Author name: Melissa Dunworth

Owner/Operator

Guest Post – Kristy from Hopeful Threads

4 Comments / Hopeful Threads / By

Happy Monday everyone! We are in Monterey, California today. Mr. SBD (Sew BitterSweet Designs) and I are enjoying a couple days just the two of us, while Anne gets some much needed one on one time with her Nana and Baba (grandpa).

I have the wonderful Kristy from Hopeful Threads here to tell you all about the March Project she is working on!

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Hi all! Kristy here from Hopeful Threads, and I’m delighted to get to share with you about our March Project!

OH YEAH!!!
It’s time to kick off another fabulous sewing project designed especially with the purpose of giving back to a group of the most giving people I know of!
This month we will be sewing for the people in our community that serve others regularly. More specifically, those that prepare and provide meals. This is one of those months that I’d like to encourage you to look within your own communities for an opportunity to give back. Is there a local church or community group that regularly provides meals for those in need? Does your community have a meal delivery service? A Food Pantry? Take a moment to consider who is feeding those in need around you.
Perhaps your town/city has a Meals On Wheels program to help provide meals to Senior Citizens in their homes? Visit the Meals On Wheels Association of America here to see.
Or maybe Mobile Meals is active in your community? Simply web search “Mobile Meals” + the name of your city to find out.
We are going to be sewing to serve those that serve this month!
What are we sewing?
Aprons
Oven Mitts
Hot Pads
Any type of kitchen accessory that can be handmade!
Don’t have anywhere local to donate? Then you can of course send your items to me. I would be happy to include yours in my box! I will be donating my items locally, to The Love Kitchen.
This incredible kitchen began in 1986.
It was, and continues to be a labor of love of two beautiful sisters, Helen Ashe and Ellen Turner. You can read more about this warm and generous women here. They are actually famous now! 🙂
Currently, this amazing outreach is serving more than 2,000 meals a week in our community. Their volunteer-run kitchen is overflowing with people giving their time, energy and resources to help those around them. I want to encourage them in their work! I want to remind them how very important what they are doing is! I want them to be dressed in beautiful aprons, wearing and using beautiful handmade accessories while they are busy cooking up their love-filled dishes!
Will you join me???
I’ve created a Pinterest album full of all kinds of kitchen-y goodness! Links to free tutorials and patterns to help inspire and guide us as we sew. Find it here, Kitchen Wearables & Accessories.As you sew, I invite you to share what you’ve made and where you will be donating it in our March Project album here. 
I have all kinds of fun planned for the month and can’t wait to share it with you!
If you have any questions or wish to mail your completed items to me, just email me.
Love to have you grab our “Order Up!” badge from the Hopeful Threads blog and add it to your blog or website to help spread the word! Looking forward to sewing with you this month as we serve those who serve.
I have a giveaway open for anyone interested in sewing along the prize is supplies to get you started. Today is the last day to enter as the winner announced 3/19.
Ready….Set…..
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March Mid-Month Check In – A Lovely Year of Finishes

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

It is the middle of March already – how did that happen? I feel like when I write these posts I am constantly thrown off guard by how much time has passed so quickly!  On with it already, we have spent enough time talking about time!!!

It is the middle of the month and that means Shanna and I would love to see your progress on your Lovely Year of Finishes goal. Mine is progressing nicely, though it has taken a major toll on my hands – even with a large throat machine, it is still hard work shoving a quilt back and forth through the throat!

I still need to trim it up, sew on the binding and bury all the threads. Luckily I have lots of car time starting tomorrow with a 13 hour drive to California!

Now it is your turn! Show us what you’ve been working on.

Remember this is not a mandatory link up, more of a bragging party to show your progress. The party will be open for 7 days. Please make sure you grab a button from the sidebar so we can spread the word!!!

And don’t forget to go check out the flickr group there are super fun things and TON of photos there too.



Quilting Lodge Blog – Texas Teardrops QAL

4 Comments / quilt along, Quilting Lodge / By

Do you know Vicki from Quilting Lodge? She and her mom not only own and operate Quilting Lodge but they are also amazing quilt designers. In addition to all of that…Vicki is also a talented long arm quilter.

