Sweet Hearts

It's Valentine's Day, the perfect opportunity to share a pretty little heart-themed quilt in the making.

This is one of my sister Betty's creations, begun about six months ago for one of her two nieces and steadily worked from concept to quilt.

Each hand-pieced block is 4.5" in size and separated from it's neighbours by a narrow white sashing, which, like the pinks, are very scrappy. The hearts in each row are staggered against the adjoining rows. LUV.

She's made about 400 blocks in total but will likely use only 330.

The extra blocks were going to be worked into a border pattern I believe, but she's reimagining that idea so we'll wait and see what the final design becomes. So sweet.

Happy Valentine's Day!....M

Here Comes Cupid

One more diversionary post before we return to the Quilts for Survivors flimsy parade - something to celebrate the fact that Cupid will be making the rounds for Valentine's Day tomorrow.

Recently, I watched Vanessa unpack a box of QFS donations on Facebook and she got so animated when she found a huge bundle of Sawtooth Stars with an ombre heart at its centre. She couldn't have been more thrilled. When she signed off she was going to see if she could source the pattern to make a few.

That was all that it took to get me doing a search. The Take Heart pattern was designed by Lane Hunter for Modern Domestic and is intended for personal or fundraising use. It was created to bring a sense of ease while enjoying the quilting process, regardless of what is happening around us. Given all that is in flux these days, my discovery seems quite timely. 

It came together in no time and finishes at 7 5/8", which is sort of an odd size. To use it in the centre of the star I needed an 8" block, so I made a second one and just increased the size of the outer triangles.

I thought that it might pair nicely with this soft grey print.

And it did!

So delicate.

These are 16" blocks. When I make the star points, I usually use 4" HSTs, but this time I made four 4" x 8" Flying Geese instead, which was really nice - fewer seams. I've never made HSTs this large before and it proved to be a good test as I've had my eye on a pattern that uses nothing but. Serendipity.

Interested? I also found a short tutorial video of how to make the heart block which takes all of the mystery out of it.

Happy Valentine's Day!...M

Crawling Out of the Rabbit Hole

Despite my intention to put the little three-inch hearts to one side and move on, I stayed stuck in the rabbit hole of little pieces just a little bit longer.

Actually, long enough to make another baker's dozen.

I kept finding little pink scraps and cutting them up, so of course I just had to see what they look like worked into a heart.

Still very stinkin' cute! But it's time to crawl out of this rabbit hole and move on. This time I'm serious. I think 😉.

I have my heart set on getting Halo off the design wall where it has lived for heaven knows how long now. All of the blocks are finally together, with the exception of the edge pieces. I cut just a few and laid them alongside the blocks but it just wasn't working for me. 

After mulling things for a while I realized that the bottom test piece was too dark; if I continued with shades like this it was going to have a distinct piano key feel, taking away from the circles. Not.

I want subtle with a just a little variation in tone between the pieces to help those circles shine, so I culled my initial fabric selection so that it was much more low volume. Much better....M

My Funny Little Valentine

It's always fun to seek out a new heart to sew to celebrate Valentine's Day and this year I landed on these little 3" sweeties. They are SO cute!

I found them in a Stash Bandit blog post from a few years ago. Assembly is really easy - most of my time was spent digging for scraps and cutting.

I found that for the final seam (the one that runs down the centre of the heart) it's best to start at the top of the heart and work down rather than working from the bottom up so that you get good seam matches. 

I also alternated the direction that the seams at the bottom of the heart were pressed - one to the inside of the heart and one to the outside - so that I could nest them, and it worked really nicely. 

They are really, really cute together. I mean, they're 3 inches! It didn't take much time to get a group of them made and when I saw them all together I thought that including a little envelope block might be fun too. Sweet.

This is just a little diversionary rabbit hole that I've fallen into and I will put them away now. I've got a baker's dozen prepped and can't help but think that it could be a great follow-up to Little Trees. The scrappier it got, the better it would be. 

Happy Valentine's Day!....M

A Whole Lotta Binding Goin' On

The last few months I've been resolved to move several projects to the finish line, and lately that means making lots of bindings, and lots of hand stitching, of course. The two baby quilts were at the top of the list because baby number two is due in about a week, and, believe it or not, I will have them finished before he/she arrives.

Pink Hearts is for the two-year-old - I totally missed that deadline - and I think she will like it. I do. In addition to those stylized scrappy little hearts throughout I just love the Fandango panto that Roberta used to quilt it - it just brings the whole thing to life in such a beautiful way.

And, as luck would have it, there was enough pink gingham in the stash to bind it with, so I'm pretty happy about that.

Those little pink radishes rolling across the backing are really sweet and a nice contrast to the hard lines of the hearts.

The second quilt, Monkey Business, turned out really well also. I chose a panto of stars and moons that skip across the surface and the swirling pattern softens the geometric shapes in the blocks beautifully.

