Project Quilting: Week 4 - Have a Heart

The theme for week four of Project Quilting is Have a Heart.  Our project had to have at least twelve hearts in it somewhere.  I started with a photo from this post over at the Quilting Board.  The pattern comes from a book called "The Bargello Heart" by Nancy Podolski.  I didn't have time to order the book though so I had to calculate my own dimensions.  Mine turned out double the size from the inspiration photo, so I doubt I got the dimensions right, but mine looks like the photo and I am good with that.

I started out cutting 2 1/2 inch strips from 12 different fabrics.  

Then I sewed them all together in a tube and cut them in what looked like the right size widths,

After that it was just a matter of opening the tubes at the right seams to get the heart design.

I finished the quilting and binding late last night with 12 hours to spare for today's deadline.

I named this one My Growing Heart.
The twelve hearts start in the center and grow in size with each new color.

The quilt measures approximately 72 x 53.
 

I did a lot of different quilting designs in my all over quilting - hearts, feathers, flowers and swirls.
Just what ever I felt like quilting when I got to that section.

I used an orange flower print for the back.
Since it was only 44 inches wide, I split it down the middle with a blue strip.
Fastest way to do backings for me without having so much fabric leftover.

One last picture of it, because I love it so much!

Make sure you check out all the other entries for this week
here at the Persimon Dreams blog.

Voting starts at 1pm eastern time today.

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We Support You - Blog Hop

Welcome to another day of Support!
Thanks to Pat  from Scrapatches and to Mdm Samm of Sew We Quilt for hosting another fantastic hop.  This hop is to show support for those we know who are dealing with Breast Cancer.  I personally know a special someone who has fought the battle and thankfully she is on the winning side.  All women who suffer are in need of support no matter what stage they are in,  from the first diagnosis to being counted as a Survivor.

When I think of support, I think of love. So I decided to add lots of love to this quilt.  I saw a tutorial for these hearts a couple week ago and knew they were the perfect addition to my support quilt.

Right now my project is currently still in progress.  I wanted it to be perfect for my friend and ended up changing it several times along the way. One of the most time consuming changes I made had me ripping out several stitches in order to get the quilt to look the way I wanted. I originally had green sashing, the same green as the bra straps, but it just wasn't the right.  After several days of staring at it I knew I had to take it all apart and change out the sashing.  After several new fabric auditions I finally found the perfect border.  That put me a little behind schedule, but it was worth it.

I am in love with this quilt!  

I am in the process of hand embroidering the hangers.
I timed it and they take me about half an hour for each hanger. I was on a roll and was more than halfway done when I ran out of black floss.  It is taking way more floss than I thought to back stitch all these, but I should be able to go into town next week and pick up more #310 DMC Black.

If you are interested in making the hearts, Cluck Cluck Sew gives dimensions and instructions to make several sizes.  Check out her tutorial here.

If you would like the "We Support You" Friendship Quilt Pattern, you can purchase it for $12.00 by emailing Madame Samm directly at madamesamm@me.com

Thanks for stopping by and 

be sure to check out all the other Supporters today

Feb 6^th  

I Piece 2 - Mary

Baa's Amazing Adventure

Quilted Delights  (ME)

The Blended Blog

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February ALYOF Goal

Next on my list to finish is my Strip tube quilt.
I am posting this one as my February goal for ALYOF.

It is already basted so I just need to get it under the machine.

Click here to see all the other goals this month.

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January Finish for ALYOF

Top is done! Yay! Just in time to link up for January's ALYOF goal party.

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Sashing and Cornerstones

I am diligently working on getting my Christmas Dresden quilt top done by the end of January.
Not quite sure how this month got away from me so fast, but there are only two days of January left.
Getting the top done by the end of January is my ALYOF goal so I will be spending the rest of tonight in the sewing room.

The sashing is already sewn together and  I sewed a little bit during my lunch break today and got most of the 9 patches finished.

Tonight I will make the red red centers to cover the holes in the dresdens.

After that all I need to do is sew the rows together.

Lets hope all goes well in the sewing room tonight!

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Project Quilting Week 2 - Missed it by a few hours

The Theme for Week 2 of Project Quilting was Sunrise/Sunset.  

I had grand visions of creating a nice size quilt this week.
I had the pattern I wanted,
picked out my fabrics without any trouble,
and got everything cut out in record time.  

Piecing was going great and everything was on schedule to finish by Saturday night, and then my previously empty week was fill with appointments, family events, and my son's broken collarbone (Bone is mending fine thank goodness).  

At 11:45pm last night I seriously contemplating staying up to finish the quilting and binding, but when I started adding up the hours I knew I would be up till at least 5am and if I did that I wouldn't make it to church in the morning.  So I resigned myself to sleep and missed the deadline by 5 hours.

I still feel like a winner though having this new top finished.

And I am excited to vote for all the other fabulous entries for week 2!

Go Check them out Here!

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Actual First Finish for 2015

I started this quilt at the end of 2014 and put the last quilting stitches and the binding on during the first week of 2015, making this quilt my first finish for the year.  It was made for my new friend Marie.  These are her church T-shirts and she wanted them bordered her church's color, a light green, I dropped it off to her this past Saturday and she loved it.

Now its time to tackle some of my own UFO's.

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Tammy 4 All Seasons Blog Hop

Welcome to another day of Tammy Bags, applique, and cross stitching,

For today's hop I picked both summer patterns to showcase.
I couldn't pass up the Summer theme since it has two of my favorite things:

the beach and the color red.

I fell in love with cross stitching when I was 11.  I was at a youth church activity and one of the leaders gave me a red piece of gingham and some thread.  She told me to make x's in the white squares and gave me a heart pattern to cross stitch.  After that I was hooked and asked my mom, who has been cross stitching as long as I can remember, to get me started on more intricate designs.  

 As a teenager I was lucky enough to take some cross stitch classes from Pat Carson of Designs by Gloria and Pat. I learned a lot of great tips from her, several of those tips are the same that Mdm Samm has already mentioned at SewWeQuilt. A tip I remember the most is to make sure all your stitches on the back go either vertical or diagonal, never horizontal.  It was hard for me at first to concentrate on the direction of my stitches on the back but eventully I got use to making them only vertical or diagonal and over time my backs looked almost as good as the front and the back was less lumpy.

The pinny was fun to make, I choose to do raw edge applique and covered the edges with some embroidery floss. 

Thanks to Mary and Mdm Samm for hosting another fun hop.
Go check out the other hoppers sharing the day with me!

Lovelli Quilts
Quilted Delights (Me)

Cheryl Wilkinson will post to Ipiece2-Mary

Just Because Quilts
Stitchen' My Life Away

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