A Start

Well, Holly Bazaar prep is now officially now under way, but I didn't start where I thought I would - story of my life. By the time I finished with the flying geese blocks I was looking for handwork that I could do while watching some college football, so I opted for making felt heart decos instead of starting pot holders.

I've been pinning ideas for the past little while looking for project inspiration - something relatively quick, but pretty at the same time (a.k.a. something that I'd be happy to hang on my tree) because the gals at the craft table tend not to charge much for the items. With cookie cutters in hand I started to play.

I've been carrying a couple of packets of pretty snowflake buttons around in my purse for a while and wanted to incorporate them into something, so I started with a heart. Ideally I would have liked to use the wavy cutter for the edge but it is too large to get a good clean cut, so I went to plan B.

To put it mildly, my blanket stitch wasn't that great, and where I joined my thread it looked downright rotten, so time to rip and play with other options.

Maybe a running stitch? Not bad but it seemed to me that it was lacking a bit of oomph; the Official Cookie Taster liked them though.

A little playing around and I went with a daisy chain stitch. The first one was just a little rusty, but not bad.

By the time I had finished the second one I had found my groove and when I saw them with the running stitch finish I decided that I would make both and folks could mix & match. What do you think?

I don't want them to be really stuffed and puffy but I did want a little body to them so I used a layer of quilt batting between the front & back, then two. The last one I even added in a few of the felt trimmings into the centre just for a little more puff and I like that the best - that way everything gets used up too. Waste not, want not....M