isn’t it beautiful? You may be asking yourself “did she get a fish?!?” No, this is a pet free zone! Whenever I am quilting I find that I spend a lot of time “accidentally” throwing perfectly good scraps into the trash can because they are so small.  Really, they are plenty good for projects like the Bottled Rainbows quilt along that is going on over at Stitched in Color it is just that I have been super lazy about scraps for a long long time.

Well that is all behind me now!

Way better than fish!  It is full of scraps.

And it is conveniently located next to my sewing machine for easy access, so that I will be encouraged to save all my scraps from now on!

The best part of all is that this little beauty only set me back $5.42, less than I would have paid at any other store. There is definitely something to be said for getting your thrift on.  Sunni also walked away with some super cute finds, but she had to head out to pick up Ellie before I was able to whip out my camera.

What thrifty finds have you made lately?

Wow, I have been gone from the blog for…well it feels like forever. Time for some normalcy on this blog, which means Work It Wednesday.

I have been working on my sewing space, also known as my “Woman Cave”.  Here are a couple of pictures of what I have done so far.

I picked these up at Ikea in the kitchen department. They are supposed to be for hanging coffee cups, but they work great for large spools of thread (quilting and serger) and they fit my ribbons perfectly!
My sewing room has 4 windows. One large one that will be getting blinds installed this week, and 3 small ones that are 2×2 feet each.  I didn’t want to cover those because I love the natural light and with where they are located, someone would be hard pressed to look in.

Sorry for the not so great picture, but the lighting isn’t so good today…This is where my hubby did a little decorating. He put some of my favorite pictures of the two of us on the window ledge and also one of my niece and one of my nephew, each wearing something I made. Isn’t my husband wonderful?!?

My favorite piece in my sewing room looks a little bit like a disaster, but give me some time, a pattern for fabric boxes and a few mason jars and it will looks stunning soon, I promise!

My fabric cabinet – currently covered to hide the MESS inside

Here it is in all it’s red messy glory!

We also got this at Ikea. I don’t know why but I fell in love with this red cabinet. The color makes me so happy and I just went with the cheerful feelings it brought to my heart. I figure those were the kinds of vibes I wanted in my creative space.

I still have so much more I want to do in this room, but I figured you could get a peek at my progress.

What do you think?