Author Archives: heARTs Creations

First 2022 Finished Top

Posted on January 22, 2022 by heARTs Creations

Start to finish in just a few weeks – must be a record! Our recent snow and ice is partly to credit – not much going outside. The bookcase quilt top is finally done. It was fun and tedious at the same time. There was cutting of lots of different fabrics, different sizes. To personalize the quilt, I included some appliques like a mug with the recipient’s first name initial, and a snow globe with an “engraved nameplate.” I also added a kitty and a vase with flowers. I love how the wood grain fabric brought it all together.

As luck would have it, the backing fabric was already in my stash. Wow – isn’t this just perfect!

A trip to the long arm will take place the end of the week. Hopefully there won’t be any more snow to keep me home! And the pile of fabric used for this quilt? All put away – amazing!

I hope you’re all staying warm and safe and enjoying whatever you’re doing to occupy your time!

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Snow Day Sewing

Posted on January 16, 2022 by heARTs Creations

The North Carolina Piedmont has snow! Unfortunately, it soon turned to sleet. And then snow again. So confusing! What it means for me and hubby is a day (plus more) of not venturing out of the house, and a crock pot full of chicken and goodness! For me, it also equals sewing!

Some time ago I pulled a bunch of fabrics in preparation of making a bookcase quilt. I have seen so many on the internet and have wanted to make one for a person who is a great lover of books.

For some of the books I inserted a piece of selvedge as a book title. For a few, I just used a plain piece of fabric. I really like the look of both! There are three shelves of books put together and trimmed – one to go which is in the process of piecing. I have some “wood” fabric that will be added as the shelves.

The goal on this snow day is to finish the top and then it’s off to the longarm quilter later this week. As for putting all that fabric away – Ugh!

I hope you are having a safe, warm and enjoyable day.

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The Old, Now the New

Posted on January 9, 2022 by heARTs Creations

About a week before Christmas, I decided I wanted a new Christmas table runner. I have a nice little stash of Christmas fabrics and cut a bunch of half square triangles. I kept both the pattern and the quilting simple and the next day it was on the table! A nice way to end the year of sewing.

As I have done the last few years, I saved my empty thread spools and here they are. I’m actually surprised that there were this many. I’ll be very surprised if there are more than a few this year, as most of my thread spools are mostly full.

With this new year I’ve made a few decisions. I’ve scrapped my Works in Progress spreadsheet. My WiPs have greatly diminished to six. They’re so easy to keep track of now. Plus for the New Year I’ve made a great decision! Many bloggers choose a word for the year. I don’t usually do that, although my goal the past two years was to complete as many projects as possible. This year I am choosing two words:

Relax & Enjoy!

No longer do I want to feel like I have to sew or complete projects. I want to enjoy the process and not be overwhelmed. Just a couple of days into the year and this already feels Oh So Good!

Wishing all of you a relaxing and enjoyable New Year filled with love, happiness and good health!

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Memory Gifts

Posted on December 28, 2021 by heARTs Creations

Two years ago, the father of someone dear to us passed away. He was a kind, respected and much Ioved man. I requested some of his shirts and was fortunate enough to receive a bag full! For his wife, I made a small lap quilt. It is done completely with shirts, no extra fabrics added which for me was a real bonus. The shirts were so pretty and when I saw the red, I knew exactly what to do – a heart!

For his son and one daughter, I made them each a memory pillow. The center of each has a pocket from the shirts. Again, it is all shirt fabric except for one grey strip on one pillow.

For his daughter who is the one dear to us, I had Kimberly of Square Cut Creations make the bear. She does an amazing job and the bear is fully stabilized – a small child could play with it and it would be fine.

One more thing – a heart shaped Christmas ornament for each! Dangling on the bottom are beads and stars and on the top is an angel wings bead. It should be a special time each year when they put it on their trees.

These memory gifts went to them Christmas Eve. It gave me such great joy to preserve a bit of memory for them of a fine man, husband and father.

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Fun Gift Sewing

Posted on December 20, 2021 by heARTs Creations

Each year stocking stuffers get a little more difficult for my adult children, but we do love opening our stocking gifts! They both make great use of their kitchens, so I ordered some cotton dish towels and did some creative sewing to embellish them.

