heARTS Creations

Lesson Learned – Red Fabric

Posted on June 17, 2018 by heARTs Creations

Several years ago at my guild annual auction, I bought a pretty pieced and appliqued quilt top. It needed just a little work, which I did and then to the closet it went. When I recently pulled it out I decided it would make such a cheerful Hospice quilt. One of the guild members very generously quilted it on her domestic machine – and boy is that woman talented! Unfortunately, she sent me a picture of the red coloring on the base of her sewing machine due to quilting this quilt! I used a red fabric that had been donated and it never dawned on me to prewash it. Well, shame on me!

Sue’s awesome quilting!

Red backing – the culprit!

After binding the quilt, in the washing machine it went with two color catchers. The first cycle gave me two very dark pink color catchers. The second wash they were a light pink. The third, the one color catcher I used came out colorless so now I knew the quilt was color safe. How much better it would have been to prewash that fabric! That will definitely be what I do in the future. Ahhh – learning the hard way – I bet I won’t forget!

Linking up: Oh Scrap!

Farm Quilted Banner

Posted on June 13, 2018 by heARTs Creations

PP Tomatoes heARTsCreations.com (Medium)

My cousin Sal has a small farm at the lovely Bed and Breakfast he and his partner Beverly have in the Hudson Valley of New York. He began the farm portion a couple of years ago and sells garlic and veggies at his farm stand. He asked if I would make a banner type quilt for the stand and I gladly said “yes.” Originally, I sketched a fairly easy design that would have been quick to make. I planned to use vegetable fabrics and batiks. Those fabrics did get used, however, the design changed drastically when I found patterns for paper pieced veggies that I blogged about here.

The quilt began to come to life on the design board and I needed to put the name of the quilt in a prominent position. Oh why, oh why, did he have to name the farm “Patchwork Quilt Farm?!” That’s a long name! The actual reason is that the previous owner of the property sold quilts from the barn. I did not want to paper piece all those letters nor did I want to applique and stitch around all those letters. The perfect answer was iron on vinyl! It shows up so well and this is, after all, a banner that will hang outside, not a cuddle quilt!

Leftover fabrics were used in the backing. I proudly sent it off to him and his reaction upon receipt was everything I wished for. I look forward to seeing a picture of the quilt hanging at his stand (and yes, I put a sleeve on the back to help that along.)

Linky Tuesday, (too) Cute Tuesday, WIPs on Wednesdays

Needle and Thread Thursday

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Posted in Applique, Art, Fabric, garden, Pattern, Quilt Setting, Quilting and tagged garden, projects, Quilting. Bookmark the permalink.

More Than Quilting

Posted on June 10, 2018 by heARTs Creations

This past week the weather has been glorious. The heavy rains have finally passed, morning temps are in the 60’s and afternoons in high 70’s and I have been compelled to be outside and once again work in the garden. The gardens have been neglected by me for a couple of years now and I am definitely paying the price. There are more weeds than I ever imagined! So first thing, rather than tackle what is to be a year-long chore, I built a planter!

planter

I really am quite tickled with myself and am so pleased the way it turned out. There are two more flowering plants I will be adding to it for color. Best of all, it’s at my drive and front walk so I see it every day.

My “grove” of ferns has loved all the rain – I think they are bigger and fuller this year than ever before!

The major azalea bloom has passed and the day lilies are just beginning to show off. I thought a freeze had gotten my hydrangeas but much to my delight I do have pretty blue flowers. The window box is so delightful – I can enjoy it looking out a window of my living room! The cute little welcome sign was a gift from a friend.

Now, it’s back to those weeds. The pile of quilting waiting for me will just have to wait a little longer.

Linking up with Naps on the Porch

Modern Batik Challenge

Posted on June 5, 2018 by heARTs Creations

An Island Batik Adventure

The ambassador challenge for June is “Modern Batik Challenge.” I decided to make a baby-sized quilt and went to one of my Island Batik bins to choose fabrics. I love all the blues and pulled out all the small pieces I had left from previous projects and a few of the bigger ones too. I chose an white with a very light blue print neutral for the background.

From a very light weight tissue-like paper, I cut long strips 2 inches wide. I used those as a base to randomly paper piece all the blue fabrics. Once it was all sewn, I trimmed each of the four strips. I placed two across the top and two lengthwise on the left-hand side which created much negative space. After all was cut to size and pieced, I machine quilted straight lines in the white spaces and used a loop-de-loop in the blue strips. Aurifil thread was used in this project.

