Sew Bittersweet Designs | Sewing and Designing in my BitterSweet World

Fireflies Do. Good Stitches Quilt

Posted on September 12, 2016 by Melissa Dunworth

Last month I quilted my last quilt for the Trust Circle of Do. Good Stitches. Don’t worry, I am still part of Do. Good Stitches, but with a wonderful friend, Jessica (@plumpatchwork) I am starting a new circle to benefit military children that have to be hospitalized when a parent is away on deployment or duty assignment. This is a cause extremely close to my heart, as you can imagine and I am excited to get started. Before I could move on with the new group I needed to finish my final quilt for my old circle. This quilt was based on my block tutorial for the Fireflies block. This is the second quilt I have helped make using this block tutorial I love all of the secondary patterns at are created with this block. Check out my first quilt created with the pattern here.

I asked the ladies to use a Kona White background with Aquas and Reds. If you didn’t know, this is one of my favorite color combinations.

Here is a close up of the custom quilting job that I did on it. I love the feathers!

This was a super fun quilt to do and it was so quick too! All quilts should turn out this successfully when made of blocks from 8 different quilters! I know this quilt will bring much joy and love to a child in the foster care system.

What have you been working on? I’ve been prepping two quilts for shows and ordering supplies to get started on the customer quilts I have waiting for me. Don’t forget that I want to quilt for you so please feel free to leave a comment here or email me at any time! Melissa (at) sewbittersweetdesigns (dot) com!

Posted in 2016 Finishes, Charity, Do.Good Stitches, free motion quilting, Innova, Long Arm Quilting, Spike | 2 Comments

First Day of First Grade!

Posted on September 7, 2016 by Melissa Dunworth

Whoever told my Anne that she could grow up…I’m not happy with you! She needs to stay little and mine forever!

Seeing as I’m not going to get my way and she is going to keep growing up into a beautiful little girl, I need to come to terms and celebrate that! Today she started First Grade! I am in shock and yet so proud of her too. She handles everything that is thrown her way with such grace and poise, she is wise beyond her years. Here are our standard back to school photos in the new dress that I made her.

She told me that she wants to be a doctor, and given the amount of time that she has had to spend in hospitals during her short lifespan I think she would be amazing. I know she would be full of empathy for her patients and beyond understanding of nervous parents. That being said…she is six and surely her dreams will change many times between now and when she needs to make tough grown up decisions like what she wants to be when she grows up. Heck I’m 35 and still haven’t quite figured that out!

Dress information – Fabric is House of Hoppington by Violet Craft and the pattern is by Simplicity. It is the same pattern that she picked out last year except this year she wanted the version with the cap sleeves.

And now that school has started, I will be spending quite a number of hours with Spike, we have 5 customer quilts ready and waiting and hopefully will be receiving two more tonight. We plan to burn the school hours together until I get my little girl back! I hope everyone has a very happy Wednesday and I have a few projects to show you in the next several days that I didn’t get to share before I went on vacation last month! So stay tuned!

Posted in 2016 Finishes, Clothes, Personal Post | 4 Comments

Quilts for Pulse – South Sound Modern Quilt Guild

Posted on August 25, 2016 by Melissa Dunworth

The Orlando Modern Quilt Guild put out a call for Quilts for Pulse – heart quilts. My local guild, South Sound Modern Quilt Guild (SSMQG) answered the call. I donated 20 blocks to our guild and there were so many blocks donated that two quilt tops were pieced by our wonderful guild mate Teri. I volunteered to quilt one of the quilts. I feel so blessed to have gotten to work on these quilts.

I decided to do a simple all over heart design on this quilt. Partially because the more quilting is done, the heavier the quilt becomes and as these quilts were heading to Florida, I thought a heavier quilt might not be as cuddly, heavier = hotter. I also wanted to do a simple heart design that kept with the heart/love theme.

This is before I trimmed the quilt, that is a Kona White background but getting the color balance just right on this photograph has proven to be a bit of a challenge for me. Some day I will invest in editing software…today is not that day.

I love how filled with love this quilt it. It was my first time ever quilting with Hobbs 80/20 batting and the first time Spike encountered polyester batting. It went really well. I used Superior Threads Omni on top and So Fine on the bottom, the perfect pairing of threads.

Have you been able to sew anything for Quilts for Pulse or Quilts for Peace?

Posted in Charity, Custom Quilting, Customer Quilt, Edge to Edge Quilting, free motion quilting, Innova, Long Arm Quilting, SSMQG | 2 Comments

August do. Good Stitches Block

Posted on August 22, 2016 by Melissa Dunworth

This month the Trust Circle for do. Good Stitches was asked at make just one block – the block measures 22″ x 22″.

This is the Triple Irish Chain block, tutorial can be found here on the Quilting Company’s website. What I liked about this tutorial is that most of the block is assembled with strip piecing, making it go together super quickly. I could see this being a quilt you could assemble really fast if you wanted.

In other news, I have found that my charity sewing continues to be a huge part of what drives me to quilt and sew, so I will soon be starting a new adventure with a quilting friend, look for information on that next month.

This week I am hoping to quilt a do. Good Stitches quilt and get it donated before I head out of town on Thursday. Hopefully I can be super productive and get it done!

Posted in Charity, Do.Good Stitches | Comments Off

Photographing for Shows

Posted on August 16, 2016 by Melissa Dunworth

The past few years I have been entering my quilts into shows, I try to enter quilts that are my own designs, but sometimes I find a pattern that inspires me, I buy it and I make it. Every now and then it is truly a beautiful thing to find that someone else has done all the quilting math for you! That is the case with the Metro Scope Quilt that I have been working on, pattern by Sew Kind of Wonderful.

Photographing quilts for juried shows is always a challenge, they want the entire quilt in the frame, and no fingers holding them. With no one home to help me, photographing large entries is quite a challenge.

In come my design walls! I haul my design walls outside, preferably on an overcast day because too much sun will wash out my quilts and not really show off their beauty.

Because this quilt is so long – 72″ – I had to prop it up so it would hang off my porch. The design walls are pinned together (my design walls are foam insulation from Lowes that are covered with batting) and propped up against my three porch chairs. Then I pin my quilt through the back into the foam. I try not to get the pins, but you can see them at the top there.

Here is a look at the picture I submitted to the quilt show after it was edited:

You can see that it shows pretty much just the quilt and the lighting has perfectly highlighted the quilting. Lucky for me this show does not require that a quilt be 100% finished to enter. I have purchased a binding fabric and just need to stop procrastinating.

I hope everyone is having a lovely Monday! I have been back at Zentangling again so expect to see some pictures of those soon!

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Posted in Custom Quilting, Innova, Long Arm Quilting, Quick Curve Ruler, Spike | 2 Comments

Fireflies Do. Good Stitches Quilt

First Day of First Grade!

Quilts for Pulse – South Sound Modern Quilt Guild

August do. Good Stitches Block

Photographing for Shows

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