Melissa Dunworth – Page 77 – Sew Bittersweet Designs

A Lovely Year of Finishes – October Finishes Party

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

How on earth did it already become the end of October. I was reading yesterday that there are something like only 60 days left until Christmas! WHAT?!? Next month my goal will have something to do with Christmas sewing I am certain! For now though, let’s focus on this month. My goal was to make the cat costume for Anne using the pattern below. It is finished but I thought it would only be appropriate to reveal it on Halloween, so you will have to wait a week to see my finish, but I want to see yours now (or as soon as you are done)!

Also, I would like to offer my sincerest apologies for abandoning everyone at the mid-month check in. My blog was having some technical difficulties. Luckily Shanna is AWESOME and hosted the link up party!

Your turn!

What one item did you choose to finish for October?

To make it easy on Shanna and I (and easier on you), please link back to the goal setting post or photo.

We have a few people that missed out on prizes as we couldn’t verify if they entered in the beginning post. We also are having a hard time as many of you are listing more than one goal.

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!

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

For those unsure of how to link up go check out our Q&A Page for A Lovely Year of Finishes – there are instructions on how to link up from a blog and from Flickr.

Grab a button from my sidebar and spread the LOVE!

Oh yeah and there are prizes this month (as always!), here is what our fantastic sponsors are offering:

October Prizes Include:

1. A Fat Quarter Bundle from Moda United Notions

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

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

5. A Paper Piecing Kit from Paper Pieces

6. $25.00 Gift Certificate to Superior Threads

7. Quilting Patterns designed by Quilting Lodge

Try and visit at least 2 other people who have linked up before you so that we can cheer each other on!

Do Good Stitches October Blocks

7 Comments / Bee Blocks, Do.Good Stitches / By Melissa Dunworth

This month for Do Good Stitches we were asked to make Wonky Crosses, any way we wanted to make them. I decided to make mine in different sizes. Each block is 12.5″ unfinished but the crosses themselves are each a bit different. We were asked to use Kona School Bus (a orange/yellow color), Cerise (think bright magenta) and Plum. We didn’t have to a neutral but could use one if we wanted. I opted to Kona Ash to tone down the brightness.

I actually really enjoyed making these. Sometimes wonky projects and be rather liberating. Make sure to check back tomorrow for the October Finishes party for A Lovely Year of Finishes!

Dutchman’s Puzzle

11 Comments / SSMQG / By Melissa Dunworth

I am participating in my guild’s Block of the Month, you can too if you like, just check out South Sound MQG. Our Vice President, Bethany from Sew I’m Pressed, did the tutorial for October, a Dutchman’s Puzzle. She also set us a little challenge, for our charity blocks we were to make the block using a Cool Color and in 2 different values. This was a challenge for me (I have always felt that color is my biggest weakness), I had to keep re-reading the excellent tutorials that Bethany provided in the tutorial.

Here is my charity block:

I took the picture above and switched it to black and white view in Picasa to see how I did on the whole color value thing. I’m pretty sure I got it right, but I guess I will find out at the next meeting, November 6th.

Are you participating in any Block of the Month programs? You are welcome to join in with my guild, the tutorials are all free and over on our guild blog.

I’m back!!!

9 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, Clothes / By Melissa Dunworth

Did you miss me? I can’t even tell you how much I missed blogging this last week!

So here’s the story, my web host has all of its technical support in the Philippines – the day that my issues started was the same day that the Philippines was hit with a huge earthquake. People come before blogs (as they should) and I’ve been down while they got back up and running. There were a few unforeseen bugs on the back end of my blog but now things are up and running smoothly again. I can’t tell you how happy I am about that!

In the meantime, I wanted to give a shout out to my wonderful partner in crime Shanna from Fiber of All Sorts for hosting the mid-month link up party for A Lovely Year of Finishes and my wonderful friend Kristin from Modjeska Designs for helping me sort through this blog mess (she is very tech web savvy, where some days I feel like I don’t even know how to tie my shoes).

With my blog down I had a TON of time to sew! Here’s one of my finishes from last week, new jammies for Anne – McCalls pattern M6643 – size XS.

I do believe they are a hit! It was my first time sewing with knits and thanks to Shanna telling me to use a walking foot it went pretty well. Next time I want to try out a double needle and see how that goes.

Here’s a close up of the shirt:

That’s all for now! I will be back tomorrow to share some more!!! I sure did miss blogging!!!

The Halloween Grinch

13 Comments / halloween / By Melissa Dunworth

Did you know there is a Halloween Grinch? There may actually be more than one, in all likelihood there are probably multiple. The one in our neighborhood steals pumpkins from 3 year olds. Yup, that’s right, the pumpkins we picked out on Saturday were gone by Monday afternoon. Someone waltzed onto our front porch, took 3 of our 5 pumpkins and smashed the sand dollar that we were sun bleaching. I felt terrible having to tell Anne, needless to say, she cried.

I decided that I had to make it up to her so I took out a project I started 2 years ago and got back to work on it. This is a kit my mom bought eons ago, it features the line “Harvest Moon” by Northcott. There is no date on the fabrics or the pattern, so if you know how old it is I would love to hear. All that is left is the borders and quilting it. Hoping to finish it by the end of next week but we shall see…

The perfect quilt for the child who loves Halloween. As soon as she saw the top in its current state she asked if she could sleep with it. I told her she had to wait until it was at least quilted. We will hopefully go get new pumpkins this weekend and this time we will be decorating the back porch!

Author name: Melissa Dunworth