Melissa Dunworth – Page 72 – Sew Bittersweet Designs

A Lovely Year of Finishes 2014 – A Whole New Year!

22 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, Fiber of All Sorts, Modjeska Designs / By Melissa Dunworth

Shanna and I are happy to announce that A Lovely Year of Finishes is coming back again next year! That’s right! 12 new months, 12 more finishes!

The response this year was overwhelming! You all were amazing! I can’t believe just how many incredible creations were finished during the first 11 months of this year! I am really looking forward to next year to see what everyone comes up with.

There will be a few changes in 2014 – we are excited about them!

Next year we will continue with our monthly goal parties – live from the 1st to the 7th of each month.
We will also continue our finishes parties – live during the last 7 days of each month.
We are discontinuing the mid-month check-in party. We have decided to go with something fun and exciting that will bring attention (and hopefully lots of traffic!) to all of you crazy talented people! We are going to do monthly features of the most clicked on finishes from the previous month. We want to drive some traffic to YOU!
We’ll have a minimum of 6 months of successful participation to be eligible for the big finale in 2015.
We have a new facebook group. That’s right we’re here for all your social media finishes. Okay not all just another one. This page is a closed group, anyone can see this but you can only post (your finishes, blog posts, make comments) with an ‘invite’ or permission to join the group. We want to prevent as many trolls as possible.
We’ll still love to see your twitter or Instagram posts use #ALYoF to show off your stuff.

Here is our awesome new button, designed by the incredibly talented Kristin from Modjeska Designs.

If you are interested in sponsoring any month in 2014 for A Lovely Year of Finishes – we would love to have you! Big or small we love all of our sponsors, you make A Lovely Year of Finishes so much more FUN! Email Melissa at melissa (at) sewbittersweetdesigns dot com or Shanna at fiberofallsorts (at) gmail dot com.

Sponsorship Benefits Include:

Permanent button and link on A Lovely Year of Finishes Pages
Permanent links in our Flickr Group
You can post sales in our Facebook Page
Featured on 2 link up posts during month of sponsorship

So there you have it! The party will continue on in 2014! We are so excited.

Grab a button and help us spread the word!!!

November Winners – A Lovely Year of Finishes

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

Winners! Who doesn’t love winners?!? I’m sorry this post is so late, life has gotten in the way of my blogging habits these days.

Thank you again to our sponsors. Remember, if you are interested in sponsoring next year please contact either Shanna or myself, we would love to work with you! Look back tomorrow for a big announcement concerning 2014! I think you will be excited!

1.A Prize from The Intrepid Thread

Tammy – Karamat Sews

2. A $15.00 Gift Certificate to Fat Quarter Shop

Samantha – Making Life Prettier

3, 4. TWO winners each getting to choose one pdf pattern
from Sew BitterSweet Designs – that’s me!
($10 value)

Beth – FlickrFenna – FABulous Home Sewn
Kim – One Krafty Kitty Mama

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

Mary – handmade by Mary Emmens

6. A Paper Piecing Kit from Paper Pieces

Ellie – Color My World

7, 8, & 9. One Thread Chart & 2 Thread Packs from Aurifil Threads

Heather – Creative BlessingsCathy – Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting
Allison –Flickr

10. Quilting Patterns designed by Quilting Lodge

Carrie – A Passion for Applique

Congratulations to all of our winners! Please stop by tomorrow for an important announcement about 2014!

10 Sewing Days Left…

15 Comments / Christmas, swaps / By Melissa Dunworth

Let me start out with an apology. This week I haven’t been able to get on email at all. Anne has been having some pretty complicated health stuff going on, in fact today we are running up to the army hospital because in the last week she has broken out in hives 3 separate times and we don’t know why and tomorrow morning we head up for an emergency kidney ultrasound. Email has taken a bit of a backseat, but I want everyone to know I am reading every comment and I truly appreciate every single one of them. That being said, I distracted myself from all of this crummy health stuff yesterday.

I have 10 sewing achine days left before I leave for the holidays. This naturally means that I should start a new quilt project that will need to be finished before I leave…right?

Pictured above are 154 Christmas charms and 14 solid white charms. I participated in A LOT of charm swaps 2 years ago. In fact I probably have enough left that I could make a second quilt this same size! I’ve decided to name this quilt the “Charming Christmas Quilt.”

