Do.Good Stitches – Page 8 – Sew Bittersweet Designs

April Bee Blocks

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

Happy Friday! Today I’m excited! My hubby has the day off, so he and an army buddy will be working on my garden 🙂 They are getting the soil for my raised planter beds! One step closer to planting! I wanted to show off my Trust Circle, Do Good Stitches bee blocks from this month to you.

This month we are working on a quilt for a little girl, I believe she is 7. We were asked to think “Spring”. One of the suggested blocks was a hexie flower. I also did some thread painting of the stem and the sun. The butterfly is embroidered (I got the design from the Clover and Violet Embroidery 101 QAL, it is from Block 2). We were also asked not to use white fabric for our backgrounds, cheerful colors were requested. I just LOVE this blue.

For my second block I did a Circle of Geese (pattern found here). This was also a suggested block. I was thinking I might do a sun, but I think 2 of those had already been made by the time I started my blocks. I used some of my favorite fabrics for this block and I love how it turned out.

Next month I am the quilter and I am planning a boy quilt with a spacey theme. I was going to design a block for the other ladies to make but knowing the level of creativity in the group I have decided to give color and theme guidelines and ask them to put that creativity to work, I know they will come up with amazing designs!

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

January Finish – do.Good Stitches Quilt

14 Comments / Do.Good Stitches / By Melissa Dunworth

Sometimes it is very easy to feel as though what you do during the day has very little meaning to anyone but yourself and your family. It is easy to get discouraged and to wonder if you are making any difference at all. These feelings are part of the reason I applied to join do.Good Stitches. I wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself and hopefully make a difference in someone’s life, even if it was only 2 quilt blocks at a time.

In September I was approached about moving from being a Stitcher (someone who sews quilt blocks) to a Quilter (someone who designs, plans, and quilts the donated quilts). I immediately said yes because I have reached a point where I love design and I am comfortable with putting my ideas out there – it has taken me a long time to get to this point

November was my first month as a Quilter in my circle – the Trust Circle. As you all know, I have a beautiful daughter, meaning I don’t do much work on boy projects, so I immediately asked for Wonky Log Cabin blocks in Blues and Greens with pops of Orange. By coincidence everyone in the group ended up doing awesome I-Spy centers, which just added so much to this special quilt.

Our circle supports Foster Children, each of our quilts is donated to a Foster Child, it can be to a child we know or to a specific charity. In November I had no idea who I was going to donate this too. As the blocks started to roll in I continued to hem and haw until the week before Christmas when my amazing friend Kristy from Hopeful Threads announced that her family had been blessed with a precious gift, a newborn foster son. In that moment, reading her post, I knew the quilt was meant for him. Here is the post Kristy wrote about the quilt and what it has meant to her (she received it yesterday).

Here’s a look at the back:

I decided to do this as a Quilt As You Go quilt and I am tickled with the way it turned out. Using the technique in this tutorial I was able to spare myself a lot of the pain I usually have when quilting and I was able to create something beautiful. A big thank you goes out to the amazing ladies of Trust Circle, without whom, this quilt would not be possible. I feel so blessed to work with all of you. You pump me up and make me want to do more.

Quilt Stats:
Design: Wonky I-Spy Log Cabin
Measures: 50″ x 50″
Quilting: QAYG – wonky lines mimicking the wonky blocks
Thread: Masterpiece by Superior Threads

As Kristy says “Every Stitch Matters”

January Do.Good Stitches Blocks

12 Comments / Do.Good Stitches / By Melissa Dunworth

I have really cut down on my bees this year. I am in one that ends next month, Bee Awesome, check back tomorrow to see those blocks. I am in one that ends in October – Strip Quilters (yup, I’m a stripper), and I am also in Do.Good Stitches Trust Circle. Do.Good Stitches really makes my heart sing because I know every month a quilt is being created that is truly going to lift someone up, someone who needs it so much.

Here are the blocks I made for January.

Our quilter for the month, three_little_pumpkins, selected the Road to Tennessee block but is calling it Hugs and Kisses. Here is a link to the tutorial, which aside from the cutting measurements, I didn’t really follow.

In other fun news, I am a judge this week over at Quilting Gallery for the weekly quilt contest. This week’s theme is “Challenge Quilts”. Head over and check it out and submit a quilt while you are there!

Progress Towards My January Goal

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

On Saturday, Anne, my wonderful Dad, and I spent 12.5 long hours in my truck. We drove from San Mateo, CA to Olympia, WA. It was a great drive, I got an awesome phone call at the beginning and it set the mood for the whole ride. My dad said “You didn’t stop smiling the whole day.” Which is pretty unusual for me as I do not enjoy long car rides!

That night after I got my dad and Anne fed, and Anne put to bed, I ended up in my sewing room all alone (my dad crashed early because he was so exhausted from being the driver). I spent about an hour in there straightening up and re-setting up my beautiful lady (my Janome Horizon 7700). I missed her so much! I spent yesterday’s nap time unpacking all of the sewing gear I brought down to my parents house and also all of the new stuff I acquired…new goal for 2013, no more fabric buying because I am officially out of space – yes my husband will have a heart attack when he sees all I have now!

The best part was last night though, after Anne and my dad were both in bed I spent 2.5 hours in my sewing room working on my January goal project for A Lovely Year of Finishes! To see my goal project, check out the link up post here, and while you are over there…link up your project! Today is the last day!!!

Here’s my progress:

You may have noticed that this just looks like a bunch of basted blocks…well it is! I am going to be following this Quilt As You Go method that I pinned forever and a day ago. I am changing it slightly because I am pin basting my blocks instead of spray basting. It is pouring rain up here in WA and I only spray baste outside, so that isn’t gonna work for me. I’m pretty sure it won’t make a difference.

Here they are all stacked up. I have 18, so I think I will turn the 2 left over blocks into a diaper bag of sorts to go with the quilt, which is being donated to a foster baby.

How are you doing with the goals you set for our Lovely Year of Finishes January Party? If you haven’t linked up you have until midnight tonight, so get on it!!!