Spike – Page 4 – Sew Bittersweet Designs

Customer Quilt – Linelle’s Stars

3 Comments / Customer Quilt, Edge to Edge Quilting, free motion quilting, Innova, Long Arm Quilting, Spike / By Melissa Dunworth

Hello! Sorry I have been gone, Anne has been very sick, and as we all know, kids come first. While she was resting, I was able to get some work done, but not much else was accomplished. I was given a beautiful star quilt from Linelle, a friend of someone from my quilting guild and she requested an all over edge to edge design with some special words quilted in sporadically.

I used Monopoly thread by Superior Threads. I love the way that it disappears into the quilt and doesn’t compete with the beautiful piecing. It also blends perfectly with every fabric because it is invisible. Plus, Spike loves it, so it is a huge win!

Here is a close up of the quilting. It was a very simple but fun design. Linelle was very happy with how the quilt turned out, which made me very happy!

If you are on Instagram or Facebook, you will have seen the quilt blocks I’ve been working on the last few days. This particular quilt is for me, and it is an example of my full custom quilting designs that I offer to my clients. Please feel free to email me if you are interested in having me quilt for you! I would LOVE to make your quilt come to life!

Have a happy Tuesday and remember, it’s one day closer to Friday!

Sea Creatures Customer Quilt

7 Comments / Custom Quilting, Customer Quilt, Long Arm Quilting, Spike / By Melissa Dunworth

I am so lucky, I get to share with you another customer quilt that I’ve been lucky enough to quilt. This was also done for my mom. She sure has been busy lately!

I did a light custom quilting design on this quilt. I combined two designs from the book I reviewed last week with pebbles and love the outcome.

Here is a close up on the quilting:

I really wanted the fussy cut sea creatures to pop so I did a quilting design that focused the attention inside the blog. You will be happy to know that my mom is quite pleased with how this quilt was quilted as well…which is good since it is hers!

I would love the opportunity to quilt for you! Feel free to check out my Long Arm Services page and on the side bar under categories, select Long Arm Quilting to see more examples of my work!

Have a happy and safe weekend! I will be here hanging out with my Anne and working on my next customer quilt.

First Customer Quilt and Pricing

7 Comments / Custom Quilting, Customer Quilt, Long Arm Quilting, Spike / By Melissa Dunworth

Happy Friday Everyone! This was a big week for me! I did my first “customer” quilt. Customer is in quotations because it is for my mom and she will never have to pay me, because, hello! She’s my mom! That being said, I treated her/our quilt like I would have any other quilt and did my best work on it.

You may remember me piecing some Preppy the Whale blocks back in May.

When my whales were combined with my mom’s whales we ended up with a gorgeous baby quilt! The quilt turned out precious and we decided that the quilting needed to add some movement to the quilt. Check out the waves that I added going in opposing directions.

I did a simple wishbone design in the borders to finish it off. I love how it turned out. This quilt is 45″ x 47″ which means it would fall into the hourly quilting category for my pricing. Please checkout the Long Arm Services tab at the top of my blog to see more about my pricing.

Here is a fun finish shot. Now this quilt isn’t truly finished yet because it isn’t bound, that’s my mom’s job because I’m not the biggest fan of hand work. I will be shipping this to her as soon as I finish her second baby quilt!

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend and please don’t hesitate to reach out and contact me if you have any questions regarding my pricing and quilting services!

Long Arm Quilting – Disappearing 9 Patch

6 Comments / Custom Quilting, Innova, Long Arm Quilting, Spike / By Melissa Dunworth

When I first got Spike, a very good family friend sent me a quilt top she made for charity, complete with backing and batting. She said it was something I could practice on. I was so grateful for her trusting me with something that she made. It was the first quilt I loaded after getting my new and awesome Red Snappers installed. Speaking of which, I will NEVER pin again!

When I first looked at the quilt I was a bit stumped, but I decided to load up a lovely yellow thread from Signature and just getting going.

I love this quilting design, it is so much fun and versatile for the different sizes and shapes that are in this quilt pattern and the yellow thread popped just enough in some places and receded perfectly in other places.

The back looks great too! The backing was a solid navy and I used Superior Threads Omni in the bobbin, it was a golden brown color and it pops so beautifully. You can really see how the quilting looks!

I love how the quilting stands out on the back and makes all kinds of interesting patterns!

I will likely be accepting customer quilts this summer! Just working on the business end of things! Can’t wait to get started!

Have a lovely Monday!

Anne’s Sunrise

3 Comments / 2016 Finishes, Improv, Innova, Spike, SSMQG / By Melissa Dunworth

In 2015 I was the president of my local Modern Quilt Guild, South Sound MQG. One of my outgoing acts as President involved working with the outgoing Vice President to come up with a challenge for our yearly quilt show that takes place during Spring Arts Walk in Olympia, WA. The fabrics we selected were from V & Co Color Theory. I got the Navy Poppies colorway.

This color way is right up my alley, I pretty much love all things blue. The other part of the challenge, because picking out one fabric wasn’t enough for us, was that the quilt needed to be an improv quilt. Meaning that there should be no real pattern used, make it up yourself.

As I was pulling fabrics for the challenge I got in my mind this image of my daughter, Anne, standing at our upstairs window looking at the sunrise before school this winter. The sky turns these brilliant shades of blues, pinks and yellows and it always makes her so happy, mostly because when we see these colors it means it isn’t raining and in the winter in Washington we always enjoy a rare break in the rain!

I decided to make a sunrise quilt for Anne. I pieced together different width blues and grays for the sky and then I sliced the piece apart with slight improv curves and inserted curvy rays to make a sunrise.

I had so much fun quilting this quilt on my new long arm! In the background I used Magnifico by Superior Threads and quilted flames, and in the rays themselves, I quilted pebbles with a yellow thread by Signature. I absolutely loved quilting this one, it is a custom design and while there is at least one pucker, which is mostly due to the nature of improv quilting and I’m still learning, I am 100% happy with how the quilt turned out, and more importantly, so is Anne!

So yet another finish f0r 2016! If you live in the Olympia/South Sound area, South Sound Modern Quilt Guild will be exhibiting at Canvas Works in downtown as part of Arts Walk on April 22nd and 23rd. Stop by and see all of the incredible improv quilts that were created by the talented members of the guild!