Modern Quilt Guild – Sew Bittersweet Designs

Charity Sewing

4 Comments / Charity, Do.Good Stitches, Modern Quilt Guild / By Melissa Dunworth

I have been a bit behind in sharing my charity sewing with you. For Do Good Stitches Trust Circle in September we made these awesome granny squares.

These were made with charm squares and were super easy to make! Link here.

The Modern Quilt Guild I belong too is making Improv blocks for our Quilt Con charity quilt challenge. This is the block I made. I would like to make one more before our next meeting.

For October, Trust Circle is working on jewel tone and low volume blocks for a very special young lady. Here is my first block. My second one is on the back burner until I finish Merida. Luckily I can bust out these circle of geese blocks fairly quickly. Pattern here.

Yesterday I started working on Merida. There are 19 different paper pattern pieces that I had to cut out. And an unbelievable amount of fabric pieces to cut. This is going to be my biggest clothing sewing challenge yet!

Have a wonderful Tuesday! I will have some pictures from the Pacific International Quilt Festival later this week. Anne was my official photographer so I need to go through the pictures she took!

Oh! And today is my 8th Wedding Anniversary! So Happy Anniversary to me and the mister.

Riley Blake 2015 Challenge Quilt

6 Comments / Modern Quilt Guild, Sew BitterSweet Designs Patterns / By Melissa Dunworth

I finished four whole quilts from start to finish this month! Wow! Talk about a busy sewing machine!

Two of the quilts I cannot reveal until later in the year. For now I am going to show my Riley Blake quilt – Top Spin. This was a challenge presented by the Modern Quilt Guild. The requirements were to make something quilted and to try something new. I tried a whole new pattern and template that I designed.

This is my own pattern, I actually made my templates out of file folders. This was a fun quilt to make. There are two large appliques one for the center and one for the larger circle. I used my walking foot to quilt the giant spiral.

I am super happy with the results. I used several solids from my stash paired with the Riley Blake prints. The quilt will make a lovely baby quilt for someone someday.

Black to White Challenge

3 Comments / Modern Quilt Guild, Sew BitterSweet Designs Patterns, SSMQG / By Melissa Dunworth

As a member of a Pacific Northwest Modern Quilt Guild, I have the opportunity to compete in a fabric challenge for the Quilt! Knit! Stitch! show that is this summer in Portland, Oregon.

I drew up what I think is a fairly cool design and started pulling fabrics. I am working with prints and solids.

I also pulled all of my black and gray solids.

I find new quilts so exciting to work on. I just hope I can get the top finished before we have to move out of the house because right now it covers two different design walls and I really don’t like the idea of having to take it all down and reassembling it. Wish me luck!

Tomorrow is the linky party for March Finishes! Remember you have until March 31st to link up. Good luck finishing!

Pot Holder Swap

9 Comments / Modern Quilt Guild, Paper Piecing, SSMQG, swaps / By Melissa Dunworth

My local chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild had its monthly meeting last Wednesday. We also had our first swap of the year. We did modern pot holders. The goal was to use modern fabrics, color combinations and/or modern pattern to create a pot holder. It needed to be something that you, yourself, would want to receive. This is what I created:

It is the Circle of Geese block by Piece By Number.

I actually downsized the pattern to finish around 8.5″ square. I used a layer of InsulBrite batting and a layer of 100% cotton batting – as stated in the directions for the InsulBrite. I didn’t got crazy with the quilting, because the two layers of batting made it pretty thick. I also didn’t bother attempting to traditionally bind this. It is so tiny, it made more sense to me to just flip the backing over to the front. I have a great tutorial here on how to do that.

I got a fun Valentine’s inspired pot holder in return, I would love to show you a picture but being pink and covered in hearts, Anne has long since absconded with it!

Have a Happy Tuesday!

PS. I get my floors tomorrow! Say a prayer that they match and this month long saga can finally be over!

Swirling Out of Control

8 Comments / Modern Quilt Guild, Sew BitterSweet Designs Patterns / By Melissa Dunworth

This past week I have been working on my submission for the Michael Miller Couture Cottons Challenge for Quilt Con. Each person who signed up was sent 8 fat eighths of the pastel colors from the Couture Cotton line by Michael Miller. I have found this to be especially challenging because pastels, for the most part, turn me off, but hey, that’s what makes this a challenge…right!

I have posted a couple full views on Facebook and on Instagram. I don’t have a good pic on my camera to post on here. I will share a full view when it is all done. For now, here is a picture of my quilting progress. I finished the FMQ yesterday and started on the straight-ish quilting. I am doing gentle curves with my walking foot.

When I finally finish this one up, I will tell you all about my inspiration and how I made the quilt. Maybe by the time I finish I will also have a name, right now it I am just calling it the pastel quilt because I just haven’t thought of anything more fitting yet.

I will tell you black thread on black fabric is very challenging to quilt with because it is very hard to see where you have been and to keep the swirls from running into each other!

Have a happy Monday!