block swap – Sew Bittersweet Designs

Sewtopia Post 3

6 Comments / block swap, sewtopia / By Melissa Dunworth

Sorry I am a day later posting this than I wanted to be. We had some family stuff happening this week.

One of the projects I worked on at Sewtopia was finishing up a swap quilt that I started collecting blocks for over 3 years ago. I only know that because I have a tutorial for one of the blocks on my blog (right here). For at least 30 of the blocks here, I made blocks in return for other people. There are 42 blocks total. Both of my Sewtopia roomies contributed blocks to this quilt.

In order to finish the quilt and make it the size I wanted, I had to make 5 extra blocks while we were at Sewtopia and one of the blocks ended up being a square of some fabric that I just love (remnant from JoAnns).

I was so happy after over three years to be done that…this happened!

Yup, that’s me collapsing in joy over my finish 🙂

Anne seemed to like it too when I showed it to her.

This quilt will eventually get borders and when it is finished it will live in my spare bedroom. I love the brightness and cheeriness of the colors.

I have one more finish to show off but it needs to be photographed, in the joy of Sewtopia, it somehow never got photographed.

Happy Birthday Mom

25 Comments / Bee Blocks, block swap / By Melissa Dunworth

Wednesday was my mom’s birthday. I have said many times before that my mom is my inspiration. I grew up watching her make quilts and sew clothes and I never really had any interest until my niece was born 11 years ago. This year I had a goal to make my mom a very special quilt. I joined 2 different Bees, 3×6 and 4×5 on Flickr and began collecting blocks from my bee mates and from myself. On her birthday I sent her the following text message:

“Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Mom, Happy Birthday to you!” (with this picture attached)

(no, my logo wasn’t on the text message! LOL)

My original plan had been to sash each block in either white or gray, but there are several different shades of gray and I didn’t want the white blocks to be extra white, so I decided to eliminate sashing altogether. So my question to you all is…I have 4 extra blocks, I could make one more and add a 6th row. Here are the blocks below at the bottom.

What do you all think? I’m just not sure. My next move will be to add borders, I plan to do a black border around it, mainly to draw in all the different shades of white and gray. Then I will do a medium gray border and then do a solid purple border.

And in case anyone is wondering…my mom loved it!

Weekend Sewing

10 Comments / block swap, Quilting Bees / By Melissa Dunworth

Happy Monday! Did you remember to change your clocks? If not, no biggie, you will just be an hour early for everything!

Not too much sewing got done this weekend. I spent most of Saturday sleeping and recovering from the nasty little bug. No rest for me the rest of the week though, my hubs is out of town all week, so it is just me and Anne. She keeps telling me she wants to sleep in my mommy’s bed, but I’m trying hard to not start that habit, so far I am winning the battle, we will see how long it lasts!

Yesterday I did make 2 blocks for the 3×6 Bee I am in on Flickr, well one was a re-make.

I also finished up the Zig Zag Zoom quilt – I still need to bury the threads though. I will post pictures of it later this week, I am waiting for better light – although that might all be in vain seeing as I live in Washington where the sun is lacking these days!

Did you get anything done this weekend?

Do You Swap?

3 Comments / block swap, Christmas block swap, swaps / By Melissa Dunworth

There are so many swaps that seem to be going on in the blogosphere and on Flickr. Sometimes it is hard to keep up and not dive in without first considering what obligations you have to your non-sewing world.

I participate in both Bees and Swaps: Block Swap Adventures and Christmas Block Swap that I launched with Sunni from Love Affair With My Brother. I have really loved doing these swaps, I started with Block Swap Adventures in July and I have now received a total of 2 stunning BSA blocks and the Christmas block I received last month blew me away!

I thought you might like to see them!

Here are the three blocks that I have made so far:

This month I have 4 bee blocks to make AND 3 swap blocks to make. I am feeling a little overwhelmed but I know I will get them done. I just want to make sure I give the people I swap with my best work! Do you swap? Where? Do you enjoy it?

Radiating Diamonds Block

7 Comments / block swap, block tutorials, Christmas block swap, quilting, radiating diamonds block tutorial / By Melissa Dunworth

I drew this block out while standing at my ironing board last Tuesday. I am fairly certain that I am not the first person to make this block – especially when there are books like the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilts. It has 4,000 quilt blocks in it, so I have to believe that even though I drew it out, I’m not the first person to do it!

This block is another example of using Half Square Triangles and basic squares. For more information on constructing Half Square Triangles – please refer to my Chevron Block Tutorial.

Get the know how after the jump! …

Radiating Diamonds BlockRead More »