This quilt will be for 2 very special people in our lives and I am excited because I have never made one for them before. I know this will go together quickly. Hoping to have the top 100% done tomorrow during preschool and nap time. Then I just need to figure out a backing and quilt it. Easy…right?!?

Are you quilting anything special in the last few days running up to Christmas?

PS. For a sneak peek at my next pattern, head over to Orchid Quilts today!

Paying It Forward Sewing – The Tohoku Tote

14 Comments / pay it forward, Purse/Pouch / By Melissa Dunworth

A good friend of mine that lives in Olympia asked me for a favor. Would I sew something to donate for her son’s preschool. Each year they do a silent auction to raise funds for the next year and general maintenance. I said yes and asked what she thought would be a good donation item, she asked for a bag.

I had no idea which pattern I would do. I bounced ideas of Kristy from Hopeful Threads and then saw Katie from the Littlest Thistle’s review of the Tohoku Tote as part of Purse Palooza this year. I fell in love and knew this was the tote to make. The pattern and tutorial are by I am Momma – Hear Me Roar.

At Anne’s birthday party I had my friend pick out the main fabric and went from there.

I usually don’t sew with such busy prints so this was a bit of challenge for me, especially when it came time to match up with print in the pleat. I decided to make a little wallet to go with it. Sweeten the deal for whomever wins the purse.

The tote didn’t have a zippered pocket in the tutorial but I added one because I always like a secure place to store my keys when I’m out. I thought the winner might appreciate that.

I used A Valori Wells Designs sewing card called “Little Wallet” that I picked up 3 years ago at Sew Expo to make a matching wallet. The best part of the whole purse and wallet set was that I had ALL of the supplies in my stash, right down to the pearl snaps and the pop of color zipper I added to the pocket. I love when I can avoid a trip to the store and sew with what I own. I even had all of the interfacings I needed!

Finally a simple picture of the tote hanging up. I am very pleased with how it turned out and I hope it fetches a good price for the preschool. In October the school was struck by lightning causing over $10,000 worth of damage, they need every penny! If you are local to Olympia, WA, the auction is this Saturday, Dec 7th, and I can get you more information!

Make Your Own Sewing Kits – A Tutorial

11 Comments / Sewing with Anne, tutorial / By Melissa Dunworth

This past summer I bought Anne a very simple sewing kit at JoAnns. It had a felt cat shape set and a felt heart shape set pre-cut and punched, it also had some fluff, decorations, a plastic needle and yarn for sewing.

The day after she turned 4 we decided it was time to start learning to sew. She whipped up the 2 patterns in no time and was begging to do more.

She made her cat first and then she quickly moved on to the heart.

As I knew she wanted to sew more, I figured I needed a more economical way to make that happen without constantly investing in sewing kits.

You will need the following supplies:

Felt (lots of colors)
A Leather Punch (I tried a paper hole punch too and the one I bought failed to even punch paper – I moved to the leather punch after a recommendation from a friend)Fluff
A child friendly needle (we are using the one from our original kit)
Yarn
Optional: decorations – bling those creations out!

Start with felt. I have no idea how I ended up with such a huge collection and selection of felt, but WOOHOO because we not have lots of options to get creative!

Next cut out a shape you want to sew. Fold the felt on itself so you cut out 2 identical pieces at once. Then grab your punch. I use mine on the 2.5 mm setting. I find it is the perfect sized hole for the small needles and small hands.

You will want to evenly space your holes around the shape. Anne wanted a blue stocking, we will likely be sewing this one after nap today. One thing to note is that the punch can be very difficult to use if you have weak hands like I do (darn RA!), you can either take lots of breaks or simply find someone with stronger hands to do the punching. My husband punched the star below for me and I marked each punch spot with a black sharpie for him.

The only thing I didn’t already own when I decided to make these kits was the leather punch. I was able to get one at Michaels using a 40% off coupon for $7.99. Totally worth the investment. Mine is an ArtMinds Leather Punch with 6 adjustable hole sizes.

This is not a sponsored post, just telling you which product has worked for me.

Anne and I are having so much fun sewing together. She is dieing to get her hands on one of my machines but she is still a couple years off from that, in the mean time, this is making her pretty happy!

Author name: Melissa Dunworth