I Found a Quilted Heart Project

I found this site by accident last month and I’m so glad I did, as it’s given me time to make some hearts pre Valentine’s Day.

The idea is to make some hearts to leave in various places for random strangers to find. If the finder wants to, they can go to the site and take a photo or just share where they found the heart.

There are just a few rules. No selling, gifting or handing out the hearts or leaving them on private property or in shops etc. They are to be left in public places, such as a parks, hiking trails, noticeboard etc for a stranger to find.

I am very excited about this project and will be leaving mine around the area this week. I hope whoever finds the hearts enjoy them as much as I loved making them.

Spreading the love one heart at a time.

Can You Ever Have Too Many Totes?

A while ago, my craft group was cleaning out the cupboards and came up with these fabric samples. I was given them with the request – Do something with these!

Unfortunately, each sample had a narrow paper border which I wasn’t able to remove, so I had to cut each strip out, one by one. What could I make out of them all?

Thanks to Craftsy, I came across this tote pattern, consisting of 104 strips of fabric. Luckily, I just had enough fabric, with one strip left over. I was pretty happy with the result.

An Addition to the (Janome) Family

This year I decided to concentrate on finishing some UFO’s (quilt-speak for unfinished objects) and to help with that task, treated myself to a new sewing machine – so meet my Janome Skyline S6.

Loads of new features, two of which I’m very excited about – being able to raise and lower the presser foot with the knee lifter (great for patchwork and quilting) and the auto thread cutter (what a timesaver!). So when I should have been doing other things, I’ve been disappearing into my craft room to play with my new toy!

Not that I’m parting with my other sewing machine (even though she is at least 15 years old). She still sews perfectly and I have some other plans for her. So I thought the least I could do was to make her a nice cover and this was my first project on the S6.

From the many patterns online, the closest I came to what I had in mind was a free pattern from Sami Dolls on YouTube. However I didn’t want to turn the cover right side out at the end so instead, I sewed the cover and lining wrong sides together and made my own binding to finish off the bottom edge. A lot easier and I think it gives a better look. The embroidery designs on the pockets were sewn on my Janome MemoryCraft 350E.

I love machine embroidery; it’s fascinating to see the designs take shape.

Fabric choice for my cover was easy – the local quilt store had just gotten in a new range of Kaffe Fassett. The hardest part was narrowing it down to one fabric- I loved them all! This one is called Japanese Chrysanthemum. Isn’t it gorgeous?

So here is my old machine – resplendent in her new cover – and ready for action!

February Table Runner

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Some pretty hearts sewn from my stash. I wanted to have a table runner completed in time to celebrate St Valentine’s Day, and after stitching into the early hours, managed to do just that! No time for fancy quilting, just a simple stitch in the ditch for now. Maybe I’ll go back later and do some stippling to highlight the hearts a little bit more, but in the meantime, another job done!

Zipper Pouch

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Here is what I quickly stitched up this afternoon. Very easy, using up some of my stash and patchwork squares which were left over from another project. I love zipper pouches, and I could easily become addicted to making more in different sizes.

DSCN0342 DSCN0347 I made zipper tabs in the black and white fabric. This is the first time I’ve attempted them and love how they turned out. A nice finishing touch. Such a fun project.