This towel uses Tula Pink’s Lineworks zebra pattern. I love how the colorful prairie points set them off.

Again, using prairie points and a checkerboard. These are a little smaller with a fun colorful print.

And, for my son the deer hunter. How funny to be doing a bit of free motion quilting on a dish towel!

I’m really pleased how they turned out and sure hope they like them too!

Wishing you all a very Blessed and Merry Christmas!

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Pretty in Pink

Posted on December 12, 2021 by heARTs Creations

Hand sewing and knitting has been mostly consuming my time lately. Enough! I needed machine time and some easy sewing. When I went to my bin of 3 1/2″ scrap squares, I noticed that there was a fair amount of pink. I pulled out enough pink squares to make a 36″ square quilt and put them on the design wall..

Sewing them together, and then the rows, was fast, easy and fun! Diagonal curvy lines for the quilting and here’s the quilt:

I was recently given some pink fleece that I wanted to use for charity quilt backings and it was so perfect for this little gem.

After I get a couple more small quilts like this done, they’ll be headed to the local Community Pregnancy Center. If I were to name this quilt, I think it would be “Pink Joy.”

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Three Treasures

Posted on November 28, 2021 by heARTs Creations

The generosity of quilters amazingly continues. An excellent quilter, Dolores, recently brought me three quilts to be donated to Hospice. The patients and their families that receive these will be so fortunate!

Each quilts is a “scrappy” quilt but the patterns chosen make them so special. This first one also has such a pretty backing. It’s a soft and warm fleece and oh so happy!

The varied direction of the pattern below makes this such an interesting quilt. And the backing is a bonus second quilt!

The third scrappy donation is a true labor of generosity – little log cabins combined to make a big impact.

These quilts will be so very much appreciated and will be on their way for donation the beginning of January as soon as a few more are completed to join them. Thank you Dolores!

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This One’s for ME!

Posted on November 21, 2021 by heARTs Creations

It’s been a while and am glad to be back. I was out of town for several weeks and blogging was just not on the list.

Blue batiks, green batiks and a few white thrown in and what do you get? A string quilt! The blocks were positioned to make diamond shapes. This was a LOT of sewing but so worth it! I have found that fleece is a wonderfully warm backing for quilts, and batting is not necessary. So, I went with a dark blue backing and straight line stitching.

I’m really happy with this design and decided I’m keeping this one for me. Kitty and I will probably have to fight for it this winter, although I will give her a corner to snuggle in. The quilt is on the back of my living room sofa and I got one of the best compliments ever. Sitting across from it, out of the blue, hubby said “I love that quilt.” How awesome is that!

A name? Well, the diamonds are big so I was reminded of the very old method of cutting diamonds – mine cut diamonds. So, this beauty is “Mine Diamond.” So good to finally have another finish!

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One Person Sweat Shop

Posted on October 16, 2021 by heARTs Creations

Or maybe a serial sewer? Add generosity to that and you get eleven (11) Hospice quilts!!

Laurie moved to another town some time ago, but we do have fun keeping in touch with texts. There was a week or two that she was maniacally sewing – in a good way! She finished a few of her own projects, made quilts for teens aging out of the foster care system, made quilts for the Community Pregnancy Center, and made quilts for Hospice. Eleven of them! I never tire of hanging them all out on the clothes line and taking a pic. Pretty and inspiring!

Sewn together, quilted and bound, the Hospice quilts are ready to be donated. Here is a collage so they can be seen better. There are even a few wheelchair quilts.

Oh all that color! Can’t wait to pass these on to the Hospice person that comes to pick them up! Thank you Laurie!

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Paint Chip Challenge

Posted on October 3, 2021 by heARTs Creations

This was a 2020 challenge with my quilt guild that I realized I never posted! Participants blindly picked three paint chips from a bag. No putting back – no cheating! Here were mine:

No, I wasn’t thrilled about the colors, but that’s what makes it a challenge, right? Considering the amount of time I wanted to invest in this project, I decided to do something small. I went through all my fabrics – including every last scrap! The green was not where to be found, not even at the fabric store. “Aha” moment – paint!