A Lovely Year of Finishes

A Lovely Year of Finishes – July Goal Setting Party

17 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, Do.Good Stitches, Fiber of All Sorts / By

Well, we made it to July, 2013 is officially half over. I’m not quite sure how we got here. The past month has been one of the most difficult in recent memory for me personally. I kept my mind busy with sewing and got significantly more accomplished that I anticipated. This month is probably going to be a bit different. I may or may not be traveling home to my parents which means I will have limited time to sew.  I have one project that I want to get done. It is for a special little boy who is going through a special life changing event right now. I’ve never met him, but I know he is going to love what I have been working on with the ladies from the Trust Circle from Do. Good Sittches.

So how are you spending the first month of the second half of 2013? Working on Christmas Presents for Christmas in July? Summer projects?  It is time to set your goals and put it out there into the universe that you will do your best to get it done!

You can link up here or with Shanna. Make sure you join the fun over on Flickr too!  Please grab a button for your blog post to share the fun with everyone.

Don’t forget to show some love to our fabulous sponsors who make this whole party so much more fun!

1. A Fat Quarter Bundle from Moda United Notions

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

3. Paper piecing prize donated from Paper Pieces

4, 5, 6, 7 Will get one thread pack of Auriful Thread donated from Aurifil

8. $20.00 Gift Certificate from the Quilting Lodge



Pattern Testers Needed

23 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, Sew BitterSweet Designs Patterns / By

Hi Everyone! It’s done! I finished my latest pattern yesterday! I am so excited, if you can’t tell from all the exclamation points 🙂

If you are interested in testing the pattern, the lap quilt size finishes at 52″ x 52″ and the king size finishes at 100″ x 100″.

Here are the fabric requirements:

 

Lap Quilt (52” x 52”)

King (100” x 100”)

Background & Borders

1.75 yards

6.5 yards

Pink Frames

½ yard

2 yards

Pictures (Main Fabric)

½ Yard (more if fussy cutting)

1.25 yards (more if fussy cutting)

Pictures (Secondary Fabric)

¼ yard (more if fussy cutting)

1/2 yards (more if fussy cutting)

Backing

3.75 yards

108” wide fabric – 3 yards

Binding

½ yard

¾ yards

Please comment here with your email address if you are interested in testing the pattern. I would like 4 people total.

I hope you are having a great week so far!

A Lovely Year of Finishes – June Finishes Party

8 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, Fiber of All Sorts, Sew BitterSweet Designs Patterns / By

Ok, I’m going to say it…the year is half over! I can’t even believe that. How did we get here. Technically we still have 7 full days left until the end of the month, and can I just say thank goodness?!? I am only 2/3 of the way done with my goal for the month.  For some reason I have a mental block to pattern writing, but I am working on it!

Here’s my progress to date, a fully finished quilt. Sorry about the crummy indoor pictures, but it decided to rain yesterday, go figure, living in Washington and all!

And because I love my rocking chair, I decided my quilt needed its picture taken there!

And I also love a great rolled up binding 🙂

I have my pattern about 40% written and I have 7 days to finish it…I think I can, I think I can!

Now it’s your turn! Show us what you finished this month! You can link up here or with Shanna, you don’t have to link up twice.

Don’t forget our wonderful prizes this month! Make sure you head on over and check out our amazing sponsors, they add such a fun element to this year of finishes!

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

2. Loving Pieces donated from Paper Pieces

3. $20.00 Gift Certificate from the Quilting Lodge

4. A Fat Quarter Bundle from Moda United Notions

5. $15.00 Gift Certificate to Fat Quarter Shop

6. $25.00 Gift Certificate to Superior Threads



June – A Lovely Year of Finishes – Mid-Month Check In

7 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, Fiber of All Sorts, Sew BitterSweet Designs Patterns / By

It is the middle of June already, I’m not quite sure how we got here and I am actually beginning to think that this project might be making time move even faster – funny how deadlines can do that! So I am halfway finished with my goal for the month. I wanted to have my quilt finished and my pattern written. Well, the quilt is done, I will give you a couple sneaky peeks here but the pattern…let’s just say I am having trouble sitting at the computer.

I did a machine binding, for no other reason that hand bindings hurt my hands, but I decided to jazz it up with a fun wavy stitch on my machine. I love the added pop of color and fun it adds.

I did almost entirely swirls for the quilting, in the actual “pictures” I did some free motion quilting around the birds and the butterflies in the prints, but I will show those when I reveal the whole quilt at the end of the month. Here are some of my swirls.

Now it is your turn! Show us your progress! Don’t forget you can link up here with me or with Shanna, you don’t have to link with both of us, we have worked out the computer magic that your entry appears on both our blogs.

And also, don’t forget to check out our awesome sponsors and show them some love too! A Lovely Year of Finishes would not be nearly as much fun without them!

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

2. Loving Pieces donated from Paper Pieces

3. $20.00 Gift Certificate from the Quilting Lodge

4. A Fat Quarter Bundle from Moda United Notions

5. $15.00 Gift Certificate to Fat Quarter Shop

6. $25.00 Gift Certificate to Superior Threads

Okie dokie, time to show us your stuff!



A Whirl of Swirls

13 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, free motion quilting, Sew BitterSweet Designs Patterns / By

My weekend, at least my sewing time this weekend, went by in a whirl of swirls! I decided that I was going to quilt my Lovely Year of Finishes June project with swirls. I’m doing them in all of the negative space, which for this particular quilt, means a whole lot of swirls.

When it comes to Free Motion Quilting I am just not ready yet to jump in and go, so I always bust out some practice muslin and batting and get going. You might recognize this practice piece because it has been used before, for my last FMQ project.

To learn how to swirl without beating my head against the wall, and really, why recreate the wheel, I headed on over to The Free Motion Quilting Project by Leah Day and watched one of her videos, then I was off and running. I am extra excited about FMQ these days because I just signed up for Leah Day’s Craftsy class, Free Motion Fillers, Vol. 1.  So far I have only completed lesson one, but I am excited to learn more about using my machine to quilt a large quilt and even more designs.

After I felt confident I went to town. Here is a pic of my quilt in the machine:

Here is a pic out of the machine. I now know what I am going to do with the rest of the areas. I will be starting with the white frames and doing Leah’s Design for Spiral Chain.

I am so excited to be not only making progress on my June goal, but also conquering another FMQ design. My goal is to work up the confidence to quilt a couple of my larger quilts on my home machine. Hopefully all this practice will help me meet that goal.

What has everyone else been up to? Conquered any sewing fears lately?

Scroll to Top