The Modern Quilt Guild – Sew Bittersweet Designs

Zentangle Inspired Quilting

12 Comments / free motion quilting, Sew BitterSweet Designs Patterns, SSMQG, The Modern Quilt Guild / By Melissa Dunworth

The entire reason I decided to start doing Zentangle drawing is because I was hoping it would help me with my quilting. I wanted to be able to see a space and fill it with designs. Now, I haven’t figured out how to do the shading or filling in, but the line drawings of Zentangle translate quite nicely to quilting.

I’ve been working on my March goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes and have finished all the quilting. All that’s left is binding but before I can do that I need to make my Do Good Stitches blocks. In the mean time here are some pictures of the back of my quilt.

This design was inspired by the Zentangle design called Paradox. I started with a triangle of blue tape on my quilt. I used my walking foot to outline the triangle and then removed the tape. Every subsequent line I eyeballed. I continued adding triangles until the bottom half of the quilt was filled. Here is an in progress shot:

I added some boxy spirals in my background fabrics and some wishbones in my main fabrics to finish the quilt. The wish bones were the only part that I did with my free motion foot, the rest of the quilting was all done with my walking foot.

I have to say that this is the quilt that I am the most proud of the quilting. I worked really hard on it and I love how it turned out. Once I get the binding on maybe then I will be ready to reveal the front…we shall see!

Happy Tuesday!

Rainbow Star Burst Quilt

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

As a member of The Modern Quilt Guild I got to participate in the Riley Blake Basics Challenge. I have to say when the fabrics arrived at my door I had absolutely no idea what I was going to make with them. In fact I believe that they were on my design wall, staring me in the face, for 2.5 months before I decided it was time to make something.

What I loved about this challenge is that we were allowed to add in any solids and any other Riley Blake fabrics. It turns out that in my stash I have a HUGE collection of Riley Blake Fabrics. I had no idea just how much Riley Blake I owned. Below is the quilt I came up with, designed in EQ7.

I truly love my quilt. The only fabrics that I had to buy to complete this one were the red chevron and the chevron binding. I had the six fabrics provided (4 of which I used on the front, the other 2 are on the back) and I added in 3 more from my stash plus my solids.

I think I am drawn to rainbows because when I was younger I was in a youth group called Rainbow Girls. Also, Anne loves them too!

Here is the back, it really shows off the quilting. Someone mentioned on Instagram (I’m SewBitterSweetDesigns if you want to follow me) that I could use the back for the Radiant Orchid Challenge.

I love how the quilting pops on the back of the quilt!

So this is what I came up with!

Quilt Stats:

Measures: 51″ x 51″Designed by: Melissa Dunworth (Me) Sew BitterSweet Designs
Quilted by: Melissa Dunworth
Thread: King Tut by Superior Threads
Fabrics: Riley Blake Basics

I’m contemplating writing a pattern for this quilt, I just haven’t gotten that far yet…

This was one of my goals for the Finish-A-Long Q1 with Katy from The Littlest Thistle. You can see my goals here.

Week 5 Goals

9 Comments / SSMQG, The Modern Quilt Guild / By Melissa Dunworth

Wow! We are already in week 5. Time is really flying this year.

I have to say that I am really glad I am setting these simple weekly goals for myself, it is really helping me check things off the list. If you remember from last week my goal was to simply get my Riley Blake Challenge quilt backing made and get the quilt basted. Well I can happily say I blew that goal out of the water! I got it basted, quilted and trimmed!

Here is a view of the front.

I have to say that I love the back almost as much as the front, and someone was kind enough to point out that I could use this as an entry to the Radiant Orchid quilt contest that is going on too!

I am really happy to report that I used all of the provided Riley Blake fabrics between the front and the back and the only non-Riley Blake fabrics are the 2 solids I used. Also, I only purchased the Red Chevron and the binding fabric I plan to use to complete this quilt, which means for the most part this is entirely a stash quilt! WOOHOO!

I auditioned my binding choice yesterday. Someone from my guild bound one of her quilts in a chevron and I absolutely loved the over all effect and I’ve decided to take a page out of her book. What do you think?

My goals for this week are simple. I would like to get the binding strips made and sewn down to the front of the quilt. I plan to hand bind this one so I know I can’t finish that in one week. I also need to do my Do. Good Stitches blocks and have them mailed out by Friday. Here’s hoping I can get those done today! We are following this tutorial for a Butterfly Block.

I hope everyone has a wonderfully productive week! Don’t forget if you are finishing up your January Goals for A Lovely Year of Finishes to hop on over and link them up here!

Week 4 Goals

16 Comments / SSMQG, The Modern Quilt Guild / By Melissa Dunworth

Welcome to week 4 of the year! I normally want to get these posts up on Mondays, but my husband had the day off work on Monday and I spent the day with him and Anne instead of blogging. Family comes first, right?

I am happy to report that I finished last week’s goal, but I won’t be showing it to you until the finishes party for A Lovely Year of Finishes. How is your goal coming along?

This week I want to work on my Riley Blake Challenge quilt for The Modern Quilt Guild. You can read about the Challenge here. I’m really excited because my top is done and I love how it turned out. I added white for a solid and some more basics that I happened to have in my stash and the red chevron that I bought to go with the challenge. The challenge is to use the fabrics that Riley Blake provided. You can add in any brand solids and any other Riley Blake prints that you like. Here is what I have so far:

I am seriously in love. I am not quite sure what I will do with this quilt when it is finished but whatever happens with it I am sure it will be loved.

My goal for this week is to get the back made and get the quilt basted. I have no idea what I am going to do for the backing yet, but I would like to incorporate the 2 challenge fabrics that I did not use on the front. There is no requirement to use all 6 fabrics that were provided, but it would be nice to do so.

What are you working on this week?