Hearts fit every need

Sometimes a heart is exactly what one needs for a fabric project. 

The following quilters used hearts for very different reasons and of course, just for fun! One chose the familiar shape as a first -- a beginning. Another picked it for utilitarian reasons and a third added it as embellishment. The fourth -- added to a collection of 'must do' patterns and projects.

Each certainly made good use of the dear little icon. 

You may pick up a few helpful hints and a new pattern to try. I particularly like Jacquie's Crazy Tumbling Hearts quilt for a baby quilt -- Dawn 

Jacquie Scuitto shares her first quilt, a crazy tumbling hearts pattern. She said she made this when she had limited stash and only a vague idea of what she was doing. I think she's a natural!

 

Jackie Campbell emailed in response to my request for hearts and asked, "Does appliqueing a small, bright pink heart onto the back to cover up the thread nest I didn't notice until it was too late count?  I did that recently, signed my initials on it, and the client thought that was just the sweetest touch.  I may do it all the time now, thread nest or no." 

Jackie, who at the time saw this as a dirty little secret did not take photos of the cute little heart. But because I like graphics, I picked up a photo from EnMart -- just in case you don't know what a thread nest is. I suspect that Jackie's little nest was not nearly so magnificent a mess as the one pictured here. But her tip is one to tuck away for future use. 

Thanks Jackie! 

 Michele Guthrie demonstrated how to make 'heart' fabric on her Textile Traveler blog. 

I believe this technique might be similar to what Nina Lise Moen explained on her website, only with the addition of painted graphic embellishments. 

After making the fabric, Michele then cut the fabric into ATCs -- beautiful work! 

She gives instructions at her blog. 

Diana Feit and I are both collectors of quilt patterns and books and ephemera with good intentions of making them all! 

She contributed this quilt pattern offered free at the Janome site. I am itching to get it made! I just love it. There's something about it that makes me smile whenever I look at it. Time to head to the sewing room. 

Thanks Diana and Janome. 

Love, love, love this pattern.