Quilting Lodge

Starting next month Vicki will be hosting her first Quilt Along (QAL) for her award winning Texas Teardrops Quilt.

This quilt won the Favorite Applique category in the Fall 2012 Blogger’s Quilt Festival. The above picture is the original version of the quilt. Vicki is making a second one now with gorgeous fabrics from Riley Blake. Here is a sneaky peak that she shared with me:

As Vicki irons out the details she will be adding more information to the Texas Teardrops Quilt Along page. In the meantime I can tell you a few fun details:

  • Vicki will be offering a fat quarter bundle for sale for the QAL
  • There will be some amazing prizes offered for those who finish their top – and can I just say that those prizes include some stunning fabrics!
  • Vicki will also be offering background fabrics at a discounted rate for the QAL as well

So, will you be signing up to make your own Texas Teardrops Quilt?

 

Contemporary Cloth – A New Direction

4 Comments / Contemporary Cloth / By

Many of you know that I am a huge fan of Contemporary Cloth. Aside from the fact that Sondra, the owner, is a simply wonderful person and soul, she also stocks an amazing selection of fabrics. In an effort to survive and keep sewing in these trying economic times, Sondra has recently over-hauled her pricing scheme and philosophy for Contemporary Cloth, you can read about it here.

How this impacts you, the fabric enthusiast/hoarder/collector/insert term of choice – I personally like enthusiast, my husband says hoarder…  Sondra will still be offering all of the amazing Japanese Yuwa fabrics and hand dyed fabrics that have always been unique to Contemporary Cloth, and she will also continue to stock home dec fabrics and her wonderful selection of modern fabrics, but you will notice some price differences.  The upside for you, many of the prices will be lower now!  (Please note the price changes do not include the specialty Yuwa’s or the hand dyed – one of a kind fabrics.) Check out some of my favorite new lines that Sondra is now carrying, and yes, this first one I totally have on order with her!

Mecca for Moderns:

This line is coming in May – Ride by Julia Rothman:

Tsuru Bundle – by Cloud 9:

So make sure you head over to Contemporary Cloth, check out their amazing selection of fabrics and take advantage of some of the newer and LOWER prices! I’ve already done my shopping – shhhhhh! Don’t tell my husband!

Quilting Progress and an injury

26 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, Personal Post, Sew Intertwined QAL / By

I would like to start this post with a heartfelt thank you to the amazing response I got to my post on Friday. I was truly touched by the outpouring of support that you have shown me. Thank you so much. (I apologize for not responding to comments, my hands are screaming bloody murder just from typing this post.)

On a similar note, I definitely pushed it too hard last week trying to get the Sew Intertwined quilting done and binding sewn on before we leave for vacation. I have unwittingly caused an RA flare up in my hands. The pain has been so severe that it has been waking me up at night. This means no sewing for me the last 2 days. At this point I have no idea if it will ease up enough to get my binding on before we leave for vacation – the plan was to bury threads and hand sew the binding in the car as we are planning to drive to California and also have multiple side trips planned – lots of car time. Luckily I have some amazing friends and one offered to do my bee blocks for me for do. Good Stitches for March. Without her help I know I would have fallen down on that commitment because there is no way I could get 3 done by Friday.

In other news, I did push myself and here is my progress. My question to you…is am I done quilting? Before you answer, you should know that I am planning on entering this quilt into our county fair this summer. So I don’t want a judge saying to him/herself, “Why did she stop?”

**** Sorry for the crappy pictures, it is 5 pm and I’m still in my jammies and it is also raining, so no going outside.**** (don’t judge the jammies 🙂 it is the weekend and I’ve been sick)

Here is the view of the whole quilt from the front

View from the back. I did a solid muslin backing using 90″ wide fabric so I wouldn’t have any seams. I also did matching thread on the front and the back so you could see the design of the top on the back.

Now my question is about the outside round of blocks. I only quilted the HSTs (the white portions and the prints) and the pink parts of each block, there will be close up pictures below. Do you think I need to quilt the gray and orange sections as well?

Close up of back

I would like to be done for a couple reasons:

  1. I don’t want the quilt to look over worked
  2. My hands are killing me and I’m not sure how much more they can take
  3. I’m running out of time, we leave in 4 days

So…am I done?

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