Wearing Hearts on Sleeves...

The end of 2011 and beginning of 2012 was tough. My mom fell in Oct of 2011, right after her 80th birthday. She fractured 2 vertebrae, broken her shoulder and her pelvis. She is recovered and doing great these days, but the journey from there to here was a long one.  Lots of days staying with her.. helping her.. going to the doctor.. wondering if she would rebound or if this was our new normal.  So very little quilting (or anything else for that matter) got done during that time.

Shortly after 1/1/12, I was home one day and determined to make SOMETHING.. I just needed to create! So I pulled fabrics and started a heart wall hanging.  It required large four-patches.. some for back grounds, some to create the hearts.. which were fused to the backgrounds and then appliqued. I got all the four patches made,  got 2 blocks fused and appliqued, 2 or 3 others fused and that was it.  

I just did not have time to work on it, I was tired and unfocused and that led to frustration. So I put it away. Thankfully I didn't let my frustration take over and throw it away!

Fast forward to 1/12013... my sweet hubby said "What ever happened to that heart wall hanging you were working on?"  I didn't remember where it was, but he thought he knew.. so we went and found it and looked at what was there. Decided it might be worth salvaging. So I started 2013 reclaiming a UFO and I am so glad!  

I finished up the blocks and got them pieced together. Hubs and I brainstormed about borders and decided a thin white followed by a pieced outer border would be good. Got those added. He quilted it using Connecting Threads Red-Violet Essential Cotton Thread.  Looks so good!  It is all done and ready to hang on the wall come February 1 (Snowmen are hanging there now and I'd like to enjoy them a bit longer).

This is NOT your typical heart / Valentine's quilt.  Yes there is pink and red and purple in it.. but lots of other colors too. I love the plaids!  They are either from 100% cotton plaid shirts I bought at thrift stores (Thank you Bonnie at Quiltville for that idea!) or from some 100% cotton shirting fabric I found on sale at Hancocks a year or so ago. Bright fun plaids. 

In a weird was this is a combination of our 2 kids. Our daughter was born on Valentine's, so the hearts connect us to her. And our son loves plaids, so the fabric connects us to him.  

Pincushion Swap

I have shared here before that I am blessed to be part of a small online quilting community.  I love these women dearly and only wish we were closer together geographically. We range from Oregon to the UK... from Rhode Island to South Louisiana.. and many places in between.  We chat and share.. laugh and cry... and a few times a year we do something quilty together... swap fabrics,  participate in a Round Robin, have some sort of challenge.. ugly fabric, UFO... this summer we decided to have a pincushion swap. I was thrilled!  I collect pincushions.. my collection is small, but growing. I am picky. I prefer hand-made pun-cushions to store bought ones.

Once we decided to do this swap, I knew exactly what I would make.  I have made several of these over the years. One for myself and some for others. Here is the tutorial I use.. it is great!  Pincushion Organizer

Here are the ones I made for the swap:

2 of the ladies have already received a Pincushion Organizer from me. One as a birthday happy and one as part of another swap. So I made a different pin cushion for them.

I had so much fun with these that I made an extra one for me, as well as that little square guy.  And a few extras to have on hand to share with other friends.  I am thinking this technique would be cute for quilted Christmas ornaments!

Here is the tutorial for these:  Patchwork Hearts

And one final photo that I had to share.. my little furry shadow, Mac. He was determined to get my attention away from quilty stuff and onto him!

"Belle"