This quilt took a few twists and turns as it went along. I had thought that the Strawberry Fields print which I used for the backing would also be the sashing, but it turns out that cornerstones was all that was needed, in part because that beautiful taupe pin dot that Roberta found came to the rescue.

It's a pretty quilt without being too feminine.

And the strawberry binding wraps around from the back to finish it off nicely.

Now that I see them quilted I'm thinking that either of these blocks would work equally well for larger quilts. There LOTS of the Strawberry Fields backing left so who knows? Maybe some day I'll take the plunge....M

One Down, One To Go

The little Pink Hearts baby quilt top is together now and ready for quilting so I'm movin' on to number two.

I'm very happy with it, despite running into a bit of a glitch near the end. If you look closely you will see that the I probably should have had a short sashing piece added to the corner block before I added the corner triangles. I had figured it out for two of the corners but not for the other two, just based on how I had sewed on the sashing.

In the end it was easier to rip out the two that had sashing than to try and add in sashing on the two corners that were missing it. Confused? I was too for a while because I couldn't figure out why things weren't lining up, but I got it sorted and all's good now.

This little pink radish print (I think that it's called Planted With Love) is going to be the backing. It's a very soft grey, which is better than pure white, and looks cute with the hearts - just hope it's not pink overload. 

I had thought that both quilts were to be for girls but it turns out that they don't know if baby number two is a boy or a girl, so that meant some rethinking. I've landed on Monkey Wrench blocks in an assortment of colours, which will hopefully keep things a little more gender neutral....M

Cue The Cupid

It's the season of love with Valentine's Day just around the corner, which will keep Cupid busy for the next little bit. Around here there's been a little heart-shaped sewing going on.

Friends of ours are expecting their second daughter in June so I've decided to make a quilt for them. I landed on simple, scrappy four-patch hearts after seeing a plethora of pattern options surface on Pinterest.

As usual, the more variety in the fabrics the better it is - I think there are 10-12 different pinks, which will lend itself to a bit of 'I spy' as she grows older.

It's been the perfect excuse to use a few novelty prints from the stash too, like this little kitten-themed one. Apologies for the lighting.

And a few of the selvages are cute, cute, cute.

Things were pretty busy for me two years ago when their first daughter was born and I didn't make one for her so I'm thinking that I will make a second quilt and deliver them both at the same time. Right now scrappy stars seem to be the pattern of choice but lots could change before I start that one 😉. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!....M

Love Letters

Valentines Day is on the horizon and Jane has been busy, busy, busy getting ready for it; she adores Valentines and is always on the lookout for interesting projects. This mug rug is her latest creation, the inspiration for which she found on Pinterest.

For a mug rug it is rather generously sized - approximately 12" x 16". It is doubtful that she will use it as a mug rug but more likely as a small wall hanging. Luv these polka dots.

The hearts are tiny and sweet and beautiful all together.

This year she's also fashioned pretty Valentines from delicate hankies. There's a light batting to give them a bit of body. A few lace embellishments were added after this photo was taken.

And then there was this tiny envelope block that will become part of another mug rug. Isn't it adorable? It is just four HSTs but it's the size that that makes it. Made of 1.5" strips, the block is only 4" after you add the borders. Just. So. Stinkin'. Cute!

For years she has also made beautiful cards to celebrate the occasion. She used to sell them to the folks in her office but now that she's retired and moved away from the city that doesn't happen as often, however, a local coffee shop has put them on their counter so she is interested to see how they do there. I'm betting that they fly off the shelf.

Those teenie tiny little envelopes had me squealing and she revealed that they were cut with Linda's Cuttlebug. Well, Linda, kind soul that she is, surprised me with a little stack of my own to play with. Not sure that I will even come close to what you see here, but I'll have fun trying....M

My Happy Little Valentines

I continue to see red these days but it's not all been from the fabric bins. To put it mildly, we have had a heck of a time with our Internet and phone service, which explains my long hiatus from blogland. We thought everything had finally settled yesterday but alas, that was not to be. I'm trying not to take a fit but it's getting harder and harder. Regardless, while I have connectivity I'm going to share my Valentines with you.

These are the result of all that scrap sewing that you saw the last time and lots of fun to make.

I started with a tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew  and went from there, backing and binding them all with the same red dot, very appropriately named Kiss Dot. The hearts were 5" and the potholders finished off at about 7 1/2".

Unfortunately, it wasn't until I had them mostly together that I realized that maybe not all of the scraps had been pre-washed. I had made 13 blocks and at one point toyed with making a baby quilt, but I just couldn't risk all of that white background turning pink in the wash because you know if its a baby quilt it is going to need to be washed. I did wash the backing but still have my fingers crossed that nothing runs when they get laundered.

The gals got together for some quilting therapy last weekend (more to come on that) so everyone got a pair to take home. They were met with squeals of delight, so I'm thinking that's a good thing. It's an idea I got from Sandy last summer when she said she was making potholders for her girls get together. So everyone was happy - I got to play with my scraps and the gals got a little treat. Hope that there are Valentine treats this week for you, too. Happy Valentine's Day!....M