monkey business quilt – Sew Bittersweet Designs

2011 A Year in Review

7 Comments / 4th of july quilt, baby quilt, bottled rainbows, cobbleston road, Easter Basket, felt basket, felt flower, flag quilt, halloween, handmade gift exchange, monkey business quilt, mystery quilt, pillow case, table runner, whirly gig pillow / By Melissa Dunworth

This year has been a year of creation for me. I have spent hours upon hours letting my creative self soar – something I have rarely allowed myself to do. This year marks the first time in my life when I stopped following sewing and quilting patterns and started following my gut. It has been incredibly liberating. I have made my own knitting and crocheting patterns for years – easy to do when you make a knitting mistake and end up liking that better than the original design. Sewing though, was so much scarier for me. Cutting fabric has always seemed so final to me, like there is no going back. Knitting…I could just rip out my stitches and start over – no wasted materials or money, just time.

I learned this year that if I cut something and end up not liking it that I can hold on to that fabric and save it for a later project – ie. Bottled Rainbows. I now view scraps and “mishaps” in a whole new way. I also learned this year, as I mentioned earlier, to follow my gut. I know what I like and if I listen to my inner voice odds are everything will work out just fine. This is something that I have learned in both my crafting and personal life. Trusting yourself and your instincts is so important and I am so glad that I figured that out. It is so much more fun to sew now. I am not afraid.

I have a few goals for 2012. I am going to list them in no particular order with no real timeline in mind other than to do them at some point this year.

Make several more dresses for Anne (I won 4 patterns from Hopeful Threads by Lily Bird Studio and I really want to use those patterns!)
Learn to use the serger my mom gave me
Practice FMQ and attempt to keep up with the challenges over on SewCalGal’s blog
Publish at least 2 patterns
Turn the 3 quilt tops that I have already finished into quilts
Do more handmade gifts
Play More!!!

Do you set yearly goals? How do you hold yourself accountable? Better yet, do you hold yourself accountable?

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!

Monkeying Around

6 Comments / monkey business quilt, quilt, quilting, quilts / By Melissa Dunworth

The past few days I have been monkeying around in my sewing room working on my last “official” Christmas present and I am delighted to say that it is DONE!

Here is a wide shot of the entire quilt – this is minutes after I finished sewing it – no ironing or washing yet. You may notice that there is no binding on this quilt – I decided to do the quick turn method because I did flannel on the back and quilting cotton on the front. It was nice not having to bind a quilt for once!

This is the first quilt that I did Free Motion Quilting on my new Horizon machine. I did swirlies around the nine patches and each of the large 12″ blocks I just did a random meandering. I wanted to play around as much as possible in each block to really get a feel for it. Here is a picture of my favorite square – I am pretty pleased with how it turned out – but I know I have a lot more to learn when it comes to FMQ!

Quilt Stats:

Measures: 60 x 60 inches

Front Fabrics: 5 Funky Monkeys by Erin Michaels for Moda & cooridnating solids

Backing Fabric – flannel monkey & banana print from JoAnn’s

Quilting – Free Motion Quilting

Thread – Bottom Line by Superior Threads

This is one of my original designs 🙂

My nephew just turned 1 and I think he is going to love this. I have made baby quilts for all three of my nieces and nephews. My newest niece is 9 and I just bought fabric to make her a quilt for her birthday. I want her to feel special and included and I can’t think of any better way than to make sure she has a quilt just like her brother’s and sister.

Happy Wednesday!

Thoughts, opinion and ideas please

6 Comments / monkey business quilt / By Melissa Dunworth

So I have been working feverishly on my nephew’s quilt this past week. I just added the white border to contain all the color in the quilt.

Monkey Business Quilt – Original Design

My question to you…do I need a second border? I was thinking about doing a second border in the blue this monkey is wearing.

Do you see that cute monkey with the hat on?!? That’s the blue I’m talking about.

What do you think fellow quilters and crafty people? Do I need a second border? Do I do it in this adorable blue?

Let me know in the comments what color the border should be if you voted YES for a second one!

Thanks for your help!!!

Work It Wednesday

2 Comments / monkey business quilt, Ryan DeBonville, work in progress, work it wednesday / By Melissa Dunworth

The week is HALF OVER! Woohoo! I love it when the week seems to be flying by and this week definitely is for me. My parents will be here tomorrow night for a short visit. I’m excited because I get to spend Mother’s Day with my mom, which is pretty cool since she lives 800 miles away.

I have been working up a storm the past few days on a quilt top for my youngest nephew.

image courtesy of: Etsy Shop Brodyandma

I bought a set of 5, 1/2 yard cuts of these fun Five Funky Monkey prints by Erin Michaels for Moda in March and I designed yet another quilt based on them.

With fabrics like these it is hard not to get easily and quickly inspired to quilt. I went to my local fabric shop with the Funky Monkey Friends Multi print and matched up the Red, Yellow, Orange and Green with some Kona solids the best I could. The green is slightly too pale, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. This is what I came up with:

What do you think? Keep in mind it is for a baby boy. I was thinking of calling it the “Monkey Mugshot Quilt”but decided to go with “Monkey Business” instead.

Here are a couple of close up pictures of the patch work:

This is the center of the quilt

Bottom middle of quilt

I still need to buy borders, a backing and binding but I am really happy with how it has turned out thus far. For the borders I am thinking a solid white to match the numbers fabric and then a solid blue to match the free floating sock monkeys.

I have really begun to fall in love with designing my own quilts. Not looking in books or on the web for ideas has really freed up my creativity and I think it is really beginning to show. How are you freeing up your creativity this week?

Keep working it!