Good Word Hearts

Day #17
Hearts #21-24

As you might imagine, challenging myself to make a heart a day for a year has influenced  my thoughts; I'm always asking myself "what new hearts can I make?" and I clutch at any inspiration that comes my way.  Here's a perfect example:  I found this scrap of fabric in one of my many bags of scraps, and I kept thinking about the little hearts on it:

I wanted to make a bunch of cute little hearts like the ones on this scrap, but to satisfy me, there needed to be a bit more to them.  Inspiration struck me yesterday; I decided that each heart would have one "good word" on it, a word that is either a virtue or associated with a virtue, and that I would make a whole pile of these hearts to fill up a pretty bowl that I have.  It will sit on a table, and perhaps I will randomly pick up a heart or two every day, and use the word or words as my "thought for the day".

These are the first four.  I really struggled with the form each word would take--would one say "kindness" or just "kind"?  "Goodness" or "good"?  I decided to go with the form of each word that would follow the word "be", as in "be kind", "be good"--but I wouldn't include the word "be".  That way, when I pick one up and consider the word, I can put it in a sentence like "Leslie is kind" and use it as an affirmation and a goal for that day.

I used the same heart template I made for the hearts on the grapevine wreath, so each heart is about 3" tall.  Another layer of challenge that I've added to this particular set of hearts is that I want to only use scraps from my scrap bags to make them.

When I get more of these finished, I will show you a picture of them in the bowl I have in mind.  I printed out a list of words I want to use, and I keep thinking of more.  Do you have any suggestions?

Cutter Quilt Hearts

Day #3
Hearts #3-7

A month or so ago, my friend Diane gifted me with several pieces of old "cutter" quilts for my crafting. Over the past week I've been carefully cutting and sewing hearts from them.  I am careful, because I don't want to waste an inch of these quilts; they are precious to me and I want to preserve as much of them as I can.

This pink square has beautiful hand quilting, and was hand-pieced.

I made two hearts from the section on the lower left.  I didn't want to waste the scraps that came from cutting out the larger heart, so I made the small one too.

Diane sent this small piece that was left after she made two hearts for Amanda. 

From that scrap I was able to make these two hearts:

This big block has a lot of color; I was drawn to the lower left corner, which is so worn-out that the batting is showing through the fabric

I just made one heart out of this piece, because there weren't any little scraps that needed saving.

This last one is the scrappiest and raggediest of all, but that's what I like about it!