Category Archives: Art

Little Improv Thank You’s

Posted on June 30, 2019 by heARTs Creations

Recently I wanted to send thank you notes and somehow a store purchased card fell short of how I wanted to express my gratefulness. I was also feeling a bit restless about my sewing – time to break out the scraps and do some improve! I chose various brights and just had to add some black and white and just began to piece.

The heart shape on this one below was a happy accident! There was a fair amount of sewing with those narrow strips, but it was fun.

Basically a wonky log cabin, the one below is my favorite.

Each wasounted on stabilizer then glued to the front of a 5″ x 7″ card. If you do a card like this, remember to go to the post office to have it weighed as there was extra postage. But OH SO worth it! I just hope the recipients understand how much I appreciated them.

Linkups: NTT WOW Design Wall Monday Main Crush Monday What I Made Monday

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Posted in Art, Color, Fabric, Modern Quilting, Quilting and tagged improv, projects, Quilting, Scraps. Bookmark the permalink.

My Pot of Gold & A Giveaway!

Posted on June 24, 2019 by heARTs Creations

Several years ago, more like many years ago, I started collecting metallic fabrics. Many had an Asian theme and I loved them. It took me a couple of years to decide, but finally I decided to do a hexagon star pattern. I cut the hexagons on my Sizzix – I cut, and cut, and cut. Rather than cut the individual triangles, I sewed the hexies to strips of fabric and then trimmed.

I found this black with gold dots fabric and a friend suggested that I scatter a few black stars about. Had to admit – a good idea. It also meant taking some of the quilt apart in places, but it was doable.

Finally, I pulled the project box out and was inspired to complete this quilt top. I added the black borders. I played with a couple of cornerstones, but nope, the black borders were it! It is being added to my “to be quilted” pile, as I plan on quilting this one myself. The project box, however, is empty!

Leftovers – many hexie leftovers! And several pieces of the fabrics! I will not save them, but if someone out there would like them, they are yours if you leave a comment saying so. I will randomly pick a winner and announce the winner next Wednesday, July 3.

Linking up with: WOW Midweek Makers

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Posted in Art, block pattern, Color, Fabric, Give Away, Hexagons, Projects, Quilting and tagged Color, Metallics, projects, Quilting, Scraps. Bookmark the permalink.

Post Retreat + Enjoying my Passions

Posted on May 8, 2019 by heARTs Creations

After being home a week, I’ve finally made it to the computer to do a wrap up of my somewhat productive sewing at a quilt retreat I attended in South Carolina. I began the week full steam ahead by making string blocks for a border that I cut into fours. I then paired each with a white on white square and made half square triangles. All of my notes were at home (why oh why??) so I just made bunches! This is the quilt top I was preparing the border blocks for:

These are the border blocks, not yet attached to the quilt:

And these are the leftovers! They will make a sweet little quilt. I will either add a couple of border to make it a baby quilt or add to it to make a lap quilt. That is a decision to be made at a later date.

Following my “string fling” I just piddled. I did some pinning, some sewing, but didn’t really attack anything else with much vigor. Mostly I enjoyed my time away and being with an awesome group of quilters!

What’s really been keeping me busy is the great outdoors. I am in the process of dividing my ferns. They are truly glorious this year! And tree work was done in our yard and this pile of mulch was the result. I can only load a few wheel barrels a day and do the spreading. Hubby cut this pile of wood and we’ll need to get a log splitter to finish the job. This is not fun yard work.

There is also much weeding to be done. I attack it a bucket at a time and have the wonderful ability to look past the weeds and enjoy the pretty plants and flowers. Fortunately, my one side bed manages to stay weed free!

The temperatures here have been glorious so I am enjoying the outdoors fully. I will sew more when it becomes very hot – mid to high 80’s and gardening do not go well together for me!

Embrace ALL your Creative Passions!

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Posted in Art, Color, Design Wall, Fabric, garden, Projects, Quilt Setting, Quilting, Quilting Retreat, Scraps, spring and tagged Color, flowers, garden, projects, Quilting, Quilts, Scraps, spring. Bookmark the permalink.

Moving Ahead

Posted on May 1, 2019 by heARTs Creations

Goals – I like to set them but even better I like to meet them! My biggest upcoming one is to finish up the Hospice quilts by the end of July. They are donated in November, but I’d like to use the other four months for concentrating on completing more of my Works in Progress. Here is how April ended up:

April WIPs (Medium)

Because I am out of town, I don’t have pics of some finishes. Will get to those after retreat. Until then – enjoy being creative!

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Posted in Art, charity quilts, Hospice Quilts, Projects, Quilting and tagged projects, Quilting. Bookmark the permalink.

Gifts!

Posted on April 24, 2019 by heARTs Creations

Gifts are fun – especially when given by someone special. A friend recently came to stay for an overnight play date (yes, quilting of course!). She brought me her farm fresh eggs – no picture as they didn’t last very long! If you’ve never had farm fresh eggs, let me tell you that they are the best! The shells are fun because they’re not plain white, the yolks are a deep yellow and denser, and the sizes are big, big, big!

My friend has a farm in South Carolina – Fox Trot Farm in Lancaster. Touring the farm is fun and a great time to spend in the country. As their website states, they have:

Grass Fed Lamb, Fresh Eggs, Honey, Soap, Tours, & Farm Fun!

Honey, oh my! Not only is it fresh and yummy, I love the bottle and label!

Cord holders – I’ve been meaning to make these handy little things for some time now but somehow have never gotten around to it. I put them to use right away. Awesome!

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Knitted dishcloth – love these. This one has now been used several times – didn’t even get a pic when it was brand new. Mine have a lot of wear and tear so this is very welcomed.

