One More Heart Badge

Day #91
Heart #94

Here's another felt heart badge, similar to the one I made yesterday.  I currently have badges on the brain, and I need to make a bunch of them and get them out of my system!  Then I promise to return to the winged hearts.

This is made of wool felt and cotton embroidery floss.

Heart Badge

Day #90
Heart #93

I haven't been able to make more of the winged hearts yet, so I will show you something else.  There is a new swap starting on Craftster, dreamed up and organized by the amazing Lime Riot, called the Felt Badge Swap.  All you have to do is click on that link to go to the swap page; at the top of the page you will see a picture of tons of cute and amazing felt badges--and once you see them, you too will fall under the spell of felt badges!  I realized today that I have an unfinished one that I started who-knows-when.  I finished it up, and since it features a big heart, I'm counting it as heart #93!

I had intended to put a pin back on it, but I finished the back without it, because that's how we are doing it in the swap, so your partner can use it however she wants.  When I have a few more, I think I will mount them in a frame or something similar, so the whole collection can be viewed like a piece of art.

There is something so cool about this little 1 3/4"  piece of felty craftiness!  I can see that I will probably want to have a big collection, so I hope there will be many more of these swaps! 

Heart Pins

Day #84
Hearts #87-92

I started these hearts a while ago, and decided today to finish and post them here, so I can have a week free to work on more winged hearts, like the one I showed you yesterday.

These are the heart pins that I sell locally.  (I didn't add the coil-less pins to the back yet, because they photograph better without them--they lay nice and flat!)

I like this turquoise and pink one the best.  I go ga-ga for those colors!!

I'll be back next week with more...

Winged Heart

Day #83
Heart #86

Ahhh, it's so good to be back to this little blog--I have had such a busy March that 365 Sewn Hearts has been rather neglected.  I have finished all but one of my big projects, so today I turned my attention to trying to create a heart that's been on my mind for quite a while:  a winged heart.

I used dupioni silk for the wings, and both the wings and the heart are lightly stuffed with polyfil.  Then I sewed random beads all over the front of the heart; I sewed right through the wings and this is what holds the wings in place.  The heart is nicely flattened from all the beading, which would make it perfect for a brooch, if it wasn't for one thing:  it is somewhat gigantic!  It might work on a winter coat, but not so much on one of my dresses.  But this size might just be AWESOME on the front of one of my zippered purses--!!  Wow, that's a great idea!  I am going to have to try that!

I will be back soon with more of these; I want to make them smaller and I'm sure there will be little refinements I want to make before they are ready to wear, give, or sell.  Here's the back (below); I purposely let the purple stitches show, all higgledy-piggledy; I kind of like it that way, but I may change that too.

Fancy Felt Heart

Day #74
Heart #85

I made one more pincushion heart to test the Fancy Felt I bought from Giant Dwarf on Etsy.  It was suggested to me by Mareth at Lime Riot, who uses this wool and viscose blend felt in all her creations. 

It feels just like 100% wool felt (not slippery or "plastic-y" like acrylic felt); it has a nice body and density, but is a little thinner than the wool felt I usually work with.

I like this product a lot and I'm hoping the lower wool content will discourage little buggies from eating it!

Watermelon Heart

Day #66
Heart #84


Hey, it's almost summer! 
Let's all celebrate by wearing a heart-shaped watermelon pin!

Pincushion Hearts

Day #57
Hearts #62-83

Yesterday I posted my entry in the Random Acts of Crafty Kindness Challenge at Craftster, so now I can show you all the hearts I made for that!  I actually only sent out 17 of these heart-shaped, tie-on pincushions for the challenge, but I finished an additional 5, so I'm adding 22 hearts to my total today!  Yippee! 

Here they are, all together.  I purposely made each one with a different color combination, so I could count each of them as a different heart for this 365 Hearts blog challenge!  (I'm always thinking!)

The picture below shows how I prepared the pincushions for mailing.  You can read more details of my Random Act of Kindness at the link above, or on my other blog (Leslie's Art and Sew).

I hope you have a happy day too!

St. Patrick's Day Heart

Day #55
Heart #61

Oops, I've let 10 days elapse since my last post--and I had planned to post at least once a week!  At least I'm still ahead of the game as far as the number of hearts goes.  I've been busy working on a large group of hearts that I will post here in the next couple of days; today my thoughts turned to St. Patrick's Day, so I made this heart pin that I can wear during the next few weeks.

It didn't turn out as "St. Patrick-y" as I had hoped; the fabric is covered in ribbons and small shamrocks, but when cut down this small, most of those details are lost.

I think I will try again, and see if I can't come up with something that screams "Happy St. Patrick's Day!!"

Valentine's Day Garland

Day #45
Hearts #57-60

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Beaded Wool Felt Hearts

Day #39
Hearts #54-56

Here are a few more heart pins that I sell in a local store.

If the colors look familiar, it's because I posted a set of hearts I made for a special order in these same colors earlier this week.

Here's the thing:  there was a bit of a communication problem, and the customer actually wanted these small wool felt hearts, not the larger fabric heart pins I made for her!

She called me yesterday to say that the pins I had delivered to the store for her were not the right ones, and would I be able to make the felt pins before Valentine's Day?

Of course I said "yes" and went straight to work!  I finished these this morning and took them to the store.

All's well that ends well!

Americana Heart

Day #38
Heart #53

Here's another heart pin that I sell locally in a store called County Treasures.  This old-looking, patriotic color palette fits in very well there and is quite popular.

