The Second Half of the Alphabet

Day #148
Hearts #113-115

Ooh, I'm excited to be working on the second half of the alphabet hearts I started way back in January!  Yesterday I chose all the fabrics, cut them out, applied the letters, and sewed the hearts together for the last 13 letters; all that's left is to stuff them and sew them closed. 

I finished three of them last night, and these three have something in common that you can't see:  the pretty fabrics were all given to me by my BCF (Best Crafty Friend) Susan!  She's such an enabler!  Thanks, Susan!

"E" is for Elephants

"I" is for I Love Lucy (I was thrilled to find this in my stash, because I was having trouble with this letter!)

"V" is for Vehicles

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!

Heart Challenge 2012

My friend Susan didn't exactly challenge me to see if I could make 365 new and different hearts in a year; she just strongly encouraged me to, and gave me the name for this blog...she is very persuasive, and although I have serious doubts about my ability to do this and still keep juggling all the other balls that make up my life, what the heck, I'll give it a try.

So here it is, November 29, 2011, and starting on January 1st I will begin this challenge.  The good news is that I have a month to get a head start on it!  It also gives me time to think about what to do with all those hearts at the end of the year.  My first thought:  make some heart wreaths, like this plushie wreath I made with some plushies I made and received in Craftster swaps this year:

At JoAnn's today I saw some nice grapevine wreaths that would be great throughout the year.  I could make them in different colors, or themes...this is sounding more fun, the more I think about it!  If you have any great ideas for hearts you would like to see me make, or things to do with the hearts at the end of the year, please leave a comment below.  I love comments!  They keep me going!  Please--leave a comment!