AND…I know, more – right?! This beautiful embroidered towel. I do like dragonflies and have a few scattered about the house and she noticed!

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Thank you for these wonderful gifts that keep on giving!

Spring here in the NC Piedmont continues to delight. Temps have been perfect too! It’s also had me gardening and doing a bit less quilting.

A Finish & March Wrap-up

Posted on March 31, 2019 by heARTs Creations

Another Hospice finish and I love the back and forth of this quilt. The pretty leaf blocks were leftovers from donations to a friend’s daughter’s project. Amazingly enough, I found a beautiful striped fabric in my stash that coordinated with the blocks perfectly! It was fun to put them together and see a pretty quilt emerge. I even had a great swirly fabric for the backing and binding.

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Laurie (my friend who had passed the blocks on to me) was visiting one day, saw the quilt top, and offered to take it home to quilt and bind. Now that’s an offer I have no problem accepting! As always, she did a great job.

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Winter’s end and March is at an end – how quickly it passes! Monday not only brings another month, but my Birthday – yay!

Happy April Fool’s Day to everyone!

WIPs 2019

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Posted in Art, block pattern, charity quilts, Fabric, Hospice Quilts, Quilting and tagged Charity, projects, Quilting. Bookmark the permalink.

Tribal Finish

Posted on March 27, 2019 by heARTs Creations

This quilt has been in progress for quite some time as I blogged about here. I am so glad to say that it is quilted and bound! All the cutting and sewing on this quilt was definitely worth the effort.

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The backing is made up of the leftover fabrics. I love when I can do this and not try to figure out how/where to store the remains.

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The smaller bits I cut into the scrap sizes I have been saving and they are tucked away in their proper bins. I am trying so very hard to keep up with this and not end up with the daunting task I had before I began this system.

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This finish has me doing my Happy Dance!

happy dance To Do Tuesday WIPS on Wednesdays Needle & Thread Thursday The Crafty Quilter

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Posted in Art, block pattern, Fabric, Projects, Quilting and tagged projects, Quilting. Bookmark the permalink.

Special Greetings

Posted on March 17, 2019 by heARTs Creations

I wanted to send two special greeting cards recently. Cards in the stores usually leave me feeling like they don’t quite fit the bill. So…for someone going through some health issues, and who also happens to like the color red, I did this:

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I sewed the log cabin on a piece of stabilizer as the base then glued it onto a blank card. I keep a stash of those on hand for just such occasions. A hand written note on the inside and a personal greeting card was sent!

Then, for my sister’s very special birthday, I did what is typically called a mug rug. I just think of it as a little greeting quilt. Funny how such a small project can be so much fun when choosing the different fabrics. Glitter press-on vinyl was used for the flames A glitter was applied to the numbers just to jazz it up a bit!

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I do hope the recipients got as much joy from them as I do making them.

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Posted in Applique, Art, block pattern, Gifts, Projects, Quilting and tagged Quilting. Bookmark the permalink.

Lots of Color Scrappy Strips

Posted on January 16, 2019 by heARTs Creations

Two packs of bright narrow strips (Windham Foundation) turned into lots of sewing fun. What a joy to work with such bright prints! I decided to work with columns of the strips and added a wider black and white piece every so often. No real plan here, just fun sewing. This wasn’t going to be very big and when I finished this much, I took a picture. Oh dear, much too busy. It was almost enough for me to put aside but I knew if I did that it might not see the light of day for a long, long time.

So…I added black borders. It really contained it and I liked it! More strip sewing to add outer borders and then more black borders. Now I really like this little quilt. I even quilted it right away which is SO not my MO. I used a variegated thread and did large wavy lines. I like the way the colors of the thread show on the black fabric.

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I used a bright flowery fabric for the backing to compliment the front of the quilt.

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Love having a finish in January! One more WIP to check off my list.

Be sure to visit the Island Batik Blog Hop – Great Projects & Giveaways!

getaway blog hop

Linking up with:

WIPS on Wednesdays, Linky Tuesday, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off the Wall Friday

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Posted in Art, block pattern, Blog Hop, Color, Fabric, Island Batiks, Projects, Quilt Setting, Quilting and tagged Color, projects, Quilting. Bookmark the permalink.

Tribal and Thread

Posted on January 9, 2019 by heARTs Creations

Oh how I loved this pattern when I first saw it and I had the perfect collection of fabrics! The pattern is “Tribal Influence” by Pamela Goecke, Aardvark Quilts. The fabric collection is David Butler’s Parson Gray Curious Nature plus a few other random fabrics in my stash that I threw in. Here it is in progress:

tribe in progress (medium)

Yes, it was a lot of cutting and Yes, it was a lot of sewing. The almost completed quilt top sat in my closet for about two years and finally I pulled it out a week ago because I wanted it finished! I added another row to the top and bottom and then a border. I was going to add a pieced border and then another plain border but decided “enough!” The backing and batting are prepped and ready to take to the long arm professional. I even have the binding all ready to completely finish this quilt. The best part? After all this time, I still really like it!

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Thread – last year I posted a pic of all the empty thread spools from 2017. I began saving them again in 2018 and here they are! No, once again they weren’t all full, but really, that is a lot of thread. And yes, I’m saving them again. I already have three empty spools! I never really gave much thought as to how much thread is used in quilting. Obviously, it’s quite a bit!

Linking up with: WIPS on Wednesdays, Midweek Makers, Needle & Thread Thursday

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Posted in Art, block pattern, Design Wall, Fabric, Pattern, Projects, Quilting and tagged projects, Quilting. Bookmark the permalink.

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