Button Flowers

Day #174
Heart #157

Here's one more heart-shaped wool-felt scissors fob for my collection.  The simple button flowers are completed with embroidery.  It was quick and easy to make since I didn't have to cut out any tiny shapes from felt!  (I cut the background hearts using my Sizzix machine with a heart-shaped die.)

Kay has asked (and some of you may have wondered):  what do I plan to do with all these scissors fobs?  The answer is, there is no plan!  They might end up in my jar of hearts, or I might use them on the alphabet heart garland I plan to put together when I have time. Maybe I will give some away, or use them as ornaments on a table-top Christmas tree.

I enjoy looking at these little fobs as a group, because they are so tiny and cute, so I will do a post about them on my other blog (Leslie's Art and Sew) when I have a few more--that way you can see them all together too!

Heart Keychains with Tutorial Link

Day #157
Hearts #130-135


I have six more Heart Keychains to show you today.  It was my intention when starting this challenge that no two hearts would be exactly the same, but I'm making an exception to that rule today, because I am still so behind in my count!

I love these cute doggie faces!

Birds are always popular

And my favorite, bright blue and green.

These keychains can be made entirely by hand, so you could bring your materials with you if you wanted to work on a project while travelling.  (You just need to get things started at home before you go, since there is some ironing.)
If you would like to make some of these yourself, just follow this link to my other blog:  Leslie's Art and Sew.  I've just posted the tutorial there.  I'd love to hear about it if you do make some; if you email me a picture, I will post it here too!

Happy Clouds

Day #156
Hearts #128-129

Two more scissors fobs!

I wanted to try an image-transfer technique I heard about on Craftster:  using a rubber stamp, stamp the image on the WRONG side of the felt, and use that as your guide as you emberoider.  That's how I did the cloud on the left.  It worked okay, but wasn't as precise as I would like, so for the fob on the right, I cut felt into the cloud shape and sewed that to the heart.  I like that much more!

More Heart Keychains

Day #137
Hearts #108-110

As you can see, I've made a few more of these heart keychains.  I made a few changes, because I want them to be good enough to sell.  Today I made up a "kit" with everything in it to make one of these, and brought it with me to an appointment where I knew I might have to wait for a while, and it was easy to do away from home--so I'm going to make up a bunch of kits to have handy when I need something to keep my hands busy! 

My lovely reader Kay commented, on the previous heart keychain, that she would like to try one of these, because it is (mostly) hand sewing.  I love it when I get comments from readers!  I was inspired by her comment to come up with a tutorial for these.  I am working on it now, and I will post it on my other blog, Leslie's Art and Sew, when it is done.  I will even show you how to do it entirely by hand, Kay!

I redesigned it so there is no stitching to bother with on the back.  I also added two layers of interfacing to give it more stiffness.

The hardest part is finding fabric with a small image that looks good when framed like this.  Of course, you could always make a small embroidered or cross-stitched piece to go in the center.

Lavender Heart

Day #7
Heart #9

I'm working on some gift hearts for Valentine's Day.  This one is a lavender sachet, filled with lavender buds I bought from Prairie Lavender Farm last summer.  The mailman left the box on the porch, and when I opened the front door, the lavender aroma just about knocked me down! 

Two views of the same heart:

The fabric is cotton, and the flower and leaves are wool felt.  The vine and details are hand-embroidered.

Last Inspiration Photo

Wow, my 365 Sewn Hearts Challenge starts tomorrow, so today I am posting an inspiration photo for the last time!  These hearts are made by prairie.mouse on flickr (she also made yesterday's linen heart).  I love the variety of embroidery designs and stitches she used.

Linen Inspiration

Look at how sweet this monochromatic linen heart is!  The bunny embroidery is just too cute!  This comes from prairie.mouse on flickr.  This is another great idea I will use in the coming year.

Non-Heart Inspiration

Today's inspiration heart isn't a heart!  I saw these amazingly cute pouches at Roxy Creations, and I just ADORE the embroidery and applique--wouldn't they be awesome on a stuffed heart??  Yes, they would!  You can expect to see me do something like this on a heart in the coming months.