Hopeful Threads – Sew Bittersweet Designs

Gratitude Giveaway

12 Comments / Hopeful Threads / By Melissa Dunworth

As I sit here on Tuesday night writing this post, which goes live on Wednesday, I realize that Thursday is Thanksgiving and a “Gratitude Giveaway” couldn’t be more appropriate for this week.

As part of the November Baby Love Project with Hopeful Threads, I have teamed up with Kristy for a gratitude giveaway. Below is what I am giving away, head over to Kristy’s blog post today and learn more about the giveaway and how you can get entered to win.

If you live in the United States, I hope you and your family have a very blessed Thanksgiving. If you are outside the United States, I hope you have a very blessed Thursday.

Simple Panel Quilt – A Tutorial

8 Comments / Hopeful Threads, tutorial / By Melissa Dunworth

This tutorial is part of the Baby Love November Project at Hopeful Threads. Please read more about the project and consider joining us and sew along!

For this quilt I took a simple panel (21″x21″) and added borders and backing to turn it into a 36×36″ NICU Quilt. I will show you how to use batting scraps for the batting and I have links 2 binding techniques and a labeling technique for the brave!

Supplies include:
Panel you love
Coordinating fabrics for borders
Matching thread for the quilting
Batting or batting scraps and backing (I like 5″ extra on all sides for the backing and batting but you can make do with less than that).
To quilt I recommend a walking foot for straight line quilting or a darning foot (also called a free motion quilting foot) if you want to do free motion quilting (FMQ).

Step 1: Pick a panel

As this panel measures 21×21 inches I decided I would add three borders and pull colors from the main panel. I selected a pink and yellow right off the bat. As each panel will differ in size I am not going to give measurements. Remember for a NICU quilt, and ideal size is right around 36×36 (roughly 1 yard by 1 yard).

Remember when quilting, to use a 1/4″ seam allowance.

My first border measures 2.5″ wide.

I forgot to take picture of how I attached the first 2 borders, but I have pictures for my 3rd border (I was really in a sewing groove). I cut my strips 2.5″ x width of fabric (wof) and trimmed them after they were attached to the panel.

For my next border I used 4.5″ strips of a beautiful yellow fabric (this fabric was donated by Sondra from Contemporary Cloth).

For my final border I did a lot of auditioning of fabrics. As part of my process I emailed a bunch of my favorite quilty friends for their opinions and I landed on a beautiful green dot.

I did a 2″ border and I started by sewing on both of the vertical sides:

Next I pressed my seams towards the green and I trimmed them to the correct size.

Then I added the horizontal strips

I pressed these two seams towards the green and trimmed again. Finishing off my top.

Continue to add borders until your quilt top measures 36″ x 36″ (I only needed 3).

Next you will need to prepare your batting. I normally press mine, though sometimes it needs pressing with steam. I only have a bolt of batting at my house and as I didn’t fancy a trip to JoAnns, I improvised and pieced some batting scraps together. You can either line your batting up and zig zag stitch the scraps together or you can use fusible batting tape.

The final step is to baste your backing, batting and top. I use the Pinmoors I bought from Quilting Lodge (Pinmoors are awesome and I will soon have a review for them). After you baste your layers you can quilt to your hearts content. Use your walking foot or free motion foot for this and coordinating thread.

To bind this quilt, I used my backing fabric and my tutorial for turning the backing over to the front for binding. I also have a tutorial on how to make binding strips and machine sew them down.

Super easy! Let me know if you have any questions.

Happy Veterans Day & A Giveaway

7 Comments / Hopeful Threads / By Melissa Dunworth

Happy Veterans Day. Today we honor those who have served and are serving. We honor men and women like my husband, who stood/stand on a wall. Today at 11:00 am please take a moment to observe 2 minutes of silence. This is to honor the sacrifices of the brave men and women who have served their country. Thank you.

In Baby Love news, please head on over to Hopeful Threads. Kristy has a giveaway up for 2 different panels. One is donated by me and the other by her. We would love for anyone with a desire to participate in this month’s project to be able to do so. When you enter, if you are picked, please remember the intent of the giveaway is that you will use the prize to make something and donate back to the monthly project.

Happy Veterans Day!

NICU Quilt Tutorial by Purple Panda Quilts

6 Comments / Hopeful Threads / By Melissa Dunworth

On thing I truly love about this online quilting community is all the wonderful and supportive friend’s I have made. One such friend is Kristy from Hopeful Threads. We are working together this month to make NICU quilts, blankies and lovies. Another wonderful, amazing and crazy talented friend is Lyanna from Purple Panda Quilts. When I mentioned the project to her she offered to do not only a quilt, but a tutorial as well!

What makes this truly amazing is that Lyanna is currently in graduate school and pulled herself away from her studies to do this, thank you Lyanna.

Please make sure you head on over to Purple Panda Quilts to get the tutorial for this stunning baby quilt!

Hopeful Threads November 2013 Project

8 Comments / Hopeful Threads, pay it forward / By Melissa Dunworth

I feel so blessed to have teamed up with Kristy from Hopeful Threads for another amazing month of sewing and this time quilting too! This month Kristy and I are asking everyone to sew, quilt, knit or crochet blankets and lovies for the local NICU where Kristy lives (they currently have a huge shortage).

When Anne was 20 months old, she got sick, really sick. When her temp hit 102 I took her to the doctor, they said it was just a virus, give her a couple days and she would be fine. Well 2 days later when she blew the thermometer out at 105, I rushed her back to the hospital. My hubs was working a 24 hours shift, so it was just Anne and I. We were admitted immediately and they went to work on getting her vitals back up. I left the house in such a rush that I didn’t bring anything with me, in fact I only had 2 diapers with me. When she was wheeled into the hospital room the first thing I noticed was a quilt waiting on her bed. A handmade quilt.

She was practically lifeless, she just laid there when they did a catheter and IV. Didn’t move, she said no a couple of times, but other than that didn’t even fight. We knew she was really sick. She was in the hospital a total of 3 days, my mom flew up the last day and stayed with us for a week afterwards to help get her back to normal. Shortly after her stay, she started having nightmares and night terrors about what she went through. It was heart wrenching. Through it all though was this quilt, it was such an amazing gift of comfort and love. For the first several months after she got sick she couldn’t sleep without it.

Now I get to pay it forward and make a quilt for another child and family in need. I hope you will join me in sewing with Kristy from Hopeful Threads. Remember, that since we are doing Preemie blankets and lovies, these quilts will be fairly small.

Appropriate sizes range from 20″ x 20″ up to 36″ x 36″. Slightly larger, 48″ x 48″ would be fine too as they can be donated to a PICU (pediatric intensive care unit). Please visit Kristy’s post about the November project for more information, and I hope you will join us in sewing this month!