This quilt will go into my stash of quilts and when there is a baby I want a quilt for, I will probably put his or her name in the large open space. I love when baby quilts are personalized that way.

Copy of Modern Batik Challenge 39

All the Island Batik Ambassadors have been busy and I encourage you to give them a visit to see what they have created with these beautiful fabrics that Island Batik has provided us with.

Linking up with:

Linky Tuesday, (too) Cute Tuesday, WIPs on Wednesdays

Needle and Thread Thursday

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Posted in Art, block pattern, Color, Fabric, Island Batiks, Modern Quilting, Pattern, Projects, Quilt Setting, Quilting, Scraps, Stash, Thread and tagged Color, projects, Quilting, Quilts, Scraps, Thread. Bookmark the permalink.

Quilt Cabinet and Topper

Posted on June 2, 2018 by heARTs Creations

It made me sad to have a pile of my quilts hidden away in a closet. I do have three quilt ladders in the house and quilts on beds and sofas. It was clear I needed a cabinet to house my quilts that made them somewhat visible. I so lucked out at a local antique mall. Technically it is a curio cabinet, but I just removed the glass shelf, neatly folded the quilts and placed them in two stacks – a total of seventeen! And what a bonus to have all that closet space back!

Now the top of the cabinet needed something. I thought about doing a small table runner, but I have vowed to not begin any new quilts for a while. Ah Ha! A rope table topper with fabric scraps. It was done in just a few hours and is now on the cabinet top. Another score!

All this made me curious as to just how many quilts I have in the house. Without going around actually counting, I came up with the number 41. Later I did count quilts, wall hangings and table runners in my home and the grand total is 64. I know that’s far less than many quilters have in their home, but wow – really – it’s still a lot! And when I think of all the quilts I’ve given as gifts and to charity! Some day soon I’ll go through my blog and see if I can come up with a count – or maybe I better not – it could scare me away!

May was a very productive month – maybe because it rained, and rained, and rained…

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Posted in charity quilts, Island Batiks, Projects, Quilting and tagged Charity, projects, Quilting. Bookmark the permalink.

Mini Square in a Square

Posted on May 30, 2018 by heARTs Creations

At my Spring retreat I began this mini quilt using gray print triangles I had in my stash together with a pack of 2 1/2″ squares I found when cleaning out a bin of precuts. I attended another retreat where I finished all the blocks and then pieced the triangles for the border.

I didn’t put it completely together until I got home because I needed to do a bit of math and design. I chose to do the little cornerstone squares in a square – and yes, they were a pain! I cut a template for a quilting motif, traced it around in the center of each block and quilted. I really do like the outcome. I will probably use it as a table topper, switching it out with others at some time. So fun to complete a small project!

WIPS on Wednesday Let’s Bee Social My Quilt Infatuation Moving It Forward

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Posted in block pattern, Color, Fabric, Modern Quilting, Projects, Quilt Setting, Quilting and tagged Color, projects, Quilting, Templates. Bookmark the permalink.

Big Shabby Chic Finish

Posted on May 23, 2018 by heARTs Creations

Much of my stash has bright colors and bold prints. In contrast, I do love white on whites and off-white on off-whites. A couple of years ago I gathered whatever of those two I had in my stash and bought many, many fat quarters. Apparently it was meant to be because I happened upon a warehouse type fabric shop that had a ton of these fabrics for just $1.25 a fat quarter – score!

I wanted the fabrics to speak and not an elaborate design. I cut a ton of triangles (starched to avoid stretching) and proceeded to sew many, many half-square triangles which I then put together as hourglass blocks, alternating the white on whites with the off-whites on off-whites. I layered a backing square, same size muslin square and the pieced square on top and quilted a simple motif on each. Yes, this seemed to take forever, but every so often I would do about 8 or 10 a day. I then pieced them wrong sides together with a half inch seam, then clipped the seams.

It is definitely the Shabby Chic look I was going for and I am using it on one of our guest room beds. I also love the way my scrappy bedskirt contrasts on the bottom of the bed. The best part – I love it! Or maybe, the best part is that it’s done!

Linking up with: WIPS on Wednesday Let’s Bee Social Needle and Thread Thursday Moving It Forward

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