Pin Cushions

Day #179
Hearts #179-189

These pin cushions look just like the lavender sachets I posted yesterday, because I started out with the intention of making them all sachets--but I ran out of lavender!  So I quickly decided to turn the last eleven hearts into pin cushions, and I'm glad I did, because they will make a nice addition to my booth in the local shop. 

I stuffed these hearts with polyester fiberfill, and I added a heart-shaped piece of plastic (cut from the lid of a food container) in the back of each one to keep pins from poking through.

In the picture below, two are finished and the rest are waiting to be stuffed.

Here they are, all finished.

Tomorrow, I'll continue my series of scissors fobs.  The fob jar is almost full!

Notions and Buttons

Day #149
Hearts #116-117

I have two more alphabet hearts to show you today.  They are so similar-looking that I'm glad they will be widely separated in my alphabet garland!

"N" is for Notions:

"B" is for Buttons:

These two hearts (and all of the ones from yesterday, and the ones still to come) have letters made from fabric, fused to the heart with Heat n Bond.  It is quicker than sewing the letters on, and I like the look of the fabric letters.  Most of the previous alphabet hearts have felt letters that I carefully sewed by machine, but this will be a garland, high on the wall, that won't be closely inspected, so I think I can get away with fusing rather than sewing some of the letters!

W and X

Day #147
Hearts #111-112

I'm still making my way randomly through the alphabet...I hope to finish up all the letters this weekend so I can move on to other things.  After the alphabet garland is done I want to do another garland with all kinds of different hearts--all sizes, shapes, colors and styles.

Today I have two very cute letters:  W and X.

"W" is for watermelon

"X" is for x's and o's

You would think the "x" would be the hardest to find a fabric for, but I had this in my stash.  The two letters that are really giving me trouble are "u" and "y".  I have a wonderful umbrella fabric, but the print is so large it won't work very well, and I am totally stuck on "y".  I will look through my fabrics again, and if all else fails, I will embroider something!

Beginning at the End

Day #10
Hearts #10 and #11

I've begun a series of alphabet hearts, and I started with the letter "Z", simply because I saw this great, graphic zebra fabric on the shelf in my sewing room and I knew it was perfect for what I had in mind.

This is a very simple heart.  After fusing some Heat n Bond to a scrap of black fabric, I just cut out the letter Z on my Sizzix, and ironed it onto the heart I had cut out of the zebra fabric.  I added the ribbon loop so I can hang it eventually; I will either use these alphabet hearts to spell out messages on a garland, or maybe just string them in alphabetical order and show them off that way.

This next heart came about in the same random way; I love this pig fabric that Susan sent me (you can see all the fabrics she sent HERE) and I didn't want to forget about it when I got around to the letter "P", so I used it early!  This heart is made simply, like the Z, but I am not happy with this one...the right-hand side has a wonky shape, and the ribbon loop is really crooked...but I know the value of learning from my mistakes, so rather than discard this one, I'm keeping it to look at as I make the rest of the alphabet.

I plan to make extras of most of the letters so I can spell things like "welcome" or "happy birthday", so I will make a better P, sometime in the next month or two!

Brand New Cutter Quilt Heart

Day #5
Heart #8

Yesterday on my other blog (Leslie's Art and Sew), I posted about making my own "cutter quilt" fabric to craft with.  This is the heart I made from new materials:

This is the other side; I used the cutter fabric to make a two-sided heart, which will probably turn up in a garland in a doorway eventually, so both sides need to look pretty!

Heart Charms

Here are today's inspiration hearts...sweet, tiny fabric heart charms from an etsy shop called tamdoll

I love the way she has used embroidery in a way that accentuates the fabric pattern.  I can see myself using embroidery to make some plain hearts more lively during my challenge!

Winged Hearts

These pins are so cute I can't stand it!  They are from a blog called Art Spirit.  I desperately want to make some, but I don't know about the wings--I'm not comfortable working with metal.  Maybe I can figure out how to stiffen some silver satin to use instead...