EQ7 – Sew Bittersweet Designs

Completed Bee Blocks

15 Comments / Bee Blocks, EQ7 / By Melissa Dunworth

I didn’t post the last day of June, I was busy finishing up bee blocks and dealing with some shocking family news. My Uncle was in a horrific motorcycle accident. He is going to be ok, but it will be a long and ugly road to recovery. Please send up a prayer of Thanksgiving because it could have been so much worse.

On a cheerier note…here are the last of my bee blocks for the 3×6 Bee.

I designed this block in Electric Quilt 7 and I truly love how they turned out. What I love the most about this type of bee is working with color combinations that I would not normally use, gives me a chance stretch my creativity. It also gives me a chance to see how versatile one of my designs really is.

I am going to take the next quarter off from the 3×6 Bee. I will still be sewing for Do.Good Stitches and my friend Shana asked me to sew for her this month, but other than that I will be sewing for my family and friends for the next several months. I miss working on projects that are near and dear to my heart and that is truly important to me. You can expect to see at least 2 pairs of shorts this month for the Hopeful Threads July Project and I also have a little something special in the planning stages with Jenna from Sew Happy Geek, so stay tuned!

Do you all have anything special planned for the Fourth?

Don’t forget to go enter to win a fat quarter bundle of Battle Over Gotham from Fat Quarter Shop – giveaway open until July 3rd!

Test Block

22 Comments / Bee Blocks, EQ7 / By Melissa Dunworth

While I was in California last month I was not really sleeping well. Partly because my hubs is gone, but mostly because Anne wasn’t sleeping well (she misses her daddy). So I had a lot of time on my hands at night to play in Electric Quilt 7. Here is one of the blocks I came up with.

Originally there was no border on it, but I am using this design for one of the hives I’m in for the 3×6 Bee on Flickr and the blocks need to measure 12×12. I don’t have printer paper large enough to print the templates for a 12×12 block, so instead I made them 10×10 and put a border on them.

What do you all think? These are my colors and will go in the quilt I am making. I have actually designed a couple of quilts with this block, maybe some day I will find the time to make one of them!

Twirl Inspiration

20 Comments / EQ7, Giveaway, Me and My Sister, Quilt Patterns, Twirling Around Quilt / By Melissa Dunworth

My first project this year was playing with Twirl. I have never made anything with a layer cake before and I wanted to make sure that I got the most use out the fabric available and that what I ended up with was a large usable quilt. Here’s what I designed and made:

Did I mention it snowed this weekend! I can’t tell you how tickled Anne was to play outside in it 🙂

The top measures 64×72 inches and I have decided to go borderless. This will be a first for me, but I just don’t think the quilt needs it. I am waiting on Twirl yardage to become available (supposed to be this week) and I will buy a backing and the binding – I’m hoping this will be my first BIG finish of 2012.

Have you entered the giveaway yet for the Twirl Layer Cake? What will you make if you win?

NOTE: Don’t forget, I am one of the bloggers who is going to lose Google Friend Connect in March 2012, please take a moment and follow me via Bloglovin’, Facebook, RSS or networked blogs. You are important to me and I want to be able to stay in contact with you! Check my side bar for all the best ways to stay in touch after GFC goes bye bye!

Happy New Year

6 Comments / EQ7, free motion quilting, it's sew kiki, quilt along, Quilt Patterns, SewHappyGeek / By Melissa Dunworth

I haven’t been around much lately – I’m sorry. My hubby has been on leave from the Army the past two weeks and when he is home I liked to stay as plugged into my family as possible. In fact, he doesn’t actually go back to work until tomorrow. Would you believe that this means I haven’t so much as touched my sewing machine in 17 whole days!!! Also, we have been traveling – we went to the San Francisco Bay Area for Christmas and spent a few days in Lake Tahoe too.

I posted on Friday the projects that I finished in 2011 and I posted some goals. This week I am getting right to work.

Here are a few of the things I will be working on in the coming months from across the blogosphere:

Starting today – It’s Sew Kiki’s About Town Bag

Starting this week – SewHappyGeek’s Sew. Happy. Quilt QAL

I am especially excited about this one for 2 reasons: 1 – all kinds of new skills, I mean a Dresden Plate block?!? I have been dieing to learn how to make one and Jenna is going to teach me how! 2 – I am doing one of the tutorials – Block 6 – look for it on January 24th over on SewHappyGeek. I can’t tell you how tickled I was when Jenna asked me!

Also starting this week, yesterday actually – SewCalGal’s Free Motion Quilt Challenge

There are so many great projects going on around the quilting blogosphere this year that I couldn’t help but jump on the band wagon for a few, but I don’t want you to think that I am not working on anything of my own…because I have been very busy playing with EQ7 while on vacation!

I have two different patterns in the works right now, both of which I am hoping to sell, but I will be needing a couple of pattern testers – so if you are at all interested – please please please let me know! I am also working on a baby quilt for my sister-in-law (she doesn’t read this blog so I can actually post about it when I get closer to done!), a quilt for my niece and a few other projects! Get ready for it people 2012 has STARTED!