This is the same heart from a different angle.  The heart is about 3" tall and has a coiless pin on the back.

Special Order Hearts

Day #37
Hearts #46-52

Last week I received a special order that coincides very nicely with my 365 hearts objective!  A customer of the local store where I sell my work wanted some of my heart pins in three particular colors:  purple, olive and teal.  She already has several of these pins in other colors, and she wanted one more for herself and several to give to friends for Valentine's Day. 

These hearts are about 3" tall, and have a coiless pin on the back  After tying the ribbon in a bow, I put a dab of glue underneith to keep it from coming undone while being worn.  Here's what I made:

Purple

Olive

Teal

This one is my favorite, because I love purple, and this Japanese fabric is especially lovely.  All the other hearts were made with a combination of fabrics on the front, but this one is a single fabric.

My customer only needs two purple, one teal and one olive, but I made extras so she would have a little bit of a choice.

Heart Bombing

Day #28
Hearts #44-45

After posting 15 new hearts yesterday, you would think I would take a little break from hearts...but no! 

Rebecca (aka CraftyMamaBee) on Craftster recently found out that a close relative has been diagnosed with cancer.  Rebecca decided to do something similar to the "hope" hearts for Amanda that we did on my other blog (Leslie's Art and Sew) a few months ago--she started crafting a jar of hearts to express her love and hope for healing for her cousin.  I wasn't sure if she wanted help, so I didn't jump in until I heard that Wendie (aka wendiek on Craftster) had sent her some hearts!  At that point I couldn't sit by any longer--I HAD to make her some hearts!  Here they are:

 While reading some posts on Craftster yesterday, I came across another person who said her swap group had sent hearts to two people who needed encouragement; she called it a "heart bombing".  I LOVE that term so much!  I wish I had made it up!!  Having a term like that to apply to this activity makes it seem so...official... in a grass-roots kind of way. 

I'm very happy to be able to add to Rebecca's jar of hearts, and I'm sending good thoughts and prayers to her cousin; I hope she is healthy again soon.

More Good Word Hearts

Day #27
Hearts #29-#43

I have FIFTEEN new hearts to show you today!!  Wow--I'm excited about that!  These are the rest of the series of Good Word Hearts I started last week.

I started by choosing appealing fabrics from my scrap bags.  I was hoping to stay with a tight color palette, but I found that if I wanted to use only scraps, my choices were limited.  So I chose fabrics I liked, and then tried to match the words with the feeling the fabrics gave me...the best match in this group is "joyful"--it really fits that fabric!

Of these three stronger colors, I like the fabric on "forgiving" the best; but I think "industrious" is the best match for its fabric.

Here, I put "soft" words with soft fabrics:

and here, things are kind of random!  I like "hopeful" the best.

I was fortunate to have onegroovyday for my wonderful partner in a recent swap on Craftster.  She made this amazing coiled fabric bowl for me (hi Mindy!).  It's the perfect place to store and display these hearts.  Don't they look awesome all together like this?

Happy Heart Card #2

Day #22
Heart #28

I'm still excited about Lime Riot's "Follow Your Heart" Valentine cards, so I made two more--they are exactly the same (but different than the one I posted two days ago), so I am counting this heart just once.

This heart has a pin on the back, which makes it more versatile for the receiver.  I took pictures as I made it, and there is a tutorial on my other blog, Leslie's Art and Sew, so you can make one too!

Bookmarks

Day #21
Hearts #26-27

One of my inspiration pictures in December was of a heart-shaped bookmark.  I've been eager to try making some, and I finally had some time for it yesterday.  Here are the two I made:

The hearts are about 5 1/2" long, and the tails (which are made of braided embroidery floss) are about 6 1/2" long.

I used Heat n Bond Lite to adhere the inner heart to the base heart, then machine-stitched around the edge. 

I feel like they could use a little more "something", so next time I will try hand-embroidering a blanket stitch around the edge of the inner heart, like the one in the inspiration photo.  That would give better definition to the edge of the inner heart, and add some color.  But I am happy with these--I love the size, shape, weight and overall look of them.

Since these could be made in any color and with any fabrics, it would be easy to personalize them.  They would be great little gifts--I'm going to keep these in mind!

I Love You, Lime Riot!

Day #20
Heart #25

Oh that lime riot, how did she get to be so cool?  Please, do yourself a favor and take a look at her blog.  Last night, when I saw this post of the Valentine's Day cards she made for the other moderators at Craftster, I alsmost dropped my Godiva chocolate into my peppermint tea!  These cards are SO STINKIN CUTE that I was mad I didn't think of them first.  This is the idea I've been looking for--something new to make as a give-away with my etsy sales, so first thing this morning I rushed to my sewing room and made this:

I didn't copy hers exactly, but used them as inspiration for mine.  The heart is made of two cotton fabrics, and I used good ol' Heat n Bond to "glue" the center heart onto the base.  I did all the sewing on the machine, so it went together very quickly, which is perfect for a freebie.  I LOVE the idea of using baker's twine for the hanger, so the heart can be removed from the card and hung anywhere the recipient wants.  I tied the heart to the card by hand-sewing it with a single thickness of carpet thread (which is very thick and strong), tied in a bow inside the card, so it will be simple to remove the heart from the card.

I am going to make a TON of these!  All you future swap partners of mine, get excited, because you will be getting one of these in your package from me!!!

Thank you, Lime Riot, for your inspiration.