Melissa Dunworth – Page 26 – Sew Bittersweet Designs

Thurston County Fair 2015

11 Comments / 2015 Finishes, Sew BitterSweet Designs Patterns, Swoon / By Melissa Dunworth

Hello From Sunny California! I am on vacation AND working on my brand new computer in a completely different browser than I am used to, so if anything looks a little funky, please forgive me (I am still working out the kinks!).

This past weekend was the local county fair where I live in Washington. Even though I wasn’t home for the fair, I still entered 3 of my quilts and one of Anne’s dresses. My local chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild is trying to get the word out about our guild and what better way than a fun public event like the fair! I was pleasantly surprised (shocked, amazed, pick your synonym) when my awesome guild mate Kathy (read her blog here) messaged me during her volunteer shift in our booth to tell me that I won ribbons. Such a wonderful surprise! Another awesome guild mate, Heaether (go check out her blog here) was kind enough to take pictures for me, AND a third awesome guild mate, Lori, picked up my entries for me since I am out of town. I have to say I am so blessed to know such wonderful people!

Anne’s back to school dress from last year won a blue ribbon. I am so excited because clothes sewing is definitely not my thing. And by the way, my goal for August is to sew her back to school dress for this year, she naturally picked a pattern that has PIPING! Wish me luck!

My Flowering Lone Start quilt won a blue ribbon! How exciting is that! If you love this pattern as much as I do you can find a link for it on My Patterns page!

My Divergent Quilt, also won a blue ribbon. This one recently hung at the National Quilt Association show in Arkansas. I received such lovely feedback from that show and now a blue ribbon from the county fair. This is also an original design, though no pattern is available at this time.

My Swoon quilt not only won a blue ribbon but it also got a Judges Choice ribbon. Such an honor. It was quilted by my wonderful friend Vicki from Orchid Owl Quilts. The way they hung it (which I am assuming was done because of space constraints) doesn’t show off the full quilt, so if you would like to see more of it, click here. This pattern is by Thimble Blossoms and can be purchased from her website here.

It was so amazing to find out I had received so many blue ribbons, truly mind boggling. The best part though was being able to tell my mom in person and see the pride and happiness on her face. She is the one who taught me to quilt and continues to inspire and encourage me each and every day.

I hope you have a wonderful Tuesday! I plan to go to the park with Anne and work on a quilting a top for my mom.

A Lovely Year of Finishes – August Goals Party

6 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, Fiber of All Sorts / By Melissa Dunworth

Hi Everyone! I am coming to you live from my new desktop computer. Talk about a learning curve…geez! My goal for this month is to make Anne a back to school dress. She will be starting Kindergarten and that is sort of a big deal in our lives. I know one of us will be crying on the first day of school and I also know that it won’t be her! She’s so ready and I just want to hold tight so badly…

This is her dress from last year, which coincidentally just won a blue ribbon at my local county fair this week! This week we will be picking out fabrics and a pattern, then later this month I will be sewing my heart out (and probably crying my heart out too).

How about you?

What one item will you choose?

You have two requirements to be entered into the prizes this month.

1. Link-up {on this post} the first 7-days of the month

Please choose ONE project

and

2. Link-up in the last 7-days of the month

Only with a completed, successful project. And yes the same one that you choose earlier in the month.

Add your blog post or flickr photo (with appropriate descriptions) to the linky party below.

Please grab a button or link back to Shanna and I so other people can join in the fun!

And if you are on twitter or Instagram tag #ALYoF

**Please note, the linky party is the same here and over at Shanna, so there is no need to enter twice **

Here’s our amazing prizes this month…thank you sponsors!

1. One Charm pack or $10.00 gift certificate to
Stitches n’ Giggles (winners choice)

2. One PDF pattern from Sew Sweetness

3. A Prize from Carrie of Gotcha Covered Quilting

4. One PDF pattern from Honey, Bunny, and Doll Designs

5. Thimblepie’s Quilt Supplies – Custom fabric package, 3 yards plus free shipping anywhere

6. Green Fairy Quilts – 3 pdf patterns

7. $15 gift certificate from Fat Quarter Shop

8. PDF Pattern from Katy – The Littlest Thistle

9. One PDF Pattern from Meadow Mist Designs

10. PDF Pattern from Persimon Dreams

11. One pdf Pattern from Clover and Violet

12. Sew BitterSweet Designs one pdf pattern

13. One PDF pattern from Michele of Aiming for Accuracy

Riley Blake 2015 Challenge Quilt

6 Comments / Modern Quilt Guild, Sew BitterSweet Designs Patterns / By Melissa Dunworth

I finished four whole quilts from start to finish this month! Wow! Talk about a busy sewing machine!

Two of the quilts I cannot reveal until later in the year. For now I am going to show my Riley Blake quilt – Top Spin. This was a challenge presented by the Modern Quilt Guild. The requirements were to make something quilted and to try something new. I tried a whole new pattern and template that I designed.

This is my own pattern, I actually made my templates out of file folders. This was a fun quilt to make. There are two large appliques one for the center and one for the larger circle. I used my walking foot to quilt the giant spiral.

I am super happy with the results. I used several solids from my stash paired with the Riley Blake prints. The quilt will make a lovely baby quilt for someone someday.

A Lovely Year of Finishes – July Finishes Party

5 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, Fiber of All Sorts / By Melissa Dunworth

Well! I did it! I managed to finish 4 quilts in one month! Technically two of them need some hand stitching still, but they will be finished and photographed by the 31st, you have my word on that. I will have a proper post next week revealing how I finished my actual goal (pictured below).

How about you?

What one item did you choose?

You have two requirements to be entered into the prizes this month.

1. Link-up the first 7-days of the month

Please choose ONE project

and

2. Link-up {on this post} in the last 7-days of the month

Only with a completed, successful project. And yes the same one that you choose earlier in the month.

Add your blog post or flickr photo (with appropriate descriptions) to the linky party below.

Please grab a button or link back to Shanna and I so other people can join in the fun!

And if you are on twitter or Instagram tag #ALYoF

**Please note, the linky party is the same here and over at Shanna, so there is no need to enter twice **

Here’s our amazing prizes this month…thank you sponsors!

1. One pdf Pattern from Clover and Violet

2. One PDF Pattern from Meadow Mist Designs

3. One PDF pattern from Sew Sweetness

4. One PDF pattern from Honey, Bunny, and Doll Designs

5. Thimblepie’s Quilt Supplies – Custom fabric package, 3 yards plus free shipping anywhere

6. Green Fairy Quilts – 3 pdf patterns

7. $15 gift certificate from Fat Quarter Shop

8. PDF Pattern from Katy – The Littlest Thistle

9. Sew BitterSweet Designs one pdf pattern

10. PDF Pattern from Persimon Dreams

11. One Charm pack or $10.00 gift certificate to
Stitches n’ Giggles (winners choice)

Secret Project – Sneak Peek

3 Comments / free motion quilting, Sew BitterSweet Designs Patterns, Zentangle / By Melissa Dunworth

This project will have a full reveal in September, and I am so excited to show you all of it, in the meantime I am showing you the back. This project is one of the four that had a July 31 deadline. All that’s left is to trim and bind, so it is looking like I will make it!

Before I quilted this one, I printed out a copy of my pattern and zentangled it to figure out exactly how I wanted to quilt it. I am finding that this is the best way for me to plan out my quilting. I will show more pictures when I reveal the front in September. In the meantime make sure you are working hard on those July goals because the link up will open on Saturday!

Author name: Melissa Dunworth