O, Canada!

Day #190
Heart #198

Here's the Canadian flag in wool-felt, heart-shaped, scissors-fob form.  Yes, the maple leaf was an EXTREME challenge, but I think it came out okay.  A little wonky, but okay.

Now, on to my next challenge:  a chicken!  Waggonswest and I are doing a very small personal swap, and she would like a chicken fob.  I'm hoping to come up with a couple of different ones for her to choose from, and I will post them here when they are finished.  In the meantime, I have a LOT of other ideas for fobs that I'm eager to get started on (which is great, because I still have a long way to go to get to the end of this challenge!!!)

Snowman in July

Day #189
Heart #197

Yesterday Homerof2, a new friend from Craftster, left a comment, saying she had just read this WHOLE BLOG from January 1st until the present!  Then she offered two suggestions for scissors fobs:  a snowman, and the Canadian flag.  I had actually already sketched a snowman heart in my notebook, so in honor of Homerof2's epic blog-reading session, I got busy and whipped this up:

It felt delightful to work on a snowy heart in the middle of this hot hot summer!  Now I am turning my thoughts to the Canadian flag...that maple leaf will be a challenge...

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!

Lavender Sachets

Day #178
Hearts #163-178

Oh look--my number of hearts has finally caught up to the number of elapsed days in this year!  Hooray!!  But that doesn't mean I can take a break, since every day demands another heart from me. Luckily I have another set of these hearts that I'm making into pincushions, and I will post them tomorrow.  Then I will be able to take an occasional break!


I just finished this batch of 16 lavender sachet hearts; each one is approximately 4" x 3". 

Each one has a word or phrase, with hand-stitching around the edges, and two buttons.

I tied a bow of baker's twine on top of each heart; the strings can be untied and used to hang the heart to display it.

I will put these up for sale at my booth in a local shop.

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...

Waiting

While I'm waiting impatiently for the new year to begin, so I can officially start this challenge, I will post pictures of hearts I'm finding on the internet.  These are all inspiring to me, and I know there will be times in the coming year when I will need inspiration!

Here's something beautiful I saw today:


I really enjoy looking at a big pile of hearts!  These all have different things embroidered on them.  There are a lot of ways I could go with this.  This picture comes from Africa Creative.

Heart Garland

A reader left a comment on the previous post about making a garland out of my hearts at the end of the year; I love that idea, and I'm not the only one who does!  Amanda on Craftster posted this picture of the garland she made with the "hope" hearts some of us Craftster friends made for her:

You can read more about the heart project at my other blog, Leslie's Art and Sew. 

You can read Amanda's post on Craftster by clicking HERE.  It has gotten a LOT of comments, and will lift your